Last weekend, Tool took a break from sessions for their long-awaited new album to play the Northern Invasion festival in Wisconsin. The set saw frontman Maynard James Keenan poking fun at the decade-plus delay for the band's 10,000 Days follow-up, begging bandmates Adam Jones, Justin Chancellor and Danny Carey to finish up their parts. Fortunately, for those of us unable to witness the singer's wisecracks, an attentive fan managed to capture audio of his remarks.
"A lot of people recently have been asking me, Maynard James Keenan, what's with the fucking riot gear?" the singer explained, referring to his habit of wearing said gear during Tool's recent shows. "Well, I'll tell you. I'm afraid of bananas, and other forms of fruit, because eventually you wonderful people are going to run out of fucking patience. So I beg you — Danny, Adam and Justin, please finish your parts so I can finish mine. So I can take off this fucking riot gear."
Keenan — who has reportedly written the vast majority of his parts for the album — has expressed frustration in the past regarding his compatriots' deliberate pace when it comes to writing and recording, although he says that he's grown to not take it too personally.
"I like to release records and write things a little more quickly than those guys like to write," he told Joe Rogan last year. "Their process is very analytical. As far as the way Danny, Adam and Justin write, it's a very tedious and long process, and they're always going back over things and questioning what they did and stepping back and going back further."
Check out our run-down of everything we know about the new Tool album so far, and stay posted for more studio updates.
Below, watch Maynard James Keenan train in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and discuss how fighting is connected with his larger vision of sustainable living, self-sufficiency and creativity:
