Watch John Petrucci annihilate the Super Mario Bros theme in warp-speed guitar playthrough
Dream Theater man joins FamilyJules for Nintendo prog-metal mash-up
How’s this for a speed run? In a brief stop off from this year’s G3 tour with Joe Satriani and Phil Collen, John Petrucci found time to cover the Super Mario Bros theme tune - and, of course, he lent his own warp-speed skills to the track.
Accompanying YouTube videogame guitar cover star FamilyJules, Petrucci blazes through the lead melody before taking the theme to a whole new dimension with some mind-bending modal licks on his Ernie Ball Music Man Imperial Blue Monarchy Series Majesty - he even deploys a Mario amiibo as a pick.
“This was a dream come true,” says Jules. “John is one of my biggest influences of all time - I've been listening to Dream Theater for as long as I can remember and owe so much of my playing ability to his tutorials on YouTube as well as his DVD, Rock Discipline.”
D’aww. This isn’t the first all-star Mario cover we’ve heard lately, either; back at the end of 2016, Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto played the Nintendo classic's theme on acoustic guitar with The Roots.
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Mike is Editor-in-Chief of GuitarWorld.com, in addition to being an offset fiend and recovering pedal addict. He has a master's degree in journalism, and has spent the past decade writing and editing for guitar publications including MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitarist, as well as a decade-and-a-half performing in bands of variable genre (and quality). In his free time, you'll find him making progressive instrumental rock under the nom de plume Maebe.
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