John Petrucci Quotes

I assume most guitar players are like me. They're playing, having fun; then they get a magazine in the mail that says "Shred Is Dead" and they say, "What the Hell?" They throw it away and keep on playing.

Growing up, I was listening to a lot of Metallica, a lot of instrumental guitar music because I started out as a guitar player.

I got into one Metallica record. That was about it. I never got into AC/DC or Black Sabbath or any of that. I was interested in the side of heavy metal that had interesting guitar ideas, but that was a very short-lived thing.

It's always funny to me when people use the phrase 'Best guitar player in the world'. There are too many variables such as technique, uniqueness, emotional investment in the notes, etc. But If I had to pick one, it would be Tommy Emmanuel. Watching him perform can be a study in artistic and virtuosic human achievement.

I wanted to shred, so I learned classical guitar.

I mean there's certainly a lot of progressive rock and metal that exists at the underground level, which has its own vitality, as it should. But it seems to have lost its ability to really charge up the hill.

I can play rhythm guitar. I know how to hold a guitar and strum it.

I listen to other guitar players, yeah. It gives me new concepts and shows me where the instrument is going for the future and it is going some places. There are some musicians who are really putting out a good vibe with new theories. I try and keep up.

In the '90s, guitar solos were dead.

That was very flattering, meeting Steve Vai and hearing his stuff, because he was kind of a fan, even though we kind of dumbed down what he was doing and what people were doing in the '80s. We weren't doing solos; we were doing sounds and all this creepy, trippy stuff.

For me, a band like Gojira brings something really cool and new to the table.

Metallica is a big, huge influence and inspiration. That's who Babymetal aspires to become some day.

There are no prog elements to Adrenaline Mob; it's very song-oriented, with shredding and grooves.

There are two types of session guitar players. One reads and only plays what the 'dots' say. The other adds that something special and plays notes and solos you dream of. Big Jim Sullivan was such a player.

I know in my heart of hearts that Ritchie Blackmore is one of the great guitar players of all time. He's a fabulous technician, and he's got incredible skills, and he was a great showman.

I've often talked about metal being the underdog in rock n' roll music.

Without Metallica, we wouldn't have a lot of the bands that we have now.

'Fade To Black' - just this amazing construct: a song that defied the definition of what Metallica was perceived to be at the time.

I've always said that there's a huge progressive rock, progressive metal audience out there, in the world. We see it when we're on tour.

I'd put a lot of work into playing guitar and was thinking I was pretty damn good. But Hendrix came along and destroyed everyone.

What draws people to the instrument is the love for guitar players that play a certain way. I mean, even though it wasn't intentional, it was hard to avoid copying Eddie Van Halen. He was basically the *bleep* back then.

Well I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk.

About ten years ago, I knew three chords on the guitar. Now, in 1982, I know three chords on the guitar.

There are so many good guitarists out there, I am by no means a very good guitar player.

I don't know of a guitar player that has only one guitar. They're never happy with one. I'm never happy with just one of them. I woke up and ended up with six, even if you can only play one at a time!