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Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy said he was aware of Neil Peart’s battle with brain cancer for two years and had to keep it a secret.

In a new interview with SiriusXM’s Eddie Trunk, Portnoy revealed that he had “known for about two years now and was held to secrecy. It was something that he and everybody in his camp, obviously, went to great lengths to keep private and keep secret. And that was Neil – he was a very, very private guy.”

He added that “even though I’ve known for this amount of time and I kind of have had time to psychologically prepare for, knowing that it was inevitably coming, it didn’t make it any less shocking. … It just took the wind out of me when I heard it on Friday.”

Read the full story on Ultimate Classic Rock.