1990-Maynard James KeenanVocals
Adam JonesGuitar
Paul D'AmourBass-1995
Justin ChancellorBass1995-
Danny CareyDrums
Tool rarely give interviews, and when they do, they sometimes make stuff up. Their air of mystery extends to the band name, which they've never honestly explained. One theory is that it refers to pedantic rule followers of the kind lead singer Maynard James Keenan encountered when he was at the United States Military Academy Preparatory School in West Point.
Tool guitarist Adam Jones worked as a sculptor and special effects designer in Hollywood before the band took off. His film credits include Jurassic Park (1993) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. He applied his talents in this area to Tool's unique music videos, most of which he directed.
Justin Chancellor replaced Paul D'Amour on bass after their first full-length album, Undertow (1993). Chancellor had been a member of the British art-metal band Peach, which toured with Tool several times.
Danny Carey began taking snare drum lessons when he was 10. He continued to study percussion, among other things, at the University of Missouri.
After their original bass player, Paul D'Amour, left the band in 1995, he joined a group called the Replicants (a cover band, as the name suggests) and later formed a group called Lusk. In 2019 he joined the industrial rock band Ministry.
They gained lots of publicity when they got a spot on the Lollapalooza '93 tour. In 1997 they were a main stage act on the tour.
Keenan has two major side projects outside of Tool: A Perfect Circle and Puscifer. A Perfect Circle's first two albums, Mer de Noms (2000) and Thirteenth Step (2003) both went Platinum, and the band has embarked on several major tours. Puscifer is a more experimental and theatrical endeavor that plays smaller venues. Their debut album, V is for Vagina, arrived in 2007.
Adam Jones began studying the violin, then gradually moved to the guitar.
Danny Carey has a passion for the occult and has released a "Grimoire Series" of T-shirts featuring illustrations from rare occult texts.
Keenan has a small role in the obscure 2002 movie Bikini Bandits, in which he plays Satan.
It was Adam Jones who put the band together. He first recruited Carey, and Carey brought in Keenan, his neighbor, after hearing Keenan yelling at neighbors and being impressed with his voice.
Jones was good friends with Tom Morello (of Rage Against The Machine) in high school, where they were in a band together. Tom's mother, Mary Morello, was Jones' homeroom teacher.
On their Undertow CD, they included some additional artwork hidden under the black trey that holds the CD on the jewel case as a little Easter egg.
Tool booked two shows in 1993 at the Garden Pavilion in Los Angeles, not knowing it was owned by the Church Of Scientology and would be attended by its members. They
played the shows anyway, but got subversive, with Maynard James Keenan at times bleating at the crowd like a sheep. He made his thoughts on the venue and the religion clear in an interview with
Juice: "I guess psychotic people tend to gather money and put it into beautiful gardens and the beautiful gardens tend to draw in unsuspecting victims and then they brainwash them and take all their money."
Maynard has a son named Devo and a daughter named Lei Li.
Tool is an acquired taste, but those who have acquired it can't get enough. When the internet became widely adopted, they were one of the most discussed bands on sites like Songfacts.
The band appear in only two of their videos. They are in their first video for "Hush" (very rare) as well as a very fast part in "Sober" near the end.
Tool went on an extended hiatus following the release of their 2006 album 10,000 Days. True to form, they didn't explain why they were inactive and if they'd ever return. Many fans had given up when, in 2019, they dropped a new album, Fear Inoculum, and went on tour. The album was well received and debuted at #1 in America.
Maynard is a wine connoisseur who owns a vineyard in Arizona outside of Sedona called Merkin Vineyards.
In 1994, Danny Carey said the band name stands for how they want their music to be a "tool" to aid in understanding lachrymology. Lachrymology is the art of crying as a type of therapy. However, this was just another rumor they started (as many bands do) to keep us (or them) entertained. Part of Danny's statement is true: They do want their music to be a tool, but a tool to aid in helping others understand an alternative way of thinking.
They don't include lyrics on their albums (it's the same with Maynard's band A Perfect Circle). In an interview with MTV, Maynard said this is "Because I think reading is a thinking process, and I would prefer that people FEEL the album first, and just let it sink in because you might get something out of the music that you might not get from thinking about it, and watching the words go by."
Through their 10,000 Days album, Maynard would put the lyrics online a month or so after the release for this reason.
After Courtney Love called Keenan a "media whore," he responded by launching a satirical "Free Frances Bean" T-shirt campaign in the mid-'90s, riffing on the "Free Tibet" benefit show requests the band were constantly receiving. He started giving the shirts away for free, and when asked about Love's insult, quipped: "Isn't that great? I have the distinction of being called a media whore by Courtney Love!"
Danny Carey is an avid basketball fan. He had some offers to play at small colleges before moving to Los Angeles and forming Tool.
In a February 1997 interview with Modern Drummer, Carey recalled first noticing Maynard James Keenan by hearing him yelling at his neighbors across an alley and thinking he had the voice of a singer. Carey brought Keenan to the attention of guitarist Adam Jones, who was putting the band together, and Tool was born.
Maynard James Keenan is opposed to organized religion. This reflects in several songs, especially when his mother is concerned: she was paralyzed from a stroke when Maynard was 11 years old, and she died 27 years later (almost 10,000 Days later, hence the album title 10,000 Days. In "Wings for Marie" he sings: "10,000 Days in the fire is enough, you're going home"). Maynard struggles to understand why his mother stood by her faith after the stroke. In the A Perfect Circle song "Judith," he sings: "F--k your God. He did this to you. Pray for one who left you broken down and paralyzed. He did it all for you."
Maynard has at several times launched April's Fools jokes. During the recording of the Lateralus album, the band spread a message on their website stating that "Maynard found jesus" and that the recording of the album had been put on hold and may never be finished. This was a joke of course and referred to the conversion of a former KoRn bandmember. However, some people took it seriously. A journalist (who noticed that the message cited jesus without a capital letter, which is very uncommon for newly converted Christians) got suspicious and emailed Maynard to ask if he indeed become a Christian. Maynard gave an unclear response, so the journalist asked again, and Maynard replied to this email with "heh heh." A few days later the band published on their website, "Good news April Fool's fans! The recording of the album is back underway." Maynard, who clearly never converted to Christianity, was asked about his so-called encounter with Jesus, and answered, "that guy's a punk!"
When their song "
Fear Inoculum" entered the Billboard Hot 100 at #93 in 2019, it set a record for longest song ever to enter the chart, at 10:22. André 3000 bested the record in 2023 with his song "I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a 'Rap' Album but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time," which runs 12:20.
Keenan has been training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu since the 1990s. He received his coveted jiu jitsu black belt on January 6, 2024.
