John Petrucci

With a career spanning almost 20 years with the progressive rock band Dream Theater, Petrucci has shown himself to be a dominator of the shred genre. In the April 2003 edition of Guitar World, Petrucci was voted #9 on the "Top 10 Fastest Shredders of All Time" list. He is a prominent alumni of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachussetts (Class of 1986). He is a guitar virtuoso with jaw-dropping technique that will make any guitarist go "How does he do that?"

Petrucci first picked up the guitar at age 12. His first band experience was at that age, where his friend, ex-Dream Theater keyboardist Kevin Moore would gather a bunch of kids to jam, and they were assigned certain parts to a song (such as Neil Young's "Hey Hey My My").

Petrucci has a broad range of influences, such as Joe Satriani, Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Morse of the Dixie Dregs, Al Di Meola, and many others.

John Petrucci - we salute you.

Text © David Katilius 2005

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