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Dream Theater hail Metallica’s influence in revealing My Planet Rocks special.

Dream Theater’s James LaBrie and John Petrucci stopped by Planet Rock HQ in December to record an illuminating edition of My Planet Rocks, due for broadcast in February. In conversation with presenter Ian Danter, the vocalist and guitarist paid tribute to some of their musical heroes, discussing how the influence of artists such as Rush, Yes, Deep Purple and Queen fed into their own prog-metal sound. Petrucci revealed that Metallica frontman James Hetfield’s guitar playing was a particular inspiration to him during his formative years as a musician, when he and future DT bandmates John Myung (bass) and Mike Portnoy (drums) came together to form a band called Majesty while studying at Boston’s Berklee College of Music.

“That was the nucleus of Dream Theater, that’s really how we started,” Petrucci said. “The Master Of Puppets album came out in the spring semester of our first year at Berklee. I’ll never forget we went to Mike’s room and he was like, ‘You gotta check this out!’ He put it on and we listened to it and we were just numb. I’ll never forget the guitar sound, it was such a major influence on me. Those guys, in my mind, will always be part of the prog scene because that stuff they did was unbelievable.”

Petrucci also revealed that Dream Theater’s ‘official bootleg’ live re-recording of Master Of Puppets, made available to fan club members in 2003, was his way of acknowledging the album’s influence in his own career. Dream Theater’s new studio album, Distance Over Time, will be released on February 22 via InsideOut Music. Tune in to Planet Rock radio in February for the exact transmission date of their My Planet Rocks special.