John Petrucci

John Peter Petrucci was born on July 12, 1967, in Kings Park, New York, to an Italian American family. He picked up the guitar at around the age of eight because his older sister was allowed to go to bed later in order to practice the organ. However, he decided to quit the guitar when his attempts to stay up late were unsuccessful. He picked up the guitar again at the age of 12. Petrucci has said he committed to practicing guitar six hours a day when he discovered it was his passion. His early influences were bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, and later developed an interest in progressive rock and heavy metal, exemplified by Rush, Yes, Iron Maiden, Dixie Dregs and Metallica.[1][2]

Eventually, his childhood friend and future Dream Theater keyboardist Kevin Moore invited Petrucci to join his cover band. Petrucci attended Berklee College of Music in Boston with childhood friend John Myung (bass), where they met future bandmate Mike Portnoy (drums). While in Berklee they often covered two of their biggest influences, Iron Maiden and Rush. These three, in addition to Kevin Moore, formed the band Majesty. Because there was already another band with the same name, the group later became Dream Theater.

While Petrucci is most commonly associated with Dream Theater, he is also in the project band Liquid Tension Experiment, and has appeared as a guest on records by other artists, such as the Age of Impact album by the Explorer's Club.

Petrucci has released a guitar instructional video, Rock Discipline, which covers warm-up exercises, exercises to avoid injury while playing, alternate picking, sweep picking, chords and other techniques for developing one's guitar playing. Petrucci also has a book named "Guitar World presents John Petrucci's Wild Stringdom", which was compiled from columns he wrote for Guitar World magazine under that title.

In 2001, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai invited Petrucci to tour with them on the popular G3 guitar tour, which exposed him to a massive number of new fans and inspired a solo album. The album, Suspended Animation, was released on March 1, 2005, and was available for order from his web site. Petrucci also appeared on the 2005 and 2006 G3 tours, and in 2007, went on G3 tour again, this time with Paul Gilbert and Joe Satriani. In a video with Larry DiMarzio, Petrucci announced that he is working on a follow-up to his 2005 album, Suspended Animation and a new Dream Theater album.[3]

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 are named simply Prologue and Epilogue. In a spoof rock band, Nightmare Cinema (which was the Dream Theater members changing instruments for encores), he used the "alternate stage name" Johnny James.

In 2012, Petrucci was invited once again to join Joe Satriani on the G3 tour, along with Steve Morse. He was accompanied by bassist Dave LaRue and drummer and Dream Theater bandmate Mike Mangini.

In 2018, Petrucci joined Joe Satriani on the G3 tour. They were accompanied by Uli Jon Roth on the European leg of the tour, and Phil Collen in North America. His second solo album, titled Terminal Velocity was released in 2020.[4] Petrucci's first solo album in 15 years, it reunited him with Mike Portnoy for the first time since the drummer left Dream Theater in 2010.[5]

Regarded as "one of the most celebrated guitarists alive" by Premier Guitar,[8] Petrucci has performed as the third guitarist on the G3 tour seven times, more than any other invited guitarist. In their article "John Petrucci: The Ultimate Evolved Guitarist",[8] Premier Guitar calls Petrucci "one of the best who's ever laid a hand on a fretboard".[8] He was voted "Best Prog guitarist" by The Prog Magazine[9] and the "Greatest Guitarist" by Burrn magazine[10] and Mariskalrock.[11] Guitar World magazine lists Petrucci among the "Fastest Guitarists of All Time"[12] and calls him "the most celebrated and popular guitarist in the world of progressive metal" and "arguably the most versatile and proficient player in his realm, with a highly developed melodic sense and an alternate picking technique that is virtually untouchable as far as speed and precision", while also ranking him among the top 5 "Best Guitarists of the Decade".[13]

In 2019, Petrucci won the SENA Performers European Award.[14] Joel McIver's 2009 book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists ranks Petrucci second, after Dave Mustaine.[15] He was also named as one of the "Top 10 Greatest Guitar Shredders of All Time" by GuitarOne magazine.[16] In 2012, Petrucci was ranked the 17th greatest guitarist of all time by a Guitar World magazine reader's poll.[17] According to Forbes, the Ernie Ball-Music Man John Petrucci JP6 is the second-best-selling signature model of all time, behind only the Gibson Les Paul.[18]

Petrucci is a long-time user of Music Man JP and Majesty series guitars and Mesa/Boogie amplifiers. While his pedalboard, controller, effects and overdrives have undergone changes over the years, the core of Petrucci's guitar sound remains DiMarzio pickups and Mesa/Boogie amplifiers. Most recently the signature JP-2C amplifier based on the Mark IIC+ series and other Mark and Rectifier series amplifiers, such as during the recording of Train of Thought.[19][20][21]

A number of brands have released signature guitar equipment designed or endorsed by Petrucci:

• Ibanez released the first John Petrucci signature guitars, made from 1995 to 1999
• DiMarzio have produced several pickups designed in collaboration with Petrucci, and released a signature guitar strap bearing his emblem.
• Ernie Ball Music Man (USA) began producing John Petrucci signature guitars in 2001 and have made numerous models bearing his name since.
• Dunlop produce John Petrucci signature guitar picks including the Jazz III and flow
• TC Electronic released the Dreamscape John Petrucci signature modulation pedal in 2013.

At the beginning of 2016 two new releases were announced: the Dunlop John Petrucci signature Cry-Baby wah, and the Mesa/Boogie JP-2C John Petrucci head. The latter is a three-channel amplifier, which is available both as a stand-alone amp head and as a rack-mounted amp head. It differs from other Mesa/Boogie Mark series amps in that it features two separate graphic EQs, an exclusive "Shred" circuit, midi connection and CabClone direct out, resulting in increased versatility.[22]

Petrucci lives in St. James, New York with his wife Rena Sands, a guitarist in the all-female heavy metal band Meanstreak, and they have three children. He is the uncle of Jake Bowen, a guitarist in the progressive metal band Periphery.

Petrucci is an avid fan of bodybuilding and dedicates much of his off time to weight training. He is a voting member of NARAS.[23]

Dream Theater bandmate Jordan Rudess revealed in an interview that Petrucci is a practicing Catholic and Petrucci himself told about it in a Dream Theater Q&A session with DreamTheaterForums.[24][25]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Petrucci.

• Official website