John Petrucci Shares The Mistake Dream Theater Did That No Band Should Ever Do

Dream Theater’s John Petrucci recently reviewed ‘Images and Words’ in an interview with Revolver and talked about one of their biggest mistakes as a band, related to their record deal with Atco Records for eight studio albums.

Among many notable names, Dream Theater is one of the most famous and successful bands in the entertainment industry. They receive praise and applause for their unique sound and lyrics. The group has released fifteen studio albums over the years. They went on many tours, which the metalheads greatly appreciated.

Recently, Dream Theater won the Best Metal Performance award with their song ‘The Alien‘ at the 64th Grammy Awards. ‘The Alien’ is a single from the band’s fifteenth studio album ‘A View From The Top Of The World,’ released last October. It was also the band’s first album recorded at their studio DTHQ and produced by John Petrucci himself. The band began its North American tour in February 2022 and recently concluded in March 2022. They continued their European tour in April and May 2022.

While discussing their biggest mistake as a band, Petrucci said they wanted to sign to a record label after finding James LaBrie. Atco Records decided to sign them at the time, but the musician added that no band should sign eight studio albums as the contract needs reconsideration after each album.

John Petrucci’s words on their biggest mistake as a band:

“The first one was ‘When Dream and Day Unite’ came out in ’89. I was on put out on Mechanic MCA. We went through a period where we were in limbo as a band. We never toured for that record. We decided to change singers. We went on a singer hunt for like a year and a half. During that time, we were writing the music for the record.”

He added:

“Eventually, we got Mr. James LaBrie in the band as their singer and got signed to Atco Records. At the time, they didn’t sign us right away. We did a bit of a demo deal period where they had the producer David Prater come in and demo, and I think it was like three of the songs, and then they wanted to hear James. When they heard that, they were like, ‘Okay, we’re in.’ We did something that no band should ever do, but we did it. We signed an eight album deal when we signed to Atco at the time.”

You can watch the video below.