Trivia / tool

• Black Sheep Hit: "The Pot". Maynard's vocals, especially in the beginning, are much higher than normal and barely sound like him, and it's one of Tool's "poppier", more radio-friendly songs.
• Creator Backlash:
  • After Maynard blew out his voice recording "Ticks & Leeches", he said that he would never perform it live. Since then, it has been played a few times, using heavy vocal effects that keep Maynard from having to strain his voice with the actual screams.
  • Maynard was rather candid about the reason that "Maynard's Dick" is a hidden track on their box set Salival is because it's not good enough to get a real album release.
• Denial of Digital Distribution: The band initially resisted releasing their catalogue to streaming services, although in 2017 they were reported to be considering it, and finally did release their albums digitally in August 2019, just before the debut of Fear Inoculum.
• Digital Piracy Is Evil: Shortly before the release of Lateralus, the band released a fake album name and track list as a way to trip up music pirates.
• Follow the Leader: Inspired a wave of similar-sounding acts in, oddly enough, the Post-Grunge genre. Most of them didn't achieve much success.
• He Also Did: Adam Jones worked with visual effects in movies such as Ghostbusters II, Edward Scissorhands, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Jurassic Park (1993), an expertise he also employed in Tool's music videos.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Neither the 72826 demo nor the Salival box set have been released on streaming services when the band put their studio albums and Opiate EP in commemoration of Fear Inoculum.
• Lying Creator: Tool is known to spread misinformation about themselves as a way of preserving their mystique.
  • One of their most famous fibs was claiming to subscribe to a philosophy called "Lacrymology," the study of crying, from a book called The Joyful Guide to Lacrymology published in the 1940s. Lacrymology doesn't actually exist.
  • Another example applies to Lateralus, albeit for different reasons. The name of the album was "revealed" in January 2001 as Systema Encéphale, complete with a full track list. Cue dozens of bogus song files being uploaded on file-sharing networks. A month later, the actual album under the name Lateralus was released with a completely different track list. The whole Systema Encéphale thing was simply a prank played on music pirates.
  • On April 1, 2005, Maynard announced via the band's website that he was disbanding Tool after "finding God," outraging many fans. A couple days later, he proclaimed "April Fools!!!" and stated that the band was hard at work on their next album (which would be 2006's 10,000 Days). While he never outright confirmed this, it's pretty obvious he was spoofing Brian "Head" Welch's departure from Korn a couple months earlier.
  • Adam issued a false statement that the band's new 2014 album was complete. Fans were outraged when he said he was joking, although work on the album actually was going on at the time.
• Rarely Performed Song:
  • "Ticks & Leeches" from Lateralus features a lot of screaming, and its recording actually wrecked Maynard's voice for a couple of weeks. As a result, they very rarely play it live, and on the occasions that it is played, heavy electronic effects are added over Maynard's voice so he can sing it relatively normally but maintain its intensity.
  • "Rosetta Stoned" was one of the top 10 most-played songs in concert after the release of 10,000 Days in 2006, but has only been played four times from 2009 to 2023, when the track was resurrected for the band's Fall 2023 and Winter 2024 tours. The distorted, rapid-fire, almost stream-of-consciousness lyrics plus seven changes in time signature and inclusion of unconventional percussion instruments make it one of the most challenging songs in the catalogue for each band member, likely contributing to its decline in performances.
• Reclusive Artist: The band rarely make public appearances outside of live performances, Maynard in particular because he hates how famous musicians are deified and also because he's not particularly comfortable with fame to begin with. He takes this so far that in later tours, he tends to perform while standing at the back of the stage, silhouetted against a video screen.
• Saved from Development Hell: Fear Inoculum stalled for a long time due to Attention Deficit Creator Disorder, family obligations and a whole pileup of legal trouble. Hope only came in early 2019, when Maynard stated on Twitter that the music recording was complete and he just needed to add vocals, and the release date was finally announced at the band's May 8 show in Louisville, Kentucky.
• Tyop on the Cover: The dust jacket cover for the CD release of Lateralus which carries the track list spells the title track as "Lateralis". Unfortunately it's not a clever subversion of expectations (like "Ænema" from Ænima), it's just a typo.
• The Walrus Was Paul: This is a fundamental tenet of the band's output, and one of the main reasons why they don't release lyrics with the albums.
• What Could Have Been: According to a 2013 interview with Keenan on Marc Maron's podcast, he had befriended Bill Hicks in 1993. If not for Hicks's subsequent cancer diagnosis and eventual death, Hicks might've toured with Tool.
• Write What You Know:
  • A lot of Tool's lyrics can be summed up as "Maynard exploring his childhood traumas", especially his relationship with his invalid mother. Some of his earlier songs included military slang, due to his brief involvement in ROTC.
  • A fair amount of Lateralus can be interpreted as Maynard being frustrated about the band's label troubles at the time. "The Grudge", "Schism", and "Ticks & Leeches" all fit this theme.

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