What was wrong with Derek? Why did Dream Theater fire him and hire Jordan?
MP: There were absolutely no hard feelings on our part and it was a very hard thing for us to do. All four of us really admire Derek and like him as a person, but it was really just a business decision. It was more about what was right about Jordan, as opposed to what was wrong about Derek. We decided that Jordan was what we wanted and where we wanted to take the band in the future. After John P and I worked with him, we thought “why should we work with him part-time? Let’s work with him full-time.” And it wasn’t out of disrespect to Derek, it was just what we thought was better for the band. If we didn’t give ourselves that opportunity to try it, we would feel short changed. It’s not like some of our previous members that never went on to do anything, that disappeared or just did very low-key things – Derek has always played with great people. He’s always gotten great gigs and he knows a lot of people, so we were confident he’d continue his career. That’s it – there’s no other story b
