John Petrucci interview

Gitarre & Bass: John we met so many times. This time we meet because you play the Images, Words and Beyond tour. Tell me something about the special challenge for you to recreate and replay your most famous record.

John Petrucci: That part is I think easy part, because we’ve played these songs so many times; they’re so much fun. We did try to add in some things to change them up a little bit so that people would have a different experience if you’ve seen these songs before. We added in some little special things, some improvisation. But the hardest thing on this tour has been trying to get the length of it right – the length of the show – because the show ended up being so long, and we had to take some songs out and change it up. Of course, anybody who’s ever seen it knows also that James likes to tell stories about what it was like back in 1992 when the album came out, what it was like when we were in the studio. So we talk, we have fun, we tell stories, and I think it’s a really good experience, not only for the fans, but for us as well. We really enjoy it.

G&B: When you rehearsed for this tour, could you remember every note that you played on the record? Did you [have] to relearn some parts?

JP: For some reason, these songs all came back very quickly. I think we’ve played them many, many, many times, so they’re in my DNA at this point. There are other songs in the set that I had to go back and kind of scratch my head. “What did I play?” But the Images stuff is pretty natural, which is nice.

G&B: That album was your breakthrough. Do you remember the time when you recorded the album? Did you know from the very first moment on that this would be a breakthrough album for you? Did you know the quality and the strength of those songs when you recorded them?

JP: We had no idea that it would end up doing what it did for us – basically launch our touring and international career as a band. That’s really what it did. We had no idea, no. In fact, we didn’t even write songs, really, that had that potential in that atmosphere, because all the things that were being played on the radio sounded nothing like Dream Theater. So we didn’t really think we had a chance. They were playing Nirvana and Pearl Jam. There was still some ‘80-ish bands around and stuff. Even the band that David Prater, the producer, had done right before us was this band Firehouse, and they were a big pop-metal ballad band. So we didn’t think we had any place. But, we did feel really good about how the album came out. We felt very proud of it. We knew that it sounded good. I remember feeling really proud anytime I would play it for somebody. Like, “Oh, you have to hear this! Check it out!” And the reaction was always, “Wow! That sounds really good!” So we knew there was something there, but we had no idea what it would do for us.

G&B: And then came ‘Pull Me Under.’

JP: Yeah. ‘Pull Me Under’ was a surprise to everyone, because ‘Pull Me Under’ is over eight minutes long; never meant to be a single. Again, the songs being played on the radio were nothing like Dream Theater, but for some reason, it must have stuck out to where people were calling the radio stations. “What is that band? Oh my God! I wanna hear that song again!” And that kind of snowballed and grew, and ‘Pull Me Under’ became a rock radio hit. I remember at the time I was living in New Jersey, on the East Coast of the US, and I’d turn on the radio and I’d hear it all the time. It was a cool feeling.

G&B: The most important song of your whole career?

JP: Yeah. Probably. If you think about what it did for us as far as the future is concerned, it really put us on the map. It enabled us to go from local guys driving around in a van, playing to a few people in clubs to an international touring band with this whole long and very busy and productive career. And who knows? Without that initial spark, we may never have gotten to be as successful as we have. I mean, who knows? Maybe we would have. I don’t know. But it certainly, certainly helped. Big time.