Maynard James Keenan never wanted to be like the guy from WASP: “That really put a zap on me”
Who knows when inspiration is going to hit the rock stars of tomorrow? Music has a funny way of finding its way into people’s hearts.
Bruce Springsteen reckoned he was destined to be a rock star the second he clocked The Beatles. Ozzy Osbourne said much the same, that the Fab Four gave a bleak old world the green light to have a laugh again. Bob Dylan, meanwhile, found his feet being the odd one out, latching onto Woody Guthrie’s folk tales like gospel. Mick Jagger had his eyes opened at a Muddy Waters gig, and Jimmy Page had a proper epiphany when he swapped out a string on a bargain-bin guitar just to bend it like the bluesmen he idolised. If there’s one thread running through the early days of rock’s biggest legends, it’s that there’s no thread at all – just a bunch of sparks, struck in wildly different ways.
The way inspiration differs depending on which musician you are looking into is quite sweet and deeply interesting; however, without a doubt, one of the most bizarre tales of musical inspiration comes from Maynard James Keenan. The Tool lead singer and brain behind so much of the band’s music originally honed in on the unique time signatures that would set them apart when he was playing sports at school.
“I remember running cross country in high school, and everyone has their own breathing rhythms. It’s just supposed to be in out, right?” he said, “But I found myself running when I was in high school, and I had odd rhythms, it wasn’t just in-out-in-out rhythm, I was actually running to the steps. So if you’re going over hill or downhill, in chuckholes or whatever, my breath would follow those rhythms, which is weird.”
So, it was his innate ability to take on a unique rhythm that initially triggered Keenan’s interest in music, but what has kept that interest alive? I don’t think you need to necessarily listen to Tool religiously to be able to appreciate them. Fair enough, their music can be jarring at times, and it’s not straightforward enough to merely play in the background at parties. But it’s pretty hard to hear their musicianship, their innovative approach to music and their unique composition style and not be somewhat impressed.
You have to respect Tool and the band’s desire to continue pushing themselves. It seems they have never been content with their last release, and always look at the next album as being mind-bending and awe-inspiring. This means they have layered songs in the past, included hidden messages in tracks, and written songs with deeply intricate narratives attached that expand the confines of what stories can be told through music.
This kind of attitude isn’t an accident. From the school playground to main stages at festivals around the world, Keenan was never willing to be an artist who leaned heavily on his past. He always wanted to be looking forward, and detested artists who didn’t do the same. One person he named in particular, who he thought was guilty for doing this, was someone he called “The guy from WASP.”
He added, “You cut to Decline of Western Civilization Part Two where you see the guy from WASP, drunk in his pool and you go, that’s where you end up? And you have to assume, in a music career, that’s where you end up. Especially if you hang your hat on the thing you did not the thing you’re doing. That really put a zap on me.”
The band member Keenan is specifically referring to is Chris Holmes, who did an interview for The Decline of Western Civilization Part II in which he was seen drunk in his pool. While many might see this and think it’s peak rock ‘n’ roll, it only invigorated Keenan to continue making genre-defying music.
