John Petrucci interview

Ollie Winiberg: I am joined by Mr. John Petrucci of Dream Theater! Yes! How are you?

John Petrucci: Wow, that sounded like you were like, “I scored a goal!” or something. [laughs]

OW: Yeah, I have on the show. I think you’re the best guitarist in the world, are you not at the moment, technically?

JP: Oh man, well, that’s nice of you to say. I would not say that by a mile. There are many, many amazing guitar players a lot better than me out there.

OW: Oh, I don’t know! I mean, look, I definitely think that you’ve inspired a whole new generation of players that are up-and-coming and certainly, I’m sure, on your radar. But no, I think you are the best living guitarist in the world.

JP: Wow! All right, end of interview. I’m done! [laughs]

OW: I wanted to break the ice with you by playing a very quick-fire question round. The game is called ‘This Or That’. So I would like you to, without hesitation, answer these questions without much thought and just give an answer, and don’t think about it too much. OK – ‘The Dark Eternal Night’ or ‘Awaken The Master’?

JP: ‘Dark Eternal Night.’

OW: ‘Untethered Angel’ or ‘On The Backs Of Angels’?

JP: ‘On The Backs Of Angels.’

OW: ‘Hypersonic’ or ‘Acid Rain’?

JP: ‘Hypersonic.’

OW: OK, we could go for a drink! ‘Schmedley Wilcox’ or ‘Instrumedley’?

JP: [chuckles] ‘Schmedley,’ for sure.

OW: Really?! OK, interesting. A Dramatic Turn Of Events or Distance Over Time?

JP: Distance Over Time.

OW: OK, and the last one – you’ll be pleased to know – ‘When The Water Breaks’ or ‘Three Minute Warning’?

JP: ‘When The Water Breaks,’ because that one was named after my youngest daughter[‘s birth]...

OW: I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to your music. I think I was reading Dream Theater sleeves when all my other friends were reading Playboy.

JP: I did the same thing with Rush when I was growing up. My friends and I – including John Myung, we grew up together, and Kevin Moore, our original keyboard player, and a whole bunch of buddies – we would just hang out and geek out about all things Rush, read all the sleeves, everything that you’re talking about.

OW: I wonder if people have lost that relationship with music.

JP: I don’t know. I suppose in some sense it’s been lost, because we don’t consume music the same way. Because that was the only way it existed – it was on a record or eventually CDs. But there was no digital download, there was no information connected to it. So that’s the way you did it.

OW: Yeah, that’s very true. It’s sad. I liked that relationship with the physical release, it was fun. John, I would like to congratulate you on Terminal Velocity, of course A View From The Top Of The World, and you’ve won a f***ing Grammy! That’s amazing! That’s crazy! When you go out now, most people tap their legs and go, “All right, wallet, keys, phone.” Do you go, “Wallet, keys, phone, Grammy”?

JP: Right, make sure it’s in my jacket pocket! Well, thank you for saying that. It really is something you have to just scratch your head, like, “Did that really happen?” and take it in. In fact, today, when we were doing soundcheck, it’s like, “OK, what song do you wanna do?” We always do a little bit of the songs. And I said, “How about the Grammy Award-winning song ‘The Alien’?” [laughs] And everybody’s ears perk up – it’s like, “Oh yeah, that happened!” That’s how bizarre it is. You’re like, “What are you talking about?”

OW: I loved your speech. It was, like, the middle of the night here or whatever, but yeah – what I loved is that, firstly, you walked up and straight away your most natural pose is, like, Guitar Hero – legs spread apart!

JP: [laughs]

OW: That made me laugh straight away – you went, “Our tune was in 17/8.” And I think you’re the only band ever to win a Grammy with a song in 17/8!

JP: Has to be, right?

OW: Such a niche market!

JP: I know! Well, that’s the point that I was trying to make. Well, first of all, I didn’t realize I was standing in that position until people started commenting. That was a surreal moment. The guys didn’t go to the Grammys that year. It had been postponed because of COVID, it had been moved from LA to Vegas, and it was sort of scheduled in between two Dream Theater tour legs. Nobody was really sure. So my wife and I went – my wife Rena. It’s like, “Let’s go to Vegas for five days. How bad can it be? If we win, awesome. If we don’t, we’ll hang out in Vegas.” So she was there with me. And when they announced it, I was like, “What?!” And all of a sudden, I’m running up to the thing in my suit. But the point I wanted to try to get across was that we’ve been doing what we do for a long time the way we do it – sort of against all odds – and we built a career out of it. And then to achieve that sort of recognition from that community was really just great, because it’s not like it was some sort of pop version of us that we attempted to do that got out there. It was probably one of the most complicated songs we ever wrote. [laughs] So my point was: do what you do, believe in what you’re doing, and do it with a ton of conviction. And when those sort of moments happen, it feels that much more satisfying.

OW: It’s amazing. And look, congratulations. As I said, I’ve been a lifelong Dream Theater fan, and if anyone deserves it, in my opinion it really is you guys. Before we talk about Dream Theater and the success of your tour, I have a very personal request: I really, before I die, need to see Liquid Tension live. Can you make that happen?

JP: Yeah, I think we can make that happen, sure. [laughs] The question is always a “when.”

OW: No, no – stop throwing obstacles in the way!

JP: Sorry, I know. I would say there’s a high probability of that happening, because it’s something that we always talk about whenever we’re together working on it. It’s like, “Wouldn’t it be fun to tour again?” You’re dealing with four guys, or two of them are in one band, but the other two are in all different bands, so scheduling is so hard. But I would love to do it. We’d all love to do it. Listen, have faith, because for a long time I was asked, “When are you gonna do another solo album?” and I would sort of give a similar response. Or, “Are you ever gonna tour as a solo artist?” and I would give a similar response – and both those things happened.

OW: Yeah, but they took like 15 years, John! I might not live for 15 years!

JP: I think you’re good.

OW: I don’t know – my cholesterol is through the roof. OK, I’m going to hold you to that. I’m definitely gonna hold you to that. But the other thing I want to ask is, when you released Liquid Tension 3, my God, what an amazing response you had. Is there scope for LTE4?

JP: There sure is. Absolutely. And then perhaps that would be the best time to tour – do Liquid Tension 4 and then tour on all of it.

OW: Yes!

JP: [joking] That would be 2047!

OW: I’ll be retired by then! Going back to Dream Theater – I know that you’ve changed your set for this part of the tour that you’re currently in – when it comes to putting together a set, who is it out of you that has the final say over what songs you’re going to play and the order?

JP: [raises his hand and chuckles] Let me explain the process. It’s something where we’ll have conversations about, “Hey, you guys have any ideas of what songs you’d like to play next tour?” or whatever. And everybody will kind of give their opinion: “Oh, it would be great if we did” this, that, and the other thing. And then I’ll go ahead sort of with that in mind, and knowing that we’re promoting such-and-such album, and how much time we have to play the music, how long the set is, and go about doing it. And I’ll come up with – I don’t know – could be anywhere from two to four to five different versions. “Hey guys, here’s this, here’s A, B, C, D.” And generally, I’ll present it, and generally everybody likes the same one, which is interesting.

Some of that is doing it from a show perspective, as far as what could sort of flow and go one into the next. And as far as guitar tunings and changes and stuff like that. Some of it is like, now with Mike Mangini, which songs have we not played live with him yet – because that’s always fun. And in fact, it’s something that you have to actually take a moment to acknowledge. When we just started this leg and we threw in three songs from Six Degrees, we had one day of rehearsal in Tel Aviv before the first show. We played them and it sounded great. And then Mike was like, “Yeah, so everything OK?” And it clicked – I was like, “He’s never played these songs!” He’s looking for a little bit of recognition. I’m like, “Mike, sorry for not saying it, but that sounded awesome!” But it’s like you have to kind of acknowledge those things. So they all kind of go into it.

But yeah, I’m the one sort of tasked with doing that. But it’s also, again, it’s everybody giving the thumbs up or not. Sometimes people say, “Oh man, really rather not play that song,” blah blah blah. You know, it’s like a puzzle – there’s so many variations you can do. And I have friends out there in the Dream Theater community that I also could sort of pick on to say, “Hey, what’s the rumblings about what fans would love to hear?” Because I don’t want to ever be out of touch with that either.

OW: And intertwining with that comment, John, when you are writing a new song, a new album, do you take into consideration – and I know this might sound like a stupid question, you’ve been doing it a long time, it’s obviously a successful business – do you take into consideration what feedback you are getting from the fans online? And I’m not talking about the trolls, but when you hear people say, “I really like this part of the song,” and “really like that part,” do you listen to that? Do you take that in?

JP: I think it makes you – it makes you think sometimes, like when – if you see a specific kind of reaction that’s very across the board, and you realize that maybe that’s not something you’ve explored in a while, then something clicks and you can’t help but have that in the back of your mind. Like, “I never thought about that”. A good example is just thinking about the current set, and if you compare a song like ‘The Alien’, which we talked about – which is crazy – to a song like ‘Solitary Shell’ that we’re playing – two completely different sides of Dream Theater, but there’s something about maybe that older prog melodic thing that’s not only fun for us and appealing, but people give you a lot of positive feedback as far as liking that side. And so when you get that and you experience that, you can’t help but go into the next project and be like, “I’m really feeling that standing on stage, that was pretty cool – maybe we should explore that side a bit more.” And the flip side of that is that you have to be careful as well, because, as I said in my Grammy speech... [laughs] you do have to do things with your own conviction. I mean, that’s what art ultimately is. It’s like, if you’re a creative person, it’s just who you are – you don’t see life through any other lens than the creative lens. So when you’re in that situation, you want to do something that you can feel is a true expression. I know it sounds also nerdy and maybe a little lofty, but it’s true. You can’t lose that part of it.

OW: And again, just on the back of that, you’ve obviously mentioned there’s moments in sets where the reception is potentially inspiring for new material depending on what you play. Your sets in the past – you would often play two nights in the same place because you would change your set every single night. I imagine the work behind that was quite unbelievable to make.

JP: Oh my God, yes it was.

OW: Do you think now this is working better than changing the set every night, or do you think that changing the set every night was something that could be monetized more – because nobody knew what they were going to expect when they came to a show – or, as Jordan said on a previous interview, this is now like the equivalent of a Broadway show? This is the experience that people are coming for.

JP: Yeah, well, it’s sort of a complicated question because there’s a few things to look at there, because both ways have their merits, right? You gain and sacrifice either way. The method of doing this thing where you’re preparing all this music to be changed at any time, it’s harder on the musicians. I mean, there are harder jobs, so we can practice to know the songs – but you can’t necessarily get the same level of production or just performance if it’s constantly changing. You sacrifice that part of it, because we put so much work into making this be a great night of music and also something that people walk away from really enjoying – “Oh, that was so cool.” It’s not just like a rock band in a club calling out tunes type of thing. We like to have an element of production – our favorite bands of all time always did that, whether it’s Rush or Iron Maiden or whoever it is. But the other side of that is that you do lose that kind of spontaneity, and a lot of Dream Theater fans will come to multiple shows, so having it be the same doesn’t attract the same type of people. So I think – and we’ve had this discussion as a band – I think there is a balance there that requires a little bit of both, where if there are revolving sets, that’s fine, but the production needs to be in place for all of the sets. And if there’s a balance there that we could achieve – especially, like you said, when playing two nights in the same venue – then I think that’s the best of both worlds. Doing it the way we used to do it at the current level that we’re at – it’s not possible. So it would have to be that method.

OW: You’re a Grammy Award–winning band. You’ve got to have the production.

JP: Yeah, we can’t be Joe Schmo Productions over here.

OW: You are in the driving seat for inspiring the next generation of, not only guitarists, but progressive bands. I really wholeheartedly think that. For example, over here there’s a band called Haken, and they’re really taking off, and you can tell that they have completely taken at least 50% of their cues from you guys. How does that feel when you spot these new emerging bands and you kind of hear some of your own taste and style influencing the younger generation of prog bands?

JP: It’s pretty awesome, it really is. Because I always sort of just put myself back into the position I was when I was learning how to play guitar and was a teenager and into certain bands and how those bands inspired me to do what I wanted to do, and to make my career. So now, when I see that happening as a result of what we’re doing or what I’m doing, it’s just so cool. Like, I can completely relate. I just put myself back into that position, and it’s like, wow – I wonder if any of those bands ever felt that way, like when we were up and coming. So you feel sort of humbled by that. I think that the important thing with bands doing that – and usually if they’ve achieved any level of success, they have done this – but the important thing is to not only be influenced by a certain band or number of bands, but to find their own voice as well. Because it only goes so far. I mean, you can’t be a copycat band.

OW: That’s hard though, when you guys use all the notes and there’s none left.

JP: Well, that is what blows me away. And Jordan and I talked about this before – there’s only a certain amount of notes. How do people just figure out new ways of organizing those 12 notes in different ways? It’s so bizarre.

OW: It’s crazy. We’re talking about sort of aspiring artists – what would your advice be, John, to a new band in the 21st century? We’re just coming out of COVID, restrictions around the world are still in place in certain countries. What would your advice be for an unsung band that were really kind of struggling to make that next step, but look to people like you as their heroes, as their idols, and they wanted to follow those footsteps?

JP: Well, it is really, really challenging now for young bands. It’s so expensive to go out and do this, on any level. My advice is you gotta be willing to put in the hard work and make really big sacrifices if you want this. I remember doing this as well, back in the day, on our first tour. We had a van and drove ourselves, didn’t get any sleep, and didn’t get any money, and played – and eventually made things happen. I think bands need to have that reality check, and the ones that do and that are willing to do it – and do it with a great attitude... I mean, a lot of these guys don’t have a tech, they’re their own tech, they’re packing up their stuff. There’s one crew guy, if they’re lucky, who will do the sound, tour manage, and drive. It’s a hard life at that early stage. So as long as you have perspective on that, and you’re willing to do that... And that type of thing is always easier when you’re young. But we also do it for the same reason – for the love of music, and playing, and being in that position – as I always say, providing the entertainment for the evening. [alughs] We love it.

OW: Well, I honestly – I have the most enormous of thank-yous for you, because you’ve inspired some of my favorite players who are kind of aspiring. As I mentioned earlier, you’ve got Charlie and Rich from Haken, you’ve got Plini. If it wasn’t for you guys, I wonder if those artists would be about. John, my last question for you: in a hundred years, how would you like to be remembered? What is your legacy that you want to leave behind for the world?

JP: Wow. Well, I mean, we’re talking about music, but that’s a deep question, because your legacy is your family. It’s what you do.

OW: [jokingly] Yes, but put them to one side, don’t worry about them. But maybe you want to be remembered as a dad.

JP: I mean, you think about what’s the most important thing that you do in your life – there are your passions and your career and stuff like that, but if you are a husband and a father, that’s the most important thing you have to do in your life.

OW: But it’s not as important as 7/8! [laughs]

JP: 17/8 maybe. [laughs]

OW: No, no – I am, of course, joking. But that’s a very nice answer, John. That’s a very lovely answer.

JP: Well listen, I am Italian, so that’s the way we do things.

OW: Yeah, that’s cool. I guess I was kind of half expecting you to say, “Well, actually, that guitar riff during ‘The Glass Prison’, that’s really f***ing tough, so if I can be remembered for that...” [laughs]

JP: That’s second. [laughs]

OW: Thank you for coming on. It has been a bloody pleasure, and from my point of view it’s just been fantastic to have you here. So thank you so much.