The Greatest Guitar Player To Ever Live

From time to time i hear people debating about who the "greatest" guitar player of all time is. Honestly i think it's silly because you can't compare a blues guitar player to a metal guitar or jazz player. But if I personally had to pick one it would be John Petrucci. He is the guitar player for the progressive rock band Dream Theater. For those of you who don't know about Dream Theater they are the most popular Prog group around and have been for a very long time. Petrucci can do it all. He can play faster than anyone, play as technical as anyone, and suprisingly to some people he can play with a lot of emotion and write some great melodies. Oh yeah... he's also a lyric writer! I had the pleasure of meeting him and asking him some questions when i was 17 years old. See pic below... (yes my hair was like that back then!)



Here is a clip of him playing a dream theater solo from the song "As I am." This is just the guitar track by itself. Check out the actual song on the "Train of thought" album

JP As I Am Solo

Here is one of my favorite songs he has written lyrically. It's from the song "Voices" on the "Awake" album.

Love, just don't stare'
He used to say to me
every Sunday morning
The spider in the window
The angel in the pool
The old man takes the poison
Now the widow makes the rules

'So speak, I'm right here'
She used to say to me
not a word, not a word
Judas on the ceiling
the Devil in my bed
I guess Easter's never coming
So I'll just wait inside my head

Like a scream but sort of silent
living off my nightmares

Voices repeating me
'Feeling threatened?
We reflect your hopes and fears.'
Voices discussing me
'Others steal your thoughts
they're not confined
within your mind.'

Thought disorder
Dream control
Now they read my mind on the radio
But where was the Garden of Eden?

I feel elated
I feel depressed
Sex is death, Death is sex
Says it right here on my Crucifix

Like a scream but sort of silent
living off my nightmares

Voices protecting me
'Good behavior
brings the Savior
to his knees.'
Voices rejecting me
'Others steal your thoughts
they're not confined
to your own mind.'

(Voiceover)
"I don't wanna be here, 'cause of my
suffering, 'cause of my illness.
Only love is worth having, only
love is what matters, loving every
people on equal terms. "
"You've got to know who you're
dealin' with because, like a stranger,
a-heh, just might come in through
here with a gun... and then, what
would you do? (Heh.)"
"Everything is immaterial..."
"'n' you know that reality is immaterial."
"This is not reality..." (End Voiceover)

I'm kneeling on the floor
staring at the wall
like the spider in the window
I wish that I could speak
Is there fantasy in refuge?
God in politicians?
Should I turn on my religion?
These demons in my head tell me to

I'm lying here in bed
Swear my skin is inside out
Just another Sunday morning

Seen my diary on the newsstand
Seems we've lost the truth to quicksand
It's a shame no one is praying
'Cause these voices in my head
keep saying...

'Love, just don't stare.'
'Reveal the Word when you're
supposed to'
Withdrawn and introverted
Infectiously perverted
'Being laughed at and confused
keeps us pleasantly amused
enough to stay.'

Maybe I'm just Cassandra fleeting
Twentieth century Icon bleeding
Willing to risk Salvation
to escape from isolation

I'm witness to redemption
heard you speak but never listened
Can you rid me of my secrets?
Deliver us from Darkness?

Voices repeating me
'Feeling threatened?
We reflect your hopes and fears.'
Voices discussing me
Don't expect your own Messiah
This netherworld which you desire
is only in your mind.


And lastly two quick vids to show you him playing. One is the solo from "under a glass moon" from the Images and Words album. The other is a guitar lesson for some of you noobs out there!!!