The one album Maynard James Keenan said was “the reason I’m on a stage”
Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan might make wine in his spare time, but music is still his true passion, such that we all remember the album that opened up the world of songwriting.
All of a sudden, music wasn’t just something that happened to be on the radio in between all the frustrating ads, or something to roll your eyes at when your grandfather put on an old, crackly vinyl record, but it was a vast, magical universe where anything could be possible.
For many, the moment will come and go, and we’ll exist with a renewed fervour, a heightened commitment to burning mixtapes to drive around to, or a new resolve to see more shows at the local dive bar; simultaneously, Keenan listened to one album and realised, he was destined for the same fate of the lights, the stage, the dazzling dreamscape of it all.
For him, it was the self-titled debut album of Black Sabbath that changed his world forever, and speaking on his involvement in the recent Back to the Beginning concert, which took place in July 2025 to bid farewell to the iconic band, he made the bittersweet confession sharing, “The reason I’m on a stage at all is because of Black Sabbath’s first album”.
The essential album was released in 1970 and, without wanting to overstate anything here, essentially became the blueprint for the entire heavy metal genre. It didn’t come out of a usual recording process, either, dragged out over weeks, even months, between pleasant pauses and lots of time to tweak, but instead was recorded in one 12-hour session with minimal overdubs so it could authentically capture the shuddering Sabbath sonic extravaganza.
The second he heard the project, Keenan was hooked, musing, “It’s just timing, like everything in your life. You meet a band that you were really into as a kid, and you’re all excited, but they don’t know. They were just playing songs. It’s all about where you were, how old you were, what was happening in your life,” and we’re all thankful that Ozzy Osbourne and his bandmates swooped in at just the right time.
One listen, and Keenan was transformed, and consequently, so was his life, as less than three decades later, the frontman of that very band, Ozzy Osbourne, would deem him “a true family friend since 1997”, proving that the powers of manifestation were at play even before we had Etsy witches to do it for us.
The dynamic switched, too, as Osbourne became enthralled with Keenan’s savvy strategising, which meant he was able to successfully manage three bands: Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer.
All of this to say that the Back to the Beginning show was a hugely serendipitous affair for the pair. Keenan’s involvement in the event consisted of two performances of Tool songs, ‘Forty Six and Two’, and ‘Ænema’, and, memorably, a cover of the 1970 track from the first Sabbath album so close to his heart, ‘Hand of Doom’. You can watch original footage of the entire performance below, but try not to let a tear or two spill.
