DREAM THEATER's JOHN PETRUCCI: 'We Are Incredibly Grateful For What We've Been Able To Accomplish'

October 28, 2019

DREAM THEATER guitarist John Petrucci spoke to Fingers of the WBAB 102.3 radio station about the commercial success of the band's latest album, "Distance Over Time", which landed at the No. 5 on the Top Current Album chart and debuted at No. 24 on the Billboard 200.

"It's really crazy," Petrucci said. "We've been fortunate enough to have had a long career. And we work really hard — we get out there and we tour and we spread the word. It's really interesting — the album not only in the U.S. did really well, but also all over the world. It was our first No. 1 in Germany, which was really interesting. And I believe it was No. 5 on the rock charts on Billboard.

"It's interesting the way that that part of the industry keeps changing, because when we released 'Images And Words' back in the early '90s, in order to chart, you had to sell millions of records," he continued. "Then eventually it kind of dropped off. And we were charting Top 10 very easily, because you only had to sell tens of thousands of records, or hundreds of thousands, to chart Top 10. But now, recently, it changed again. Now they're including streaming [data when compliling the charts], so all of the Drakes and Ariana Grandes, where there's millions and millions of streams that's included in Billboard. So now it's hard again to chart Top 10. So it keeps kind of going back and forth. But we are incredibly grateful for what we've been able to accomplish."

Released this past February, "Distance Over Time" marks DREAM THEATER's first album for Sony Music's progressive imprint InsideOut Music. The group spent the past 25 years recording under various labels in the Warner Music Group system, most recently Roadrunner Records, which released five albums by the band between 2007 and 2016.

DREAM THEATER recently announced the European leg of it "Evening With" touring cycle; featuring a celebration of "Distance Over Time", and the bnd's acclaimed milestone achievement, "Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From A Memory".

The "Distance Over Time Tour - Celebrating 20 Years Of Scenes From A Memory" takes place across Europe through January/February 2020. The 28-date leg will see the band traverse 16 countries, including the U.K., Germany, France, Netherlands, and many more.

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