Former Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello discussed Tool, Nirvana, and Smashing Pumpkins in a recent Twitter Q&A. He credited Maynard James Keenan for showing him the drop D tuning. It could have been a sarcastic response though based on the question.
Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan discussed almost fronting what would become Rage Against The Machine in an interview with Rolling Stone last October.
“Well, there wasn’t a Rage when I was working with Tom. I think he was working with Timmy [Commerford], perhaps. I can’t remember if Brad [Wilk] was drumming or not. This is very foggy at that time ’cause I didn’t know Brad yet, so you’d have to talk to Brad, find out if it was actually him. We actually were in a rehearsal space – this is after [Morello’s former band] Lock Up was dead and he was trying figuring out where he gonna go next, and so yeah, it was right around the same time all those things were happening. And I think just the vibe of where they wanted to go … I guess I had a little bit of that Green Jellö thing going on in me still, so I was looking for almost a Puscifer approach to music at that point. They were looking for a more serious approach, so I think that was pretty much immediate. If there was a consideration for that at all, it was very brief.”
How is your current relationship with Maynard James Keenan or any band mates of Tool, A Perfect Circle, or Puscifer?
I did hear you were inspired by Tool and the use of Drop D tuning.
— sam de mon (@sam_hartleyy) November 27, 2017
Love those dudes. And that is slightly inaccurate. Maynard showed me how to do drop D tuning. https://t.co/hZoM7oxls0
— Tom Morello (@tmorello) November 27, 2017
@tmorello favorite tool song?
— David (@DavCmt_) November 27, 2017
Love the whole Undertow album https://t.co/GeI7z3noCv
— Tom Morello (@tmorello) November 27, 2017
Best smashing pumpkins song?
— Caleb Blackmur (@CalebBlackmur) November 27, 2017
All of Gish https://t.co/TKNorykBE3
— Tom Morello (@tmorello) November 27, 2017