Tool returned to New Zealand last week, performing in the country for the first time since February 2020. At those shows five years ago, Maynard James Keenan was unknowingly sick with COVID-19. Since then, there has been a long running joke that the frontman brought the virus to New Zealand.
In an October 2020 interview with Joe Rogan, Keenan explained that at the time he had no idea what he was sick with. “Im a super spreader,” he joked. “I brought it [to New Zealand], it was in me. And I put it in you.”
Now, during Tool’s stop in Auckland, Keenan made light of the situation from 2020, referencing the band’s previous visit to New Zealand and the pandemic that soon followed.
“Sorry about that whole Covid thing,” Keenan said to the crowd, before joking that if they don’t put their phones away and stop filming he would give them all COVID again.
The frontman has consistently been against the use of phones during concerts, even going as far as to ban them from his shows.
Explaining the reasoning behind his strict no-phone policy, Keenan told Clownvis Presley in an interview earlier this year:
“It’s annoying and it’s distracting and the thing you’re getting on your phone sucks. It’s not a good representation.
“We just kind of force the issue of engaging with each other — watching the show — and just being present. Take a break from it. It’s only three hours.”
Tool’s return to New Zealand also saw the band perform a few songs they hadn’t played live in over 20 years, including “Disposition,” “H,” “Crawl Away,” and “Prison sex.” The group also performed “10,000 Days” for the first time since 2014, played “Mockingbeat” live for the first time ever, and covered Black Sabbath’s “Hand of Doom.”
