John Petrucci Says “It Wasn’t a Unanimous Decision” to Postpone Dream Theater’s 2021 Tour

Last month, Dream Theater joined the myriad of metal bands who have postponed 2021 tour dates as a result of the ongoing pandemic. But as it turns out, at least two members of the band were against delaying those dates.

This according to a new Sonic Perspectives interview with guitarist John Petrucci:

“John [Myung, bassist] and I really wanted to tour, and are dying to tour — dying to get out there and support the record. And unfortunately, we couldn’t convince the other guys that it was safe. So, it wasn’t a unanimous decision, unfortunately.”

Petrucci elaborated:

“It’s frustrating for me, because everything has opened up and concerts are going on, and theaters and arenas and clubs and everything is open. Bands are out there, and a lot of my friends are touring successfully. And there are ways to do it safely, which we were very prepared to do. But, like I said, we couldn’t convince the other guys it’d be safe, and so we had to push it off. I’m the type of person where I hate disappointing people, I hate disappointing our fans. So, it was definitely an unfortunate decision.”

I can see both sides of this argument to a degree. Not touring is certainly the safest option right now… but there are tours that have been successfully completed without anyone getting sick (at least in the touring party — the fans are a whole other story). So. Yeah. It’d be really cool if everyone would got vaccinated so we don’t keep having to go through this debate.

You can listen to the entire interview below.

Dream Theater’s new album, A View From the Top of the World, comes out this Friday, October 22. Pre-order it here.

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