John Petrucci interview (excerpts)

Asked about the decision to hire Mike, John replied (transcribed by UG):

When I was deciding who should play drums – and it’s funny, my family was right away from the get-go like, ‘You got to have Mike playing on it,’ like right on top of it. Our families are close, you know all this, our kids and everything, they immediately thought it would be the perfect opportunity, and I knew if I asked Mike that he would do an awesome job. But there definitely was that part of me that was like, ‘I also know if I do this, it’s gonna be – the story is going to be more about Mike and I playing together and less about my solo...’ That was my ego part getting in the way, ‘Is it gonna just shift to not be about the music?’ Honestly, one morning, the whole thing was in the thick of the pandemic, I woke up one morning and I was like, ‘Life’s too short, I’m just gonna ask Mike. I haven’t played with him for 10 years, but I know him since I was 18 years old, we were in a band 25 years.’ He told me in a previous phone call about something else, unrelated, you know, when I told him I was working on my solo album, he was like, ‘If you need me, I’m here.’ And so I just called him up, ‘You want to do this?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, I’d love to’, and that’s how that happened.

Were you concerned about him being a part of it sort of overshadowing it, it’s sort of your record and your vehicle, has that happened?

Well, it happened in a good way, in a really positive way. I don’t think it overshadowed the album because, you know, the response that I’ve been getting so far has been wonderful. People seem to really love the music, which is great. I didn’t want to wait 15 years for another solo album and have it be crap, I knew I had to deliver the goods. [Laughs] When you wait that long between albums... But the way people responded to Mike playing on it was just in a really positive way. What was overwhelming to me was that there’s this general expression of joy and happiness, to just see us do something musically together, and yes, that became the big part of the focus, but not in a bad way – no drama, controversy. And so then when the actual music came out, people heard it and it sort of delivered the goods, if you will. Then it all sort of worked together as just being two positive things about it. They loved that we were doing this together, and guess what – they loved the music too. So to me, it’s a win-win. And it turned out to be really cool, I’m really happy with that decision. And Mike did a killer job on the record, as did Dave – those guys are just fantastic.

I would think that your biggest concern would be, especially given the Dream Theater fanbase, ‘Oh geez, this is going to open a whole can of worms.’ Were you worried about that? Did you talk to the other guys in Dream Theater before you made that announcement, especially Mangini?

Yeah, you’re right, and that was definitely a concern because the last thing that I wanted was to open up a whole can of drama and controversy. I mean, that type of thing wouldn’t be fair to Mike Mangini – he’s been the drummer in Dream Theater for 10 years now. And it would also create weird negativity around my release, which I wanted to be really positive, so yeah, I was definitely concerned about that. And yes, I did let Mike Mangini know, like, ‘Hey, just wanted to let you know, I’m doing this.’ And he was really cool about that and respectful, and that’s the way he handled it. Yeah, those two things were concerns for sure, but I tried to get out in front of that; in any interview I did, I let people know, ‘Hey, don’t take this as anything other than what it is. It’s just Mike playing on my solo album. It’s a fun project, it doesn’t mean anything else other than that.’ People have been really cool and respectful about that, and like I said, I think that the vibe surrounding release has been positive. As far as I can tell – and I try not to consume myself too much with comments on social media and stuff – but as far as I can tell, people have been really respectful of that, and that’s great. And I’ve said this before, it’s great for me because I get to play in Dream Theater with Mangini and play on my solo stuff with Portnoy, and I’m like living in two great worlds over here.

For your fanbase, I get the sense that everybody is pretty happy about this all the way around. It’s a good time right now.

I totally agree, and I love that, I love the positivity around it. The world is in a really messed-up place right now, the music industry has been hit hard – really hard – everybody is trying to figure out how to survive this and there’s a need and hunger for positivity and good vibes and good music. And so the fact that this has been received with that kind of reaction just makes me really happy. I think that’s awesome. People have been so cool about it.