The Slaylist: John Petrucci

The Dream Theater string-slinger’s picks read like a master’s guide to becoming one of the greatest guitarists on the planet

Words: Rich Hobson

“I got turned on to a lot of music by friends or older brother types growing up, which is how I got into Yes’s Fragile record. I heard ‘Roundabout’ and it was like, ‘What the hell is this?!’ – growing up as a teenager on Long Island, there was a lot of rock radio that would play stuff from Zeppelin to AC/DC, but I wasn’t totally familiar with Yes before that. I turned into a gigantic Yes fan after, and as fate would have it we ended up touring with them – which is kind of mind-blowing. We’ve supported a few of our heroes over the years, like Iron Maiden. I was good friends with [Dream Theater bassist] John Myung already when I first heard The Number Of The Beast. I fell in love instantly with the whole sound – the dual guitars, the soloing, the artwork... everything grabbed me. They were such a big influence; not just in terms of sound, but professionally; the way they run things is something to truly be admired – we take a lot of pages from the Iron Maiden book. I also remember hearing Rush on the radio around the time Moving Pictures had come out, through singles like ‘Tom Sawyer’. A friend of mine was really, really into them and he made me go back and listen properly, starting with ‘The Trees’. I didn’t know that really progressive side of the band at the time so that changed my world completely.

It’s kind of strange, but the first time I heard ‘Voodoo Child’ on the radio it was being played by Stevie Ray Vaughan. It’s kind of sacrilege to not know the Hendrix version first, but I was just totally blown away by this guitar player who had a bluesy feel but played with the fire of a metal musician – an unbelievable combination of soul, attitude and balls. That turned me on to Stevie Ray and was a big moment in my development. I got to see him live once at a venue on Long Island, and Dream Theater just got to play that same venue, which was very special. My all-time favourite guitar player is Steve Morse; I was introduced to him by a friend of a friend who knew I was a guitar player, so insisted I check him out. I got into Dixie Dregs through this song ‘The Bash’, a bluegrass version of ‘Wabash Cannonball’ that has this insane playing technique. That was a turning point for me as a player – I needed to play like that, so spent many, many hours with a metronome.

When I was studying at Berklee I remember going to these Sunday masses where they would play live Johann Sebastian Bach music in the church. He had written all these concertos for different kinds of masses, so I would go and sit there, listening to this unbelievable baroque music being played. We use a lot of that symphonic sound in Dream Theater – taking influence from people like Bartok and Beethoven too, and I’m just as into the modern symphonic composers – people like Hans Zimmer, whose work on the Inception soundtrack is utterly sublime. One of the saddest, most beautiful pieces I’ve ever heard in a movie comes from Schindler’s List courtesy of John Williams. The main theme is one of the prettiest, saddest melodies ever written and I use that kind of theme all the time when writing for Dream Theater, alongside stuff like ‘Mother, Father’ by Journey, a killer song which has an incredible guitar solo and is a really emotional song.

Recently I went with my wife to a gypsy jazz event – the Django festival at Carnegie Hall. Before I went I didn’t really know much about the genre, but the songs played were done by this unbelievable acoustic jazz trio. It was right up my alley, pushing the boundaries of technique and I was really getting into it and one of the guys who really blew me away was this guy Joscho Stephan, a German gypsy jazz guitar player. I love his playing so much I’ve asked him to do the guitar camp I have set up for next year – I’m looking forward to meeting him finally.”