Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan recently sat down with Allison Hagendorf for an interview ahead of his performance honoring inductee Ozzy Osbourne at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. During their discussion, Hagendorf paid a major compliment to Keenan calling him “one of the greatest singers” of all time. Keenan, however, disagrees.
“No, not at all,” the frontman said when asked if he considers himself a vocalist. “I feel like I’m an instrument within the mix and I’m just trying to find my place within the arrangement. That makes sense, that’s not colliding with the rest of the stuff. So if anything I’m very organized. I’m organizing a vocal within a context of songs, not necessarily a vocalist.”
So, who does he consider a vocalist? Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell, of course.
“Chris Cornell is a vocalist” he said, with Hagendorf enthusiastically agreeing.
Keenan went on to also praise Freddy Mercury and Sammy Hagar. “I’m not a classical vocalist at all. I saw Sammy Hagar play the other night and he’s just in the dressing room and he starts singing in the dressing room. Like, that’s a singer. That’s a vocalist,” he said.
But the Tool and A Perfect Circle singer has always done things a bit differently than other vocalists. Unlike most frontmen, Keenan often performs from the back of the stage rather than the front. In a recent interview with Kerrang!, Keenan revealed the very practical reason why he chooses to sing from the back.
“With Tool, Danny [Carey’s] drums are so loud, he has like 17 arms and 15 legs, and then you’ve got Adam [Jones’] row of amps and Justin [Chancellor’s] wall of bass,” he explained “It just makes it way harder for the front-of-house to have a mix if [I’m] down front. And the position up top is also great, visually, because I can see what’s going on, we can connect with each other by looking at each other. If I was facing the audience, my back would be to what’s happening, so I can’t take cues.”
