John Petrucci Quotes

When I'm on stage, I know exactly where I am. It's not an ego thing or anything like that, but I am more in my body and aware of myself and aware of what I'm doing, and I feel more from that, from sharing the music.

I stand on stage hoping to give good energy to the audience, but if I cannot give good energy anymore, I will have to leave right away.

When I perform live, I'm doing a lot, but I kind of black out. I don't think about it too much.

Some nights I'm funny with the between-song commentary, some nights I'm not. I have no control over this. I pace the stage a lot and struggle with the mic stand in a ridiculous way.

I don't really think about the crowd when I am in the middle. I actually forget about the crowd, forget the money; that's exactly what I always do.

I think you need to figure out your balance. 'Cause if you think too much about that there's people around and - and how you're singing and looking and performing, I think that it won't be a good performance. Then, on the other hand, you can't just be in your own world.

When I perform and the crowd is cheering, there's a ringing noise in my head. I'm just zoned in, and even though I know there are people watching me, all I hear is this ringing inside of me.

I'm the kind of performer who gets lost on stage. I can tap into this soulful haze.

I'm confident when I perform but going into a horrible, boring studio and playing the same thing over and over again is really different to being on stage!

I've played to audiences where people are sitting there with their arms crossed, just kind of watching. Although they might be having a great time, and they might be really enjoying the spectacle, if I'm not getting anything back, it does affect the way I perform and project.

You try to stay in the moment and act like you're singing the song for the first time. You try to have a good time yourself. That's the most important thing. If you're having a good time, people will join you.

I wasn't born with nerves. You have to take yourself out of the equation and think about everyone else - you're the entertainer.

As much as only playing clubs can become tedious, performing in huge venues can also become off-putting. To go from one to the other feels great. And sometimes playing clubs can be even more stressful, because you really have to think about what you're going to tell the audience between songs.

Obviously, Iron Maiden is on a way bigger scale to British Lion, but as a musician playing live, it's just the adrenaline rush of playing in front of an audience that gives you that rush.

I'm always making micro-adjustments onstage, listening to the audience, and what a crowd is like can be infectious.

There are moments, when you're playing your songs to thousands of people, which are amazingly satisfying. I'm very self-critical, so I find it hard to go along with moments like that.

I'm not nervous coming back to my old audience. I'm looking forward to it. That's really what I do; that's my day job.

We live for our concerts. We like a live appearance more than anything else about this business and it bothers us when we put so much into it and the critics bomb us.

Performing is something that has really grown on me and become an important part of my life, which I didn't used to feel. I didn't used to want to really perform live a lot. It's been an interesting adjustment.

I'm quite a reserved person, but when it comes to being on stage, something just clicks, and I sort of run around like a mad man. I find myself jumping in the crowd, climbing up on things, and dancing absolutely atrociously. I like to see the whites of everybody's eyes, jump around with everybody.

I'm neurotic by nature, but I'm wary of becoming more of a play than a comic - you don't want people coming to see a man having a breakdown for two hours. I'd prefer them coming to hear my astute and witty observations.

I think there's an attitude these days that you can go straight from a studio to the stage, and it isn't really like that. But playing live was the most important thing for me at the start because whenever I recorded something, it didn't sound right; I didn't like how my voice sounded. It was just raw.

Sometimes you really rely on the audience to have a good time playing live, and sometimes you could have zero people or a thousand, and you'd feel exactly the same.

It's a really interesting situation, because when you make music at home all the energy goes into the process, and touring's all about the energy going outward. I had to learn how to do that transition, but once I figured that out it's so much fun.

I really love headlining. Opening up is fun - getting to play for all these people who might not know you - but it's so much easier sometimes playing for people who know all your songs: you get that instant feedback.