100 Icons (excerpts)

Welcome to 100 Icons who progged our world! It’s Prog’s 100th issue, and we knew we had to do something special to celebrate the music that we love. And what better way to do that than to get our heroes to talk about their heroes?

So we took a cross-section of the current prog world, including a lot of people who featured in the very first issue of Prog all those years ago, and we asked them to tell us who has inspired them from the world of progressive music. It makes for fascinating reading. Some choices seem obvious, some you’d never have called in a million years. In total though, it’s a great celebration of the last 50 years of progressive music.

Enjoy

Jerry Ewing – Editor

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Alex Lifeson by John Petrucci (Dream Theater)

“Alex Lifeson is such a big influence on me in so many ways. You know how it is when you discover a band as a teenager, you just get so invested in it. The first couple of Rush albums, I literally learned every song, and me and my friends, including John Myung, we jammed to all that stuff. I think from learning all those songs, it’s just ingrained as part of my style. I remember dissecting ‘YYZ’ and learning the guitar solo and all these different techniques of hammer-ons and pull-offs, even the scales that Alex used. I use that stuff all the time with Dream Theater.

“Rush introduced me to progressive rock and metal and the idea that song structures didn’t have to be the typical three-minute song. That style of music was the perfect backdrop to storytelling and conceptual lyrics, things like ‘2112’. All of that had a huge influence on me and opened my mind to exploring a more unique way of writing in that whole progressive style. The odd time signatures and songs that had multiple parts – something like ‘La Villa Strangiato’, where it’s broken into sections much in the way that Genesis would – was a big influence. The guitar sound and the way that I created the effects that I use, and some of the approaches to chordal playing and making a band sound really big with just one guitar, all that stuff was a huge influence on me.

“The thing with Rush is since they were just a three-piece, the guitar really had the job of taking up a lot of space. So the very big approach that Alex had to playing guitar and using open strings and pedal tones and chords that were richer and using chorusing on the guitar, it really filled out that space. I do some solo work, touring with G3, and that’s just a trio, so it harkens back to that influence when I’m trying to make the guitar fill out a lot of space when there’s no keyboards, no second guitar player, especially during the instrumental sections when there’s no vocal. Alex has a beautiful way of approaching the guitar, so it brought the guitar to the forefront and made it take up this beautiful space in such a great way.”

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Mike Portnoy by Matthew Cohen (The Reasoning, Omega Point)

“Dream Theater were one of the first bands, along with Marillion, that really got me into prog rock and prog metal. I remember the first time I heard Images And Words – it changed my whole perspective on music. I was into bands like Iron Maiden, and Dream Theater had the same energy.

“I was actually living in Denver the first time I heard Dream Theater, and ‘Pull Me Under’ came on while I was in a bar. I just stopped and listened, and the whole rhythm, the flow then the big chugs came in, then the voice kicked in – I just thought, ‘I’m in, you’ve got me!’

“I’m a bassist, so I’m into the rhythm side of things, and that rhythm section of Portnoy and John Myung is unbelievable. He’s just so inventive and such a clever, skilful player – nothing for him is ever standard. He’s always pulling in little things and you think, ‘God, that’s fantastic!’ and the one thing that got me about Dream Theater and what Portnoy was doing was all the little time signature shifts. Even when they were playing it straight, he would sometimes be doing something on the off, and I just think, ‘Oh, you clever bastard!’

“I met him at Graspop [Metal Meeting in Belgium], I think in 2002. I was with a friend who was playing with Bruce Dickinson so we had all the backstage access – I remember seeing Jordan Rudess, I passed John Myung, and then after the show, backstage, I finally got to meet Portnoy. He was surrounded by a load of drummers, so I got to talk to him for about four or five minutes. I was a complete fanboy, just like, ‘Oh hello, Mr. Portnoy!’ The Reasoning shared the same stage with Transatlantic at High Voltage Festival in 2010, and that time I was a little bit cooler around him! [laughs]

“Portnoy has got this driving force, this love of music, and it comes across in everything he does. He’s got that Duracell bunny drive! It’s so inspiring. He’s not scared of anything, and I really admire that. I’ve got that drive too – I never give up. I don’t think I’ll ever get to where he’s got, but I understand where he’s coming from. He also comes across like, ‘Don’t mess with me’, and I like that too – that’s a good thing to have in this business!”

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Neil Peart by Mike Portnoy

“I have a lot of heroes who are more than just drummers. People like Frank Zappa and Roger Waters would fit into that. But obviously, I have a special place for drummers. My earliest inspirations were Keith Moon and John Bonham. Now, their legacy is secure, but they died young, and I never got the chance to meet them. But Neil Peart is definitely the biggest icon in my life.

“Of course, you can talk about what an amazing drummer he is, but beyond that he’s done so much in his career and life, which inspires me.

“Neil’s attitude and work ethic are simply astonishing, and an object lesson to me. The way he writes both lyrics and books are part of a much bigger picture. And that’s what makes him a true hero. When Neil joined Rush, he changed them musically and also started to write lyrics. And in both senses what he did was take the band into a more progressive direction, which gave them the career they’ve had.

“I first got into Rush about 1981, when I was 15 or 16, and it was through the Moving Pictures album. After that I was hooked on them and worked my way backwards through their catalogue. I became obsessed, and being an aspiring young drummer, I focused on what Neil was doing. I learnt so much by watching and listening to him. He opened up the world of progressive music for me. It was because of him that I discovered bands like Yes, King Crimson and Genesis.

“Back in the early 80s of course, there was no such thing as YouTube. You couldn’t access footage of any band you liked through the internet. But then MTV was launched, and they had a series called Live In Concert, and on one of these shows, they aired Rush’s Exit... Stage Left performance. I recall videoing this, and played it through so many times that I quite literally wore out the tape! It was something precious and exciting for me.

“Because Neil is such a private person, people often have this idea that he’s not a nice person. Nothing could be further from the truth. I first met him when I was asked to be the guest editor on Rhythm magazine, and I was given the opportunity to interview four drummers. Naturally, Neil was one of them. And I had the chance to ask him all the fanboy questions I wanted. Now, under normal conditions, if anyone tries to talk to Neil about Rush or his drumming style, then he immediately switches off and doesn’t want to know. But because this was in a professional capacity, he sat there and answered everything politely and in depth. That was in 2006, and since then we have become good friends. I have to say that he is such a lovely man.

“We exchange emails a few times a year, and he’ll send me photos of his daughter and tell me how things are going for him. Yes, Neil can be elusive, because he protects that privacy he cherishes. But once you get beyond that, he’s truly a special person. This man has effectively taken me under his wing and has never been anything less than gracious and accommodating. I’ll give the perfect example: When Rush announced they were doing their farewell tour, I was very keen for my son, Max, who was a budding drummer himself, to get to see the band live, as it was an essential experience for him. Not only did Neil make sure we got into the gig, but he invited us to the soundcheck, and allowed Max to sit behind his kit and play for a little while. He didn’t have to do that, but it is typical of the sort of person he is. Neil even opened up his dressing room to us, and said that any time we wanted to get a drink or needed a toilet break, we should feel free to use his room. He was such a wonderful host, and made us feel so welcome.

“Shall I tell you how much Neil means to me? In my high school yearbook in 1984, I wrote under ‘Future Plans’: ‘To become the next Neil Peart.’ And when Dream Theater released our debut album When Dream And Day Unite, one magazine actually referred to me as ‘The heir to the Neil Peart throne.’ To have that sort of accolade given to me was truly a landmark moment in my career.

“Neil became the gateway for me to discover progressive music. Everything about the man puts him into a class of his own. He’s had to endure tragedy in his life, and has done so with such fortitude that you can’t help but admire him. They always say you should never meet your heroes; thankfully, Neil is an exception to that rule.”

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John Petrucci by Plini

“When I started venturing into the world of progressive music as a young teen, the first band that caught my attention was Dream Theater. I discovered them as ‘the band John Petrucci plays in’, probably via a guitar magazine. I’ve always had lots of guitar heroes, but up until that point, my favourite riff-writers were in metal bands who didn’t really have guitar solos (or good ones, at least, in my opinion) and my favourite lead players tended to play over more simple, ‘backing track’-style compositions. Petrucci was the first one I came across who managed to be an insane lead player as well as an incredible rhythm guitarist.

“On top of this, he had (and still has) the sickest tones – everything from the fat rhythms and soaring leads to sparkling cleans. His approach to melody- and riff-writing, soloing and dialling in both studio and live tones has massively shaped the musician I am today!”