Mike Portnoy & Neal Morse Fight That Spawned Similitude Of A Dream

When The Neal Morse Band set out to record 2016’s The Similitude Of A Dream, they were tackling an ambitious concept inspired by John Bunyan’s classic novel The Pilgrim’s Progress. But the creative process nearly derailed the project entirely. Midway through recording, a massive disagreement over the album’s length led both bandleader Neal Morse and drummer Mike Portnoy to storm out of the studio and quit on the spot.

The Clash Over a Double Album

Neal Morse Band the similitude of a dream

The core of the dispute was simple: Morse felt the sprawling narrative required a double-disc format to do the story justice, while Portnoy strongly resisted stretching the release into a double album. At the time, Morse assumed his longtime collaborator feared the material simply wasn’t strong enough to sustain a longer runtime.

“We both came to an impasse—we were both unhappy and we both really kind of quit,” Morse recalled of the tense 2016 sessions. “He didn’t tell me directly, but I think what he was feeling was, ‘We don’t have enough good material.'”

Portnoy, however, admits his resistance had nothing to do with the quality of the songwriting. Instead, the drummer was dealing with baggage from his previous band, Dream Theater, who had recently released their own double concept album.

“If I’m going to be completely honest, the main reason I was resistant to the double album was that Dream Theater had just put out a double concept album,” Portnoy explained. “I knew ours would inevitably be compared to Dream Theater and I didn’t want people to think that we were copying them. So I was desperately fighting the idea.”

A 4 AM Epiphany and Reconciliation

neal morse band — Neal Morse Band, (Image credit: Robert Smith)

The standoff brought the recording sessions to a screeching halt, marking the worst conflict the two musicians had experienced in their decades-long creative partnership. Fortunately, the freeze did not last.

At four in the morning on the Tuesday following the blowout, Morse experienced a creative surge. He woke up and sketched out music for three brand-new songs intended for the second disc. When Portnoy returned to the studio at noon, both musicians immediately apologized, traded new ideas, and turned the day around. By Thursday, the tension had evaporated, replaced by Portnoy’s declaration that they had just made the album of their careers.