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.

Bon Jovi fans at Madison Square Garden on July 19 experienced a noticeably shorter performance than previous dates in the band’s ongoing nine-show residency. The concert, which served as the sixth night of the run, concluded after two hours and five minutes and featured 20 songs, marking a decrease in length compared to earlier shows in the series that lasted between two hours and 15 minutes and two hours and 30 minutes.

The most significant deviation from the established set list was the absence of the 1986 Slippery When Wet staple, “Wanted Dead or Alive.” According to setlist.fm, the track stands as the third-most-performed song in the band’s history, trailing “Livin’ on a Prayer” and “You Give Love a Bad Name” by only a small margin. In addition to the omission of this fan favorite, the band also bypassed “Always,” which had served as the show-closer for the preceding three nights of the residency, and the 2024 single “Red, White and Jersey.”

The Current State of the Residency

Photo: Rosenborg BK Fan, licensed CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

The current residency, which launched on July 7, represents the group’s first full-scale public performances since 2022 and follows frontman Jon Bon Jovi’s recovery from vocal cord surgery. While the band has not provided an official explanation for the set list changes as of Monday, fans have engaged in online speculation regarding potential vocal fatigue following the singer’s well-documented health challenges over the past four years.

Throughout the New York run, the band has frequently adjusted their performance list, including swapping “In These Arms” for “Bed of Roses” and introducing the 2020 track “Let It Rain” into the rotation. The band’s residency at the “World’s Most Famous Arena” is scheduled to resume on Tuesday and wrap up on July 26, before the group moves on to a series of dates across the United Kingdom scheduled for August and September.

July 19 Set List

The full set list for the July 19 show included:

1. “With a Little Help From My Friends”
2. “Beautiful Drug”
3. “We Weren’t Born to Follow”
4. “Lost Highway”
5. “Who Says You Can’t Go Home”
6. “You Give Love a Bad Name”
7. “Born to Be My Baby”
8. “Legendary”
9. “Let It Rain”
10. “Whole Lot of Leavin'”
11. “Bed of Roses”
12. “Have a Nice Day”
13. “It’s My Life”
14. “Livin’ on a Prayer”
15. “Lay Your Hands on Me”
16. “Limitless”
17. “This House Is Not for Sale”
18. “Keep the Faith”
Encore
19. “I’ll Be There for You”
20. “Bad Medicine”