Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan revealed why he ‘provoked’ his bandmates to finish the new Tool album Fear Inoculum with tweets in a new interview, saying he failed with that tactic. Band tension and a lack of communication between the band’s three instrumentalists and Keenan was rumored throughout the long writing process, with Keenan even detailing how he recorded completely separately from his band while making wine.
Keenan told Tone Deaf. “It was my attempt to get them to push back. To go, ‘Fuck you, we’re going to get more done.’ Bummer! [Laughs] ‘Oh no, you retaliated by finishing a song to prove me wrong.’ It didn’t really work. I tried.”
A Tool member revealed why the band rejecting touring for a sad reason last week. Keenan also told Revolver, “Most of us have kids. Some of us have two. So we’re at that age where you get to kind of look back and evaluate some of the steps. I feel like we’re at an age now that some of the things that used to rub us wrong — whether it’s with the band or life in general — we’ve kind of jumped ahead to remember, ‘OK, when I reacted this way to this thing when I was 25, it was a waste of energy. So I guess I just won’t bother reacting that way.’ You skip some steps because you’ve seen the steps. Make sense?”
He added what he’d learned after becoming a parent, “Perspective, I think. If you could point to a small missing piece in our history, that would be one of them. Being a father easily 15 years before they were, it put things in perspective for me early. Again, that’s a small part. I’m speculating. But it definitely put things in perspective … with longer-term goals. You gotta have backup plans. Because once you have that kid, it’s no longer about you.” You can read the full interview in Revolver Magazine.
