John Petrucci interview (excerpt)

SM: It sounds like you were heavily involved in the process. This was not just slapping your name on a product and going to market.

JP: Any sort of success I’ve seen or the paths I’ve taken have always come from a place where I have to like the product first. If I’m going to talk about something and put my name on it, support it, and endorse it, I have to believe in it myself. All these things happen. Take musical gear for example, with stuff I already had been playing. Things I’ve been playing my whole life. I wanted to make sure it was something I really enjoyed on every level, even down to the artwork. The distillery has a music venue and the vibe… they went all out, very old--timey. They have a great merch store, there’s just so much detail in the way they lay the place out and decorate it. I really connect with that. The fact that Tommy was a guitar player and in the music industry just made everything feel really natural.

SM: The label’s texture and graphics have a nice vintage feel to it; how involved were you in the design? And were there any influences you wanted to bring into it?

JP: Yeah, thanks. I was very involved. I suggested we use an artist that I work with, who actually did my latest solo album, the new Liquid Tension Experiment record, and a bunch of work with Dream Theater. His name is Sean Mosher--Smith and he lives in Brooklyn. I talked to him about getting involved and he was like ‘Hell yeah. Not only am I into bourbon but I’ve done a lot of work with spirit companies, so I know the drill on the layout and other details related with the industry’.

The photo on the bottle was taken by Larry DiMarzio. He happened to do a shot during the session of me drinking bourbon with sunglasses and a suit, it was perfect, and Sean took it from there. Iron Smoke has a certain vibe and there were things they wanted to retain from that, and he really brought everything together. Was kind of like doing album art.