The biggest reason why Dream Theater‘s John Petrucci started playing guitar in the first place because he was jealous of his sister, who at the time was taking organ lessons at night.

The guitarist was recently a guest at the Captain, and he said (via Ultimate Guitar): “My older sister played organ and I was very jealous because her organ lessons were at night. So the instructor would come at night—it probably wasn’t even that late but I was little—and I was so jealous.

“I’d be in bed and hear my sister taking these organ lessons like, ‘Why does she get to stay up late!’

“So I had this ingenious plan of taking guitar lessons so I’d be able to stay up late. I was really young, probably 9. But my lessons turned out to be on Saturday afternoon, so my plan completely fell apart. [Laughs]

“Ironically enough, I hated it.

“I had this guitar with nylon strings, I couldn’t play it, couldn’t fret the notes, I was so frustrated. The [teacher] was nice, an older man with a pipe trying to teach me the Mel Bay stuff. I just wasn’t into it…

“And it wasn’t until I was 12 when I was bit by the bug and I really wanted to play guitar.

“This might sound weird, but I had a reoccurring dream that I was onstage playing guitar. It would happen really often…

“Fortunately enough, where I grew up—Long Island, NY—there was a big music scene and rock was played on the radio. Music was all around me, it was a great environment to grow up in.“

Watch the full interview below.

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