CLASSIC CORNER : BACKTRACK
First of all , thank you . I appreciate it , John . It was a long time ago . It kind of stemmed from all the things that we were just talking about . It ’ s being comfortable playing on a progression like that for a long period of time and sort of exploring different opportunities . As I was watching that , too , I thought to myself it was kind of a foreshadowing of what I would eventually do with some solo material outside of Dream Theater and with G3 . It ’ s being in a situation where the guitar is carrying all those things you said . You ’ re playing the melody . You ’ re improvising . You ’ re really providing all of the focal point and attention as a single guitar player . And of course that ’ s what Joe ( Satriani ) does so well , and Steve Vai , and Eric Johnson , and all the other players that I played with . But I didn ’ t have a bunch of experience with that as a solo artist until I started doing G3 . But that little MI thing is definitely a foreshadowing . That was something that I guess I had the ability to do and the desire to do as a guitar player – to take on all those musical elements in one full song . ■
“ It was just this great melodic progression to play too . We would literally trade solos for hours .”
JUNE / JULY DIGITAL EDITION 23
Dream Theater John Petrucci by Ken Settle Atlas Icons