Tool and Puscifer frontman Maynard James Keenan recently joined the YouTube channel of Rick Beato for an interview and revealed the two albums that shaped his musical taste.
The singer of three bands, Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer, Maynard James Keenan, struggles to take a break from the road. He finished his first US tour with Puscifer in six years last month with a final show in Seattle. Before the Puscifer tour, the singer performed in Europe with Tool. He will continue touring North America with Puscifer in October and November of 2022.
As an eclectic musician who has produced works of many genres, Keenan’s musical influences are also as varied as his music. In a recent conversation, the host Rick Beato said he always feels melancholy in his creative outputs. Then, the singer stated that his early influences are significant in this respect since they shaped his approach to music. Later, Keenan specifically talked about two albums he would listen to as a child.
He revealed that Black Sabbath’s debut self-titled album and Joni Mitchell’s 1971 record ‘Blue‘ were the two albums that changed his understanding of music. After listening to those repeatedly, his musical taste started to take shape. He then said that he discovered other notable bands like Led Zeppelin quite late, so he doesn’t have many early memories of them. MJK also recalled that his aunt was the one who advised him to listen to Black Sabbath and Joni Mitchell.
The two albums that shaped his musical taste, in Keenan’s words:
“You have all your early influences and things that pop up that you listen to as a child, but there are two albums that I can remember most going this, in hindsight… These albums changed the way that I thought of music. It was Black Sabbath’s first album and Joni Mithcell’s ‘Blue.’ So, those are the ones that kind of like guided my musical taste. I’ve listened to a million things over the years, but those were the ones I cut my teeth on.
I came late to Led Zeppelin, and I came late to a lot of those other bands, but those are the ones that I remember on Saturday morning over at my aunt’s house; my grandfather was a chief of police, constantly in her car, an old Ford Falcon, vacuuming up the pot seeds out of her back seat because he’s the chief of police. He can’t have his daughter driving around with pot in her car. She’s the one going, ‘You gotta check these out, ‘Blue’ and ‘Black Sabbath.'”
You can listen to the full interview below.
