Tool fans have been known to obsess over the band’s setlists, often wondering why the band won’t perform certain songs from its early catalog. In a new interview, frontman Maynard James Keenan says one reason is because he finds the lyrics to some older tunes to be regrettable.
The singer was the guest on a new episode of Jackass star Steve-O’s podcast Steve-O’s Wilde Ride!, when the host began discussing the differences between the singer’s bands Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer. Steve-O mentioned that he asked AI to describe each band, and it came back with Tool as “reverent,” A Perfect Circle as “romantic,” and Puscifer as “absurd.”
Keenan contested the AI summation by responding, “Yeah, I don’t know about that… reverence for fist-f**king?,” amusingly referencing “Stinkfist” from Tool’s 1996 album Ænima, eliciting raucous laughter from Steve-O and his co-host Skinny Vinny.
The singer went on to say, “There’s some old Tool songs that I don’t like playing them because I feel like I failed them. They’re popular songs, but I was trying to make a joke, and it was a dumb joke, and I should’ve just moved on… I feel like the lyrics don’t hold up under scrutiny.”
When pressed by Steve-O for an example of a specific song, Maynard mentioned “4°” from Tool’s 1993 debut album Undertow. “The way I wrote it… I was trying to fucking make a butt sex joke and it was dumb. The song’s beautiful, what those guys did musically is great and I think maybe the melody’s a good melody but the words are just dumb. I don’t know what the fuck I was thinking.”
He then quipped, “So [I thought to myself] don’t do that again… fix it and make a song like ‘Stinkfist’,” prompting Steve-O to conclude, “I think ‘Stinkfist’ is quite reverent.”
For now, Keenan’s attention is on Puscifer, who’s new album Normal Isn’t arrives February 6th. The band will embark on a headlining North American tour in support of the LP beginning in late March, with tickets available here.
Watch Maynard James Keenan’s appearance on Steve-O’s Wild Ride! below. The aforementioned conversations starts at the 43:33 mark.
