In a newly republished 2006 interview with Guitar World, Tool guitarist Adam Jones made it clear that Tool is his band and not Maynard James Keenan’s.
When asked what all the Tool members share in common, the guitarist responded, “All of the members of Tool agree on sacred geometry, which is a study of taking everything that’s complicated about the world and everything that’s concentrative of our world and breaking it down to the simplest things: simple patterns, shapes, colors, vibrations… all that kind of stuff.” He continued, “To me that is what Tool is, because everyone in my band gets that. My band. It’s my band. I asked Maynard to play with me, so Tool is my band.”
He also shared his thoughts on art and why it shouldn’t be forced: “I hate when art is forced, when you look at something and go, ‘God, give me a break!,’ because you can tell that that person was trying to be artistic and show off themselves as being some weird, arty guy. It’s not from the heart. Life is short, and it’s so rewarding to try to get to a certain point.”
The rocker also revealed in the same interview that he gets bored of guitar solos. “In ’70s rock there were leads in every song. I used to like Frank Zappa, but I thought that when he played a lead he would go on for way too long. In the ’80s everyone had a gimmick. Michael Angelo [Batio] had four necks, so the other guy would have to have six necks,” he explained.
Jones touched on his friendship with the Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello and continued, “Tom Morello is a friend of mine, and he comes from that school where it’s got to have a crazy sound and he’ll do wacky things. He really gets off on that. But I was always bored with three-hour solos. I think Joe Satriani is amazing, but after three songs he puts me to sleep. I used to play no solos. I’ve come out of my shell a little bit. If it’s tasteful and it’s what the song needs, it’s okay. There’s a big difference between talent and gimmick,” he added.
The interview took place right before the release of the 2006 album, ‘10,000 Days.’ ‘Fear Inoculum’ came out in 2019, and it was their first release since ‘10,000 Days.’ The band will perform several shows in March next year.
Considering how slowly they release new albums and their first full tour of South America coming up in the spring, it is unclear if 2025 will give the band enough time to release new material.
