James LaBrie interview (excerpts)

Justin Vigile: Congratulations on the Grammy. This is bananas!

James LaBrie: [singing] It's been a long time coming. [laughs] I don't want to sound ungrateful, but everybody knows the history. 2012 and Foo Fighters won, although Dave Grohl was a very stand-up and classy guy; he said, “As far as I’m concerned, Dream Theater should have won it.” That was pretty damn cool for him to say that, so I called him up and I said, “Well hand it over Dave.” [laughs] I don't even remember who won in 2014.

JV: It might have been Mastodon or something like that. I remember they won one year. It's one of those things, you can't keep everybody happy.

JL: No, but hey, listen. First of all, Foo Fighters is a great band and so is Mastodon. Those guys are talented; they can play.

-----

JV: Now everybody has to call you ‘Grammy-winning James LaBrie.’ Have you had any thoughts of putting that in front of your name?

JL: It's crazy, because I remember we were all texting one another. It's funny because the next day John Petrucci texts me; he goes, “Holy s***! Hey man, it still seems somewhat surreal. I think it's gonna take me a couple days before it really sinks in.” And I said, “Yeah, same, likewise.” It's funny, leading up to it, I didn't get myself all like, “OK, yeah, this is it. We're gonna clinch this thing, finally.” I didn't. My family was around me, and they're like, “Dad, dad – you do know the Grammys are going on right now,” and I said, “Yeah, I know, but I don't want to set myself up for disappointment.” And then when it happened, we were just like, “Yee-ha!” and freaking dancing.

What's really cool about all this is that the Grammy Academy is giving this kind of recognition. It's not like they haven't in the past given recognition to great music, but for a band like Dream Theater... John Petrucci summed it up perfectly; his whole speech [was] well worded. I said, “That was excellent! It was so cool for you to bring in the humorous side to it,” because we've always been criticized about our long show, our long songs and guitar solos and all that. And he says, “Go ahead and tap your foot to this, it's [in 17/8].” It was great because the whole Grammy Academy [is] realizing that when you're getting into certain categories, that everyone needs to be recognized for what they do.

JV: I think you nailed it. Like the last couple years, I know Between the Buried and Me were nominated last year and it was like, “Whoa! That's crazy!” I was at WrestleMania in Texas and I just happened to check my phone; I completely forgot it was the Grammys, and it popped up ‘Dream Theater wins Grammy.’ I was like, “Holy s***! That's crazy!” I mean not shocked like the underdog, it was like, “Really? This is the year they get it? OK, great.” The other thing that's going on with Dream Theater is you guys have been back on the road. How is that getting back out there and getting the swing of things?

JL: It was funny because the first show was in Phoenix on February 2nd; that was our first show. It was three weeks to the day, shy of two years. It was freaking crazy. So we went on; the first show was sold out. It's funny because we came off after the show and we were like, “Holy s***!” It felt so great to be back doing something that you love to do, and I said it even to the fans for several nights while we were out there. I said, “You don't realize how much you missed something until you get back into it.” It's that simple. Like once you start doing it again, you're like, “Wait a minute, holy s***!” because I think to a certain degree it identifies who and what you are, and why you do what you do. It's not until you're like fully engaged within that again that you have that appreciation and you realize just what it means to you and how much of you is a part of that. That being said, I would say that it probably took us about a week where we felt, “OK, we're in the groove, autopilot, here we go,” and that's what happened; took about a week, I think.

JV: It's so cool to see everybody back on the road, and I know it's been a challenge for everybody and for the fans, too. I think you nailed it. People think it's like, “You [won’t] know you missed it till it's gone,” but it's not that. Then you do it again, you get a little taste of it and you're like, “Oh, that's why I put myself through all this! Ah-ha!” It’s the love, it's the energy that can't be matched. There were quite a few things that popped up that were making news – Dream Theater fans know what I’m talking about, we're not gonna get into all that – but going back out on the road, there had to be a part of you that's thinking, “What's the response going to be? Is anybody going to care? It's been a couple years.” To come out there and know that like, “Oh no, we're still Dream Theater. This is still one of the best shows you can get for your money,” and you guys are gonna kill it every night. How does that feel?

JL: I don't think a lot of our fans thought we were gonna actually go out, because you remember the tour in October, we pulled out for several reasons. One of them being the most important one was that we just didn't feel comfortable for going out; most of us, I shall say. I think that once the fans said, “Holy s***! They actually did play in Phoenix? Wait a minute – they did do LA?” [laughs] And once that started happening, all of a sudden we're finding out, “Hey man, tickets are going through the freaking roof, and they're really starting to sell out, right out of the box, and for every day now for the rest of the shows that are still to come up.” Because for the most part, most of the shows were like half sold, maybe almost three quarters sold before we got out there. And then once we got out there, it was just like bang-bang-bang-bang-bang! All of a sudden it's like, “Wait a minute, we're playing in front of full houses,” with the exception of a few.

You know what was the most surprising city that we hit, and it was because they had all these restrictions was Chicago, because we usually go into Chicago and it's fricking totally sold out. We went in there and I swear to God guys, it was half full. We talked to the promoter, and I’m like, “What happened here in Chicago?” because usually this place is stuffed and they're like, “Yeah guys, some restrictions have come down, and you guys are the first ones that have come through here in the last couple weeks where it's half full.” It just didn't add up. Anyways, it's all good.

And we were expecting that most of the rooms, to be honest with you before we even started the tour, we thought they were going to be half full, because that's what we had been told by other bands, by our agents and so on. “Hey guys, even though you guys are getting back into it, it's still not the norm.” And we're like, “OK, fair enough.” Now we're going to Northern Ireland to play our first show in Belfast, and then Newcastle and then Wembley Arena in London, and then the rest is all throughout Europe; that's not going to be normal. Are you freaking kidding me, with this maniacal narcissistic, fricking psychopath starting the war in the Ukraine. I don't even want to go there guys, but I will say he has to be held accountable.

But what I’m getting at is that we're going to be going through Europe, and there's going to be like places... like we're booking Krakow, Poland. It might not even happen. And then there's Croatia, and then there's Istanbul, Turkey. And those places, it's just horrible what they're having to contend with. They're trying to bring in as many refugees as they can and it's horrible. But what the hell am I doing here? Let's stay on a positive trajectory!

JV: I do I gotta throw in one little complaint here James, we're all friends here. You gotta bring Devin Townsend, that package to the US. I don't know how else I’m gonna bump into this guy.

JL: I’ll show him a hockey stick and a puck, and he'll do North America with us. [laughs]

JV: Please make it happen. I just need to see that. That would be an ideal evening of music for me.

JL: I’ll buy him a dozen fricking Timbits [laughs] from Tim Hortons, and he'll be right there with us. No, that would be a great package, there's no doubt about it. Devin’s fricking awesome. The first three shows that we're doing is with Tesseract, and they're a great band, too. But [with] Devin, it's gonna be great, because I know he's a really funny guy. We've done a few shows with him here and there, like in festivals, and he'll come right in and he just gets going. And I’m looking at him going, “Dude, you're on a different level.” [laughs]

-----

JV: When do you get the Grammy? Did you get it yet? Do you get one? Does everybody get one?

JL: Everyone gets one – that's probably why they don't want to give it to bands, because it costs more money! [laughs] I probably won't get it until like I’m back from this European tour. They always send us a plaque, even when we were just nominees; they'd always send us a really nice plaque. So we'll definitely get it. I’m imagining that John went home with that thing. It’ll be a couple months, but yeah, we each get one.