JOHN PETRUCCI Says Working With Hitmaker DESMOND CHILD On A DREAM THEATER Song Three Decades Ago Was 'A Lot Of Fun'

In a new interview with Gustavo Maiato and Mateus Ribeiro of Brazil's Whiplash.net, DREAM THEATER guitarist John Petrucci spoke about the band's 1997 collaboration with writer/producer Desmond Child on a song called "You Not Me", which appeared on the album "Falling Into Infinity". Child, who is perhaps best known for co-writing the pop/rock hits "You Give Love A Bad Name" from BON JOVI and "Livin' La Vida Loca" from Ricky Martin, was reportedly recruited by DREAM THEATER's then-record label East West to help the band adopt a more mainstream sound, including reworking a song that DREAM THEATER had originally demoed under the title "You Or Me".

Petrucci told Whiplash.net about the experience of working with Child (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, I remember that we wrote the song [in its original form]. I think this was the first and the only time this ever happened, but the label had this idea where they wanted to try to have more of a commercial song from us and suggested that we work with him. And it was something new. It was something that we never did before. I do remember flying out to his place and getting together and working [with him]. It was a lot of fun, going to his studio. But, again, it's not something that we continued to do. It was the only time that we did that. Again, it was a fun experience meeting him and working on the song together and developing it. It was just something different."

With a running time of just under five minutes, "You Not Me" was produced by Kevin Shirley, who had worked on the AEROSMITH album "Nine Lives", and it reached No. 40 on the Mainstream Rock chart.

In a Songfacts interview with Petrucci, the guitarist also described writing with Child as "a fun experience. It was something I never did before," he said. "We had always kept everything internal to the band — we never had outside writers or anything like that — but it was an opportunity to do something different. I went down to his place. He was great, and we spent some time in the studio and reworked the lyrics to be in a better place, coming from his expertise and his influence. I never really have done anything like that again. It was a one-time thing, but it was a cool experience."

DREAM THEATER drummer Mike Portnoy later said that he didn't think the collaboration with Child was a successful one for the progressive metal band. "As far as I'm concerned, the experiment failed and this will never happen again," he wrote on his web site.

On DREAM THEATER's upcoming spring 2026 tour of Latin America, the progressive metal giants are continuing their "An Evening With Dream Theater" run that celebrates DREAM THEATER's latest album, "Parasomnia", by performing the LP in its entirety, as well as playing the entire seven-movement masterpiece "A Change Of Seasons" for the first time since Portnoy's return as well as other classics and fan favorites from the band's catalog.

DREAM THEATER played its first concert with Portnoy in 14 years on October 20, 2024 at the O2 Arena in London, United Kingdom. The drummer, who co-founded DREAM THEATER, played on 10 of the band's albums over a 20-year period, from 1989's "When Dream And Day Unite" through 2009's "Black Clouds & Silver Linings", before exiting the group in 2010. Portnoy returned to DREAM THEATER in October 2023 after being replaced by Mike Mangini, who played with DREAM THEATER across five studio albums and accompanying world tours.

"Parasomnia" came out on February 7, 2025 via InsideOut Music. The LP was produced by John Petrucci, engineered by James "Jimmy T" Meslin, and mixed by Andy Sneap. Hugh Syme returned once again to lend his creative vision to the cover art.

"Parasomnia" is an eight-song, 71-minute set which was recorded at DREAM THEATER's DTHQ studio on Long Island, New York. It is the follow-up to 2021's "A View From The Top Of The World", which debuted at in the top 10 of Billboard's Top Hard Rock Albums, Top Rock Albums and Independent Albums charts. Six songs on "Parasomnia" are over seven minutes and the closing epic "The Shadow Man Incident" clocks in at nearly 20 minutes.

Portnoy, Petrucci and bassist John Myung started DREAM THEATER as MAJESTY in 1985, after meeting at the Berklee College Of Music in Boston. Singer James LaBrie came on board in 1991, while keyboardist Jordan Rudess joined in 1999.