John Petrucci (born July 12, 1967) is the guitarist and a founding member o… Read Full Bio ↴John Petrucci (born July 12, 1967) is the guitarist and a founding member of the progressive metal group Dream Theater. He is a popular musician in the progressive metal genre and utilizes a mixture of styles when playing, such as shredding and flamenco.
John first played guitar at age 8 when he noticed his sister (who was taking organ lessons at the time) was allowed to stay up past her bed time to practice. He soon dropped it when his plan failed. At age 12, he began playing again when he was invited into the band of his friend Kevin Moore, who would later become the keyboardist of Dream Theater. John began to practice in earnest whilst also working out so that his body could absorb the ultimate brunt of true shred. He was a largely self-taught guitarist who developed his skills through attempts to equal the chops of his idols, who included Steve Morse, Steve Howe, Steve Vai, Al Di Meola, Alex Lifeson, and Allan Holdsworth. He has jokingly referred to his guitar idols as "the Steves and the Als".
John attended Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts with childhood friend John Myung (bass), where they met future bandmate Mike Portnoy (drums). These three in addition to another childhood friend of Petrucci and Myung, Kevin Moore (Keyboards), formed the band Majesty, which would later become Dream Theater.
While Dream Theater is what John is most commonly associated with, he was also a part of the band Liquid Tension Experiment and has appeared as a guest on several records by other artists such as the Age of Impact album by the Explorers Club. It is worth mentioning, however, that Liquid Tension Experiment also included Dream Theater co-members Mike Portnoy and Jordan Rudess, Jordan joining Dream Theater after LTE's success.
John also came out with a guitar instructional video, "Rock Discipline", which covers alternate picking, warmup exercises, sweep picking, chords, legato, and other techniques for developing one's guitar playing.
In 2001 he was chosen by Joe Satriani and Steve Vai to tour with them on the popular G3 guitar tour, which exposed him to a massive number of new fans and inspired him to record a solo album. Suspended Animation was released on March 1, 2005, and made available for order from his web site. He also appeared on the 2005, 2006 and 2007 G3 tours.
Petrucci also wrote and recorded two instrumental soundtrack songs for a Sega Saturn game titled Digital Pinball: Necronomicon. Each track is roughly two minutes long and they are simply titled "Prologue" and "Epilogue". Petrucci is an avid Sega Saturn gamer, and has revealed in interviews that he never tours without one.
In 2007, John Petrucci went on G3 tour again, this time with Joe Satriani and Paul Gilbert.
In 2020 he released his second solo album Terminal Velocity with Mike Portnoy on drums and Dave LaRue on bass who also appeared on his first solo album.
Dream Theater bandmate Jordan Rudess revealed in an interview that Petrucci is a practicing Catholic. Petrucci is married to Rena Sands, a guitarist in the all-female heavy metal band Meanstreak, and they have 3 children, SamiJo and Reny (who are twins), and Kiara.
John Petrucci won the "Guitarist of the Year 2007" award recently in Total Guitar Magazine.
John first played guitar at age 8 when he noticed his sister (who was taking organ lessons at the time) was allowed to stay up past her bed time to practice. He soon dropped it when his plan failed. At age 12, he began playing again when he was invited into the band of his friend Kevin Moore, who would later become the keyboardist of Dream Theater. John began to practice in earnest whilst also working out so that his body could absorb the ultimate brunt of true shred. He was a largely self-taught guitarist who developed his skills through attempts to equal the chops of his idols, who included Steve Morse, Steve Howe, Steve Vai, Al Di Meola, Alex Lifeson, and Allan Holdsworth. He has jokingly referred to his guitar idols as "the Steves and the Als".
John attended Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts with childhood friend John Myung (bass), where they met future bandmate Mike Portnoy (drums). These three in addition to another childhood friend of Petrucci and Myung, Kevin Moore (Keyboards), formed the band Majesty, which would later become Dream Theater.
While Dream Theater is what John is most commonly associated with, he was also a part of the band Liquid Tension Experiment and has appeared as a guest on several records by other artists such as the Age of Impact album by the Explorers Club. It is worth mentioning, however, that Liquid Tension Experiment also included Dream Theater co-members Mike Portnoy and Jordan Rudess, Jordan joining Dream Theater after LTE's success.
John also came out with a guitar instructional video, "Rock Discipline", which covers alternate picking, warmup exercises, sweep picking, chords, legato, and other techniques for developing one's guitar playing.
In 2001 he was chosen by Joe Satriani and Steve Vai to tour with them on the popular G3 guitar tour, which exposed him to a massive number of new fans and inspired him to record a solo album. Suspended Animation was released on March 1, 2005, and made available for order from his web site. He also appeared on the 2005, 2006 and 2007 G3 tours.
Petrucci also wrote and recorded two instrumental soundtrack songs for a Sega Saturn game titled Digital Pinball: Necronomicon. Each track is roughly two minutes long and they are simply titled "Prologue" and "Epilogue". Petrucci is an avid Sega Saturn gamer, and has revealed in interviews that he never tours without one.
In 2007, John Petrucci went on G3 tour again, this time with Joe Satriani and Paul Gilbert.
In 2020 he released his second solo album Terminal Velocity with Mike Portnoy on drums and Dave LaRue on bass who also appeared on his first solo album.
Dream Theater bandmate Jordan Rudess revealed in an interview that Petrucci is a practicing Catholic. Petrucci is married to Rena Sands, a guitarist in the all-female heavy metal band Meanstreak, and they have 3 children, SamiJo and Reny (who are twins), and Kiara.
John Petrucci won the "Guitarist of the Year 2007" award recently in Total Guitar Magazine.
The Oddfather
John Petrucci Lyrics
We have lyrics for these tracks by John Petrucci:
Glasgow Kiss [Instrumental]…
Jaws of Life Acid Drinkers Miscellaneous Menel Song / Always Look On Th…
Tunnel Vision [Instrumental]…
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
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Edgar Poureshagh
The musical chemistry between John and Mike is jaw dropping when it clicks... reminds me so much of what I've missed since they played together. Bravo... and the guitar tone is sick. This track is just perfect.
Ridge Reed
@Leonidas Mark instablaster =)
studi00wl
Just listened to the whole album and it was like an evening with John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy. LIT!
J Avila
Everything this guys do you know is GOLD..Thank you Petrucci and Portnoy for this Masterpiece
Tin Man
You missed Dave La Rue without whom this would not be the same.
Paleontologi
the bass guy too
Ricardo Zúñiga
I love how John always manages to make the tones sounds heavy and full but doesnt uses that much gain, amazing break at 3:51 too
Rick Feith
Thats just good technique, with awesome DiMarzio pickups and arguably the best amplifier Mesa Boogie has ever made...gain is very fickle, it steals your dynamics and completely ruins your tone, but it also makes that sound...number one secret to recording tracks like this is turn down the gain and double track it once panned hard left and again panned hard right. You gotta play it super tight so it sounds like only one, but that is how you get massive guitar tone...it also doesn't hurt to use 2 mics, a dark and a bright mic, blended properly...IN PHASE, and using $2000 Rupert Neve microphone channel strips with badass preamps helps. It's the sum of all it's parts with a master pulling the strings.
He's the players player for a reason
acgm046
The run that follows after that part is freaking amazing!
Edgar Poureshagh
agreed... and his tone is so percussive without being abrasive. You hear everything... but the tone is still warm and has depth.