In a new interview with Gustavo Maiato and Mateus Ribeiro of Brazil’s Whiplash.net, DREAM THEATER guitarist John Petrucci discussed the band’s 1997 collaboration with writer/producer Desmond Child on “You Not Me” from Falling Into Infinity.

Child was brought in by the band’s then-label, East West, which wanted a more mainstream track and suggested reworking a demo originally titled “You Or Me.” Petrucci recalled that it was the first and only time the label pushed for an outside collaborator. “We had written the song in its original form, and this was something completely new for us,” he said.

Petrucci described the experience as enjoyable, noting that the band had always kept songwriting internal. “We never had outside writers, but it was an opportunity to do something different.”

Drummer Mike Portnoy later disagreed, calling the collaboration unsuccessful. “As far as I’m concerned, the experiment failed and this will never happen again,” he wrote on his website.

DREAM THEATER will continue their “An Evening With Dream Theater” run on a spring 2026 Latin American tour, celebrating their latest album, Parasomnia, by performing it in full along with the entire seven-movement epic “A Change Of Seasons” for the first time since Portnoy’s return.