Maynard James Keenan recently sat down with Steve-O, discussing how Puscifer almost became a commercial failure and why he had financial struggles while marketing the band’s debut album.
Keenan recorded Puscifer’s first full-length studio album, ‘V Is For Vagina,’ in the mid-2000s, with plans to release it in 2007. It was his way of sailing into a new, independent side project, surely hoping to achieve the similar commercial success he had with Tool. However, although embarking on an ‘independent’ project surely sounded exciting, it also meant that Maynard had to pay for everything from his own pocket.
So, while the singer was quite generous during the studio sessions and paid for thousands of vinyl sets, the record industry was on the edge of collapsing; and Keenan’s lengthy investment caused him financial trouble shortly after the record’s release. Since the rocker had planned to ship all the vinyl to record stores, the industry’s fallout left supermarkets as the only place for the band to send their debut.
However, one of the markets, Target in particular, wasn’t as fond of Puscifer and started sending all the copies back to Maynard since the album featured ‘obscene’ words. So, not only had Keenan paid for the album, but he also needed to pay for the shipping costs along with having to rent a warehouse to store 80,000 pieces of vinyl Target returned.
Still, the rocker eventually managed to sell all of it to avid rock fans, though the fuss Target created and the industry’s collapse, along with all his financial troubles, had him worried for a minute.
The singer on releasing Puscifer’s debut, the record industry’s fall, and how he had financial struggles:
“From the time that we started recording ‘V Is For Vagina,’ until the day that we actually released it, the record industry fucking collapsed. So all the record stores were open when we started recording, when we released Tower and Virgin had all closed.
Like all those mom and pops had all closed… We were stuck with Target, Best Buy, K-Mart, and Target sent our albums back because it said vagina on it. I was like, ‘What? You don’t like vagina? I love them.’
I mean, Puscifer‘s an independent band, so I wrote the check for all that vinyl. And I did not only pay for the vinyl to be made, but to have the vinyl be shipped back to me, and then rent a f*cking warehouse to put it in. We sold it all, eventually. But like that was scary, to have 80,000 pieces of vinyl shipped back to you.”
It’s apparent that it was the marketplace’s collapse that led to the almost commercial failure of Puscifer, but luckily for Keenan and his collaborators, they managed to sell every piece of vinyl they had, and ‘V Is For Vagina’ went on to become a commercial success most Puscifer fans enjoyed.
