John Petrucci Quotes

The greatest guitar player in the world today for me is Paco de Lucia, who is actually Spanish.

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 suppose when I started playing guitar, it was the means to an end. I never thought of myself as a fully fledged guitar instrumentalist. And my early excursions on the electric guitar were curtailed when Eric Clapton came on the scene, and I decided I was never going to be in the same arena as a Clapton or a Peter Green.

Mention Hubert Sumlin, as well, because Hubert's a great man, and again, you know, I don't play the guitar very good, but when I'm playing this kind of music, I always have him in my mind. I wish I could play like Hubert.

I think Wes Montgomery is the greatest jazz guitarist that ever lived.

Duane Allman was the best guitar player I ever heard who didn't read a note.

I wanted to be the greatest woman guitarist alive. I had fantasies about being a female Jimi Hendrix.

I decided early on that I wanted to be Michael Bloomfield, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton - not George Harrison.

Chet Atkins... is probably the best guitar player who ever lived.

T-Bone Walker was a big influence on just about every guitar player around.

I can't play a solo without thinking about John Jorgenson. I always think about what he would do.

In my opinion, Slash is probably one of the last of the iconic guitar players carrying the torch of what it's really all about.

Santana is the reason I play guitar - I studied his style so much, I actually wore out the video tapes.

I don't know if anybody will ever be as good as Hendrix again.

I've always been a Jeff Beck fan. Who isn't? He is in a league of his own.

I listen to somebody like Shawn Lane, and unfortunately he is no longer with us, but I hear him playing and I am like, 'That is just absolutely ridiculous.'

One of my favorite guitar players and musicians is a guy named Jimmy Herring.

I have seen Tommy Emanuel play; my wife and I went to see him and he just melted my face off. How do you play guitar like that? There are so many people that play at a ridiculous level and I sit there watching them and I'm like, 'Wow, wish I could do that.'

It's insane for me to say this, but I've never been in a room with anyone that's more talented on the electric guitar than Brendan O'Brien.

Kenny Burrell is the grand master of jazz guitar.

Kenny Burrell is overall the greatest guitarist in the world and he's my favorite.

I had a dream cast when Dan first went off and wrote 'Ghostbusters 3' by himself. It was so long ago that my dream cast was Ben Stiller, Chris Farley, and Chris Rock. That would have been cool. Now, a lot of time has passed, and there are a lot of young funny people.

Where Charlie Christian left off, Papoose started a new thing; he was an innovator of the guitar. The things he did during his recording career with Fats Domino in the Fifties and Sixties until the day he died was as much a part of the music of New Orleans as anybody else has had to offer.

In essence, I feel I'm more jazz guitar player because I write vehicles geared for improvisation.

My first musical dream was to be a guitar player, and believe me, it's still in there.