Dream Theater’s John Petrucci Plays ‘Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction?’
Legendary Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci is here to prove and disprove what’s written about him on Wikipedia. From his childhood to present day, Petrucci set the record straight and told incredible stories you may have never heard.
One essential piece of Dream Theater lore is the pact between Petrucci and bassist John Myung to practice six hours a day. Though this is true, Wikipedia falsely claimed the duo began this routine in college. In reality, Petrucci and Myung had been doing this since middle school. “John and I had this secret thing, where if we saw each other at [a] party, it would mean that we had put in our six hours.”
If you read about the song “Misunderstood” on Wikipedia, you’d see that Petrucci recorded a solo for the track, reversed it, learned the reversed version, and reversed it again. It’s a hell of a process to end up exactly where you started, so we asked Petrucci to verify the bizarre entry. “We might have just reversed it and that was it. [Reversing it again] would be kind of silly.”
Did you know that Seinfeld inspired one of Dream Theater’s biggest songs? While Seinfeld was famously “a show about nothing," Petrucci wrote “Wither” to be a song about nothing. “I’ve had a lot of people say a lot of things about the poetry of that song and the deep meaning and everything. I was talking with my wife about the Seinfeld episode where they write, ’It’s a show about nothing,’ so she was like, ‘Write a song about nothing.’ … It’s not as deep as it sounds. It starts from a very funny place.”
Watch the John Petrucci episode of ‘Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction?’ above and click here to grab Dream Theater’s newest album, Distance Over Time.
Dream Theater 2019 North American Fall Tour Dates
Sept. 26 — Louisville, Ky. @ Louisville Palace
Sept. 27 — Indianapolis, Ind. @ Murat Theatre at Old National Centre
Sept. 29 — Canton, Ohio @ Canton Palace Theatre
Oct. 01 — Peoria, Ill. @ Peoria Civic Center
Oct. 02 — St. Louis, Mo. @ Stifel Theatre
Oct. 04 — Baltimore, Md. @ Hippodrome Theatre at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center
Oct. 05 — Raleigh, N.C. @ Raleigh Memorial Auditorium
Oct. 06 — Richmond, Va. @ Dominion Energy Center
Oct. 08 — Charleston, S.C. @ North Charleston Performing Arts Center
Oct. 09 — Asheville, N.C. @ Thomas Wolfe Auditorium
Oct. 11 — New Brunswick, N.J. @ State Theatre New Jersey
Oct. 12 — Albany, N.Y. @ Palace Theatre
Oct. 15 — Brookville, N.Y. @ Tilles Center for the Performing Arts at LIU Post
Oct. 17 — Chattanooga, Tenn. @ Tivoli Theatre
Oct. 18 — Memphis, Tenn. @ Graceland Soundstage at Elvis Presley’s Memphis
Oct. 19 — Biloxi, Mo. @ Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Biloxi
Oct. 22 — San Antonio, Texas @ Majestic Theatre
Oct. 23 — El Paso, Texas @ Abraham Chavez Theatre
Oct. 24 — Mesa, Ariz. @ Mesa Arts Center – Ikeda Theatre
Oct. 26 — Tucson, Ariz. @ Tucson Music Hall
Oct. 27 — El Cajon, Calif. @ Magnolia Performing Arts Center
Oct. 28 — Riverside, Calif. @ Fox Performing Arts Center
Oct. 30 — San Jose, Calif. @ San Jose Civic
Nov. 01 — Reno, Nev. @ Grand Theatre at The Grand Sierra Resort
Nov. 04 — Omaha, Neb. @ Orpheum Theater
Nov. 05 — Madison, Wis. @ Capitol Theater
Nov. 06 — Cincinnati, Ohio @ Taft Theatre
Nov. 09 — Syracuse, N.Y. @ Crouse Hinds Theater
Nov. 11 — Kitchener, Ontario @ Centre In The Square
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