A7X guitarist: Portnoy makes 'more than we can really dish out'

© Scott D. Smith/Retna ./Retna Ltd./Corbis

Avenged Sevenfold's Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance have had their say on Mike Portnoy's time with the band.

Gates told Guitar World magazine that Portnoy wanted to carry on playing with Avenged and the former Dream Theater man is considered "family".

But Gates added: "But it's just… He's 'Mike Portnoy.' He's established. He makes a lot of money. More than we can really dish out, especially at this point. And my whole thing after Jimmy died was if we were ever going to do this, I wanted to give a young kid a chance.

"That would have been a dream come true, to breathe some new life from a death. And so this feels right. And unfortunately, Mike made some decisions that I don't know if he's super happy with at this point, and that weren't very conducive to his well being."

Fellow Avenged guitarist Zacky Vengeance added: "When he went and quit Dream Theater, that was something we had no say in, because he's a grown man and he makes his own decisions. But we had urged against it, fully knowing we weren't ready to commit to him. But it's his life."

Portnoy recently announced a new project with former Thin Lizzy frontman John Sykes. Head here to read all about that.