James LaBrie comments (excerpt)

First of all, I've never lip synced in my entire life, so let's just get that out of the way. That's bulls***.

I don't agree with anybody lip syncing to their music. I say that if you do it, you should be able to reproduce it live, or at least try to reproduce it live. I mean, every singer has their fricking bad nights, and it's hard to reproduce or replicate exactly what you did in the studio at times, just because it's human nature. You get tired, you get sick, you're worn out, burnt out, whatever. But yeah, that is off the board. No lip syncing whatsoever for whomever you are. I think that's bulls***.

As far as backing tracks, I think when you utilize the studio's environment to be able to create something within that song that is glorious and multi-layered – vocals or instruments that are beyond the core instruments used within that band – I think it's cool because it can be very enhancing. So when you decide to play those particular songs, you have to either ask yourself, it's gonna be the bare minimum and it's gonna be a little more raw than it was in the studio or the studio's version, or you're going to wanna give your audience everything that they've come to familiarize themselves with while listening to that song. They associate all those other elements that the only way to sometimes reproduce it would be by backtracks. So I think if it's done intelligently, creatively and artistically, it should be acceptable. I think that if it's a vice, so that someone isn't singing what they did in the studio or someone isn't playing what they did in the studio, that's a different deal. I don't agree with that.

Anyways, so there you go. There's my opinion on the whole backtracking system that's out there. A lot of bands do it, especially the younger-generation bands, the younger demographic – they're playing tons of backing tracks. It's unbelievable how much they use.