John Petrucci interview (excerpt)

Later this week, Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci will embark on his first headlining solo tour performing material from his recently released solo album, “Terminal Velocity”, as well as songs from his widely acclaimed debut release, “Suspended Animation”. “Terminal Velocity” marked the first time that John and former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy recorded together since Mike left the band in 2010. Now, John will take his instrumental trio on the road performing live with Portnoy and legendary bassist Dave LaRue in an on-stage reunion that has been 12 years in the making.

Asked in a new interview with Robert Cavuoto of Sonic Perspectives if this tour will be the first time he and Mike have performed together since Portnoy exited Dream Theater, Petrucci said: “It will be, yeah – since Mike left. He left the band about 12 years ago, so our last show was a festival in Japan that we played together. The first show of this tour is in Providence, Rhode Island on October 5th, and when we step on stage, that’ll be the first time we’ve stepped on stage together and performed live since that last show in Japan. So it’s a big deal; it’s kind of a personal event for the two of us. And I’m so happy that him and Dave could do this tour with me. Obviously, they recorded drums and bass on ‘Terminal Velocity’, so it’s that same trio, that same band. We played a bunch of shows as that same trip back in the early days of ‘G3’, so the first ones I did in 2001 – it was me, Mike and Dave. So the band is back together. [Laughs]”