Jordan Rudess, keyboardist for Dream Theater, talks about entering Julliard at age 9 with an almost casual manner, as if average third-graders spend afternoons practicing Bach concertos. They don't, rest assured, and neither do they grow up to become among of the most prolific and respected keyboard players in modern music.

Rudess, whose résumé boasts David Bowie, Liquid Tension Experiment and several solo albums stretching back to 1988, has reached yet another career plateau: touring alongside rock hereos-turned-contemporaries Queensr˙che. "We're excited, because Queensr˙che was a major influence, and here we are, headlining half the gigs," he said. "This is something we've wanted to do for a while, and finally it all came together. I know that a lot of Dream Theater fans are also fans of Queensr˙che and (opening act) Fates Warning."

Accompanying Rudess on stage this summer is the new Peavey multi-channel KB5 keyboard amplifier. "We used the KB5 the whole time we were writing for the new Dream Theater album," he said. "The guys would just come over and plug into my system, so at some points, we had John Petrucci (guitarist) and John Myung (bassist) playing out of the KB5, because it has so many inputs!" It has five, to be exact, four of which have individual EQs for tweaking instruments and audio sources independently.

"What's really great about the KB5 is it's so solid," he continued. "I just get the feeling that you can do anything with it and it'll survive. It's very road-friendly." Case in point: "I had two of them out on a solo gig the other day - it was an outdoor gig, and the P.A. was fairly inadequate. So I put a KB5 on either side of the stage and just wailed. The engineer said he could see the cones really pumping. They were handling it! It was great! (laughs) If you have a speaker that'll survive hardcore usage like that, it's good."

The KB5's crystal clear sound attracted Rudess as much as its clean, high power output and rugged versatility. "I spend a lot of time programming my sounds and I care a lot about how they sound," said Rudess, who worked as a professional programmer for two major keyboard manufacturers after graduating from Julliard. "In this case, I needed them to sound good and also be very loud! That's how I came upon the KB5."

The summer Dream Theater/Queensr˙che U.S. tour precedes the band's as-yet-untitled eighth studio album, which is scheduled for release in the fall. The band's most recent album, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, peaked at No. 46 on the Billboard Top 200.

Peavey Electronics Corporation is one of the largest manufacturers of musical instruments and professional sound equipment in the world. Peavey holds more than 130 patents and produces more than 2,000 products, which are distributed throughout the United States and to 136 other countries. To find out more about Peavey Electronics and its artists, visit www.peavey.com.

Also:

Dream Theater - The Official Site