The night Maynard James Keenan beat up one of his fans
It’s never easy for musicians to have a relationship with their fanbase. While it might be nice for someone to have some sort of spiritual connection with their audience whenever they perform onstage, there’s no telling whether someone’s going to want to go outside their comfort zone and start thinking that you’re either a god among men or some perilous demon that needs to be thwarted immediately. While most artists get security for this very reason, Maynard James Keenan didn’t need to worry about self-preservation when someone decided to crash his stage.
Looking through the history of Tool’s live shows, though, not all of them could claim to be the most animated performers in the world. Even when making their first venture into the festival circuit, Keenan was known to stand fairly still and usually try to channel everything out of his body by standing in a fixed position when screaming out tunes like ‘Sober’.
Even at their more recent shows, Keenan is far more interested in having a bit of fun with his audience. Outside of performing from behind a curtain throughout certain shows, Keenan has been known to play with his audience’s expectations, even having a few shows where he said ‘thank you and goodnight’ two songs in and proceeded to play through the rest of the set like nothing had happened.
Behind the scenes, though, Keenan is far more dangerous than he lets on. That singing voice is far from the most intimidating skill in his arsenal, and his experience in martial arts has made him one of the most hostile frontmen ever to come across the stage. So when a frontman has a black belt and continues to train in between shows, it’s commonly not a good idea to crash the stage.
That didn’t stop an overeager fan at the turn of the millennium who decided to storm the stage when the band were playing ‘Pushit’. While it must have been surreal seeing Keenan decked out in body paint in the style of Peter Gabriel, the frontman wasn’t playing around for a second, initially going in for a hug before body-slamming him into the stage midway through the song.
The whole scene looks like something straight out of a martial arts movie, but the strange part came from what happened next. Security could have easily been called, but Keenan decided to have a bit of fun with the stage intruder, sitting on top of him and rolling around with him on the floor while still keeping him that same hold throughout the rest of the song.
And what makes this even more impressive is that the frontman never loses any of his vocal capacity during this time. After all, the greatest athletes know that it’s important to regulate their breathing, and seeing him roll around on the floor and still have the same stamina to go through one of the band’s heaviest songs is an Olympic level of vocal control.
Even though many fans can look back and laugh at this now, this should practically be considered a warning to anyone who dared to mess with the band during their shows. You can try to make a fool of yourself if you want to, but there’s no guarantee that you’re not going to be coming off the stage without a few bruises.
