Tool: The Ultimate Review (2008) - full transcript

[atmospheric electronic music]

- [Narrator] Distinctive,
uncompromising,

intelligent, experimental
and original,

American four-piece, Tool,

are one of the most startling

and innovative bands
in the world today.

Coming up to their
second decade in action,

their career so far has
encompassed elements

of heavy metal,
prog, electronica
and dark psychedelia,

creating a body of
work that is testament

to their incredible talent,
undying musical integrity



and forceful imagination.

- We're looking at the end times

through

this dark,

rhythmic,

powerful, free-form, conceptual

kind of music.

- It's like wow, my God,
these are great songs.

They were great from the
second that they had started.

- The studio environment
was as exciting

as I've been with any musicians.

I mean, working with these guys,

I realized very
quickly that they were

all extremely good musicians
and so that was thrilling.



- They had such a
strong sense of self

and such a deep belief
in what they were doing

and the feedback they were
getting from everybody,

that I think it was okay for
them to do something different.

[upbeat electronic rock music]

- [Narrator] In the late 1980's,

the four future members
of Tool all moved

to Los Angeles to pursue
their original ambitions.

Singer Maynard James Keenan
would relocate from Ohio,

drummer Danny Carey from Kansas,

guitarist Adam
Jones from Illinois,

and initial bassist Paul
D'Amour from Washington.

At the time, the City
of Angels was ruled

by musical fad that
was as far away

from the challenging music Tool

would eventually
produce as possible.

[audience cheers]
[glam metal music]

♪ Hearts of fire

♪ Ooh, streets of stone

♪ Modern warriors

♪ Saddle iron horses of chrome

♪ Taste the wild

♪ Lick the wind

- [Narrator] Since the mid-80's,

LA had largely been
dominated by glam metal.

Sunset Strip rockers who valued

their over the top
theatrics as much

as their musical ability.

Although the scene
had past its peak

by the time a new
decade was beginning,

it still seemed to be
the prevalent force

in American rock music.

Helped in no small part
by the cultural ubiquity

of superstars, Guns N Roses.

[heavy rock music]

♪ Welcome to the Jungle

♪ We got fun and games

♪ We got everything you want

♪ Honey we know the name

♪ We are the people
that can find ♪

♪ Whatever you may need

♪ If you got the money

♪ Honey we got your disease

- In Los Angeles
in the late 80's,

it was just all the mix

of

girl

glam and

some of the bands that were
kind of similar to Guns N Roses.

The Junkyards and
Asphalt Ballets

and

Trix and Circus.

Just a crazy time.

It was, everyone wanted
to be the next Motley Crue

or the next Guns N Roses.

- I loved what was goin' on.

I mean, I was right there.

Hair metal, thousands of
people on the Sunset Strip.

Never going home.

I ate it up but it was
certainly really exciting

while it was going on.

You know, 17 and
no rules and like,

it was just a
massive, crazy party.

- The late 80's and the
early 90's in Los Angeles

were the most loud, decadent,

culture

shocking

period essentially in rock n
roll over the last two decades.

You had Guns N Roses who'd
come out of Motley Crue

who'd come out of the area
and the Sunset Boulevard.

You could point to
this area as being

the vortex of a scene of music,

that was

being

accepted far beyond the
bounds of Los Angeles.

Tool's early records

were born out of that same
musical sort of fabric.

Aggressive,

ground breaking sort of music,

but they weren't
attached to a geography.

- [Narrator] The first inklings

of the individuality
and non-conformity

that would come to define Tool,

arose through the
work of another band.

Born in Buffalo, Bill Manspeaker

was another recent
arrival to Los Angeles.

His band Green Jello, a
comedy metal collective

named after the food people
would throw at them during gigs,

had become a fixture
of the Hollywood

underground music scene.

Expanding the number of members,

they would for a
short while recruit

both future Tool
pioneers Danny Carey

and Maynard James Keenan.

It would be a
fitting early start

for artists who are resolutely
out of the ordinary.

- I was living in Buffalo,
people were throwing food at me,

and it was cold and I decided,
I just wanted to be warm.

So I had bought myself
a Los Angeles newspaper

and I was going through it,

looking for a job, how
much are apartments?

And I saw this add for this
show called The Gong Show,

which was a variety
show, and you went on

and if they didn't like you,

they hit this big
gong and you lost.

I was like, wow, this a perfect
thing for my band to be on.

I could get gonged
and I could prove

I'm the worst band in the world.

So I got in my car and drove
all the way to Los Angeles

and I played at the audition,

and the next thing you
know I'm on the show.

- Okay, let's watch
this first act,

and when they're finish we're
gonna ask 'em what they did?

Here's Green Jello.

[audience applauds]

[upbeat rock music]

♪ It's a great pumpkin

♪ He's raising up out
of the pumpkin patch ♪

[Bill screams]

♪ Rock n roll pumpkin
♪ Say it again

♪ Rock n roll pumpkin
♪ Say it again

♪ Rock n roll pumpkin
♪ Say it again

[gong booms]

[orchestral music]

[drum roll]

- [Announcer] Look what you
did to these people, these.

Hey, come on, up here we go.

Yeah, Green Jello.

This is a terrific act.

I find versatility with this.

I find all kinds
of great things.

You've been gonged,

and I really think that's
what they were here for.

Here, let me point
you right over here.

Here ya go.

There goes a little Green Jello.

Thank you very much.

Yeah, that was good, wow.

How are ya?

Okay,
[orchestral music]

yeah.

- Because I'm on the show,
other people have seen it,

then I started
playing these clubs,

and so all of a sudden,
there's this huge,

like, Motley Crue, heavy metal,

poofy hair scene
thing that's goin' on,

and now I'm playing at the club,

being completely horrible
with these big, giant costumes

of farm animals like
cows, pigs, chickens.

People are throwing food
at me saying that we suck,

and it just threw
off this whole,

you know, heavy metal
thing that was goin' on

cause all of sudden there
was this weird thing

that was disturbing
it all, you know?

Green Jello, what
the hell is this,

they suck, oh, it's kinda funny.

So

we were sort of embraced

by the weird metal scene
because we were so freakish.

Adam Jones, the
guitar player for Tool

would always come
and see our band.

Adam was a special effects guy.

He worked at Stan Winston's.

So one his friends
said, oh, you gotta

see this weird costume band.

So, Adam started comin' around,

and me and him
had become friends

and we started hanging out,

and Adam and Maynard
were friends,

and I had this big gigantic loft

that we all lived
in in Hollywood.

And Maynard just
needed a place to live.

He just moved into
town and I was like,

yeah, sure, you know,
come on over here,

and he immediately
joined Green Jello

and he was one of the singers,

and Danny Carey was the
drummer in the band,

and we use have our own
parties at our studio.

And

one day, Maynard was just tired
of working at the pet store,

and he said, you know what?

Let me make up a
band for the party

and

maybe I'll get signed to this
$300,00 dollar record deal.

[heavy rock music]

[water bubbles]

- [Narrator] Green Jello,
later rebranded Green Jelly,

would persevere with their less

than serious artistic stance,

and would go on to see
substantial success.

Maynard and Danny had moved
on by this point, however.

And in 1990, the
first incarnation

of Tool had officially
come together.

A state of affairs which bore
witness to perfect timing.

A change in cultural
consensus would soon mean

that not fitting into
the glam metal scene

would be a very smart move.

In the early 90's, the record
buying audience grew tired

of hairspray and histrionics,

and were looking for
something with more substance.

- [Interviewer] Well what do
you think about interviews?

- It's a pretty good magazine.
- [laughs] What do I think?

- It's really good.
- Did you hear my reaction

when he asked me if
I wanted to do one?

- [Interviewer] Yeah.

- I said, fuck no.
- I know.

I said, heck no.
- We were, we were...

[heavy rock music]

- [Narrator] An alternative
rock resurgence began.

Spearheaded by
grunge band Nirvana,

who's massive success purveyed
an unmistakable call to arms.

It was okay to be angry.

It was okay to be intelligent,

and it was okay to be different.

To a young group like Tool,

this new American
musical landscape

was an open door to opportunity.

- That whole thing came up,

I mean you could feel that
surge of something different,

and I mean it all
escalated in around '90,

end of '91 with Nirvana.

I mean, that set the tone

for the acceptance
of those bands.

Around the end of '91, it was,

you know, you were seeing
bands like Fishbone and Primus,

but definitely once Nirvana hit,

that kind of music
became more accepting

and it kind of was,
it shut the door,

I know it's cliched to say this.

It's been said so many times,

but it did shut the
door on those Warrants

and the Skid Rows
and the Poisons

that were definitely
prevalent in 1990,

and after '91, after
October of '91,

that's stuff was, you know?

- I could definitely
see the importance.

If you're emerging and
you're doing something new,

and you're looking for
reasons to believe in it,

more than what's
going on already.

It was quite different,

and I don't think a
lot of outside forces

necessarily believed in it.

So I think it was
probably an advantage

to the people who

had sort of just
moved on so rapidly.

I mean, like Pearl Jam, Nirvana.

Like all that sort of
Seattle, the grunge.

It couldn't be more different
than what was going on.

- In the early days, Tool
were compared to Nirvana

because Nirvana was of course

the big thing that was going on.

The breakthrough
music of the time,

and Tool had some elements
of loud, aggressive music

and

teenage angst and
artistic delivery.

There were certain parallels,

and it was an interesting
place for the band to be in.

At the same time,
they never really felt

like they were part of that,

and they never really felt
like part of anything,

which was really, I
think, to their benefit

because they've
always been able to,

to kind of transcend what's
going on around them,

and just kind of
create their own thing

while still tapping into
elements of what works

and what's popular
and what they like.

- [Narrator] Tool wasted no time

in making a name for themselves.

Gigging heavily and putting
together a demo tape,

it only took a couple
of months for them

to attract a
significant following.

- Ah, they recorded their
first demo on a four-track.

On a little cassette,
handwritten.

They recorded four songs

and

he played 'em for me.

I was like, wow, my God,
these are great songs.

They were great from the
second that they had started.

You didn't have to lie about it.

You know, when you
tell your friends,

oh, that's a great song.

They were really good songs,

and I played the hell
out of that cassette.

I'd bring it to
work and I'd play it

and everybody at work loved it,

and we just had a
party and Tool played

at the part at the house.

We had a keg and
everybody was drinking,

and some of my friends
from the record company

came over that I knew.

- They actually got the
deal from the record label

after playing
seven or eight gigs

because their shows
were so outlandish,

and so different than everything
else that was going on.

So even if the A&R
people didn't understand

what they were trying to do,

they knew that they were
onto something different.

- [Narrator] With the
attention of record company

executives snared,

Tool signed to
Zoo Entertainment,

and it was in March 1992

that they unveiled
their debut release.

An EP entitled Opiate.

This short, six song
introduction to the
world of the band

would lay down the
framework for what

was to be a remarkable
creative journey.

[heavy rock music]

♪ Fuck you

- I was the editor
of Rip Magazine,

and I got invited up
to Zoo Entertainment

and I was in an office.

Lou Maglia, Lou Maglia,
he was the president

of the co, and
everybody at that time

wanted me to hear
their stuff early.

And he closed his doors
and he put on that Opiate.

Like,

this is what we got Lon.

You write about metal,
your magazine's the best.

And he played me that.

I mean, that's early.

This is like,

this is before all the texture

and evolution came to
Tool but you could hear.

[heavy rock music]

♪ People tell me what to say.

♪ What to think
and what to play ♪

♪ I said, people
tell me what to say ♪

♪ What to think
and what to play ♪

♪ Just kidding

- It wasn't really a
full album, it was an EP,

and in that respect it wasn't
your traditional EP either.

They had a few studio
cuts which were songs

that they'd been playing
out live for a while

and had been able to hone,

and then they also had
a couple of live songs

that they decided
to throw in the mix.

It's interesting, I
think it was Danny

who told me that they
weren't really confident

with where they
were at at the time

and they really
didn't wanna spend

a lot of money in the studio
working on this material,

and they knew full well,

that if the label
gave them studio time,

they were gonna be responsible

for paying that back
in the long run.

So they really wanted
to get in and get out

and bash out what they
could and kinda move on.

There's an interesting
story behind

that album as well
that Adam had told me,

and he said that
instead of coming out

with a full fledged
debut full length album,

they decided, well why
don't we do something

that's a little bit scaled down

and do an EP and when
they went to the label,

the label said, great,
EP sounds perfect,

but the justification
for the label

was that by having
the band do an EP,

it wouldn't count against
their contract as a full album,

and they'd still be
obligated to do that album.

So to him that was
his first indication

that the record industry
doesn't always have

your best interest in mind.

- [Narrator] With Opiate
gathering critical acclaim,

Tool further raised
their profile

by touring extensively
with groups

such as The Rollins Band and
Rage Against The Machine.

Contemporaries who shared
their no compromise,

anti-establishment veneer.

- They were really taken
under Henry Rollins wing,

and that's really I
think where they made

the first mark for
themselves with an audience

outside of the California scene.

At the time there
was a nice network

of kind of counterculture bands

that had been signed to
mainstream album labels.

So there was sort of a
subversion from within

and

it was a good time for bands

to kind of build themselves up

and still have this sort of
anti-establishment ethos.

- [Narrator] Tool would
also tour alongside

prominent Californian
alt-rock band Failure.

Drummer Kelli Scott
had joined Failure

only three weeks before
hitting the road with Tool,

and found his indoctrination
into the live circuit

accompanied by the most
unconventional of tour mates.

It would prove an eye opening

and attitude
changing experience.

- It happened really quick.

It was like, one day
I heard of this band,

started playing with
them and all of a sudden

we were on the road for a
long, extended period of time,

which up until then, I
had really never done.

I'd been

all around Hollywood and stuff

and done certainly
tons of gigs and stuff,

but nothing, never
nothing like that.

Where you have to get a passport

and everyone's speaking
a different language

and you're seeing
a bunch of stuff

that you were never even
really able to imagine.

Their not your normal,
run-of-the-mill
rock band of excess.

There was always an underlying
sense of seriousness.

It was refreshing

cause I had sort
of by that point

was

starting to,

the excess, and the girls,

and money and all those
things that originally

provoked me to
start playing music,

just kind of lost their zest.

That couldn't have
been the only thing

I was gonna get out of it,

and being around people
finally who were really serious

about the musical aspect of it

really started me
asking questions,

which sort of led me to believe

that I had a much
larger potential

than just being another like

careless, irresponsible,

rock guy who needed
to be taken care off.

- [Narrator] This
seriousness and ambition

to which Tool
applied themselves,

would come to
fruition on Undertow.

Their 1993 debut
full-length album.

Heavier in sound and tone
than their proceeding EP,

it was an interesting
starting point

to what would later emerge,
and would be overseen

by former Green Jelly
producer, Sylvia Massey.

[heavy rock music]

♪ It took so long to
remember just what happened ♪

♪ And I was so young
and vestal then ♪

♪ You knew it hurt me

♪ But I'm breathing so I
guess I'm still alive ♪

- Danny was very happy
with working with Sylvia.

I think she was able
to act as an engineer

and get the sound out of
the band that it needed.

By contrast, Adam has said

that he really doesn't
think of Sylvia Massey

as someone who really can
bring out the best in the band,

and that she's not
able to kind of work

with their creative

ideas and step
outside of the box,

and work to create
something bigger

than what they sort of
originally had in mind.

On it's own, there are some
really great songs there.

Sober and Prison Sex
are really powerful,

potent and visceral tunes that
stand the test of time, yeah.

[heavy rock music]

- Sober kind of
reminds me of Kashmir

which is one of my favorite
Led Zeppelin songs.

Just really like hypnotic.

I love when something gets you

in a vibe and keeps you there.

[heavy rock music]

♪ There's a shadow
just behind me ♪

♪ Shrouding every step I take

♪ Making every promise empty

- I guess when they
were writing it,

they didn't feel it necessarily

to like take you
through all these twists

and turns and, you know,
just really simple.

It's certainly one of their
more straight forward songs,

and it makes perfect sense why

as an introduction to a
band like Tool it caught on,

and sort of like gave I think
the people who were just

being turned on to them like

a nice small taste
of what was to come

cause I imagine most
of 'em heard the song

and then went and
got the record.

- That album is really
the closest they came

to being more of a
mainstream, you know,

grunge slash
alternative rock band.

It's also the album
that broke them.

They did extremely well with it,

and it enabled
them to then go on

and

take further steps.

I think it's really
a great album,

but I think more than anything

it foreshadowed the greater
things that were to come.

- I lived Undertow with Tool.

You know what I mean?

I know what most of
those songs are about.

A lot of those songs is Maynard

figuring out things that
have happened to him

in his past, his future
and his beginning,

and he sort of blurts
all this stuff out.

They're very like
painstaking songs for him.

- People make their own choices.

That's the bottom line, I think.

To me, it's kinda
like, those kind

of frustrations, that kind

of social frustration

that comes about.

People lashing out.

It's because of
unaddressed aggressions,

repressed emotions,
that kinda stuff.

So to me when you see some movie

about somebody just doing
some horrific deeds.

In a way, by watching the movie,

you have related
to and expressed

that emotion or that desire,

and therefore you
don't need to go do it.

Kinda like, it's like kinda
letting the steam out in a way,

but the more you
repress it and deny it,

the more it's gonna
come up somewhere

and it's not gonna be
pretty when it happens,

and it'll be real
when it happens,

rather than just a book or
story of film or a song.

So I think it's important
cause it doesn't,

we have all of those nasty
things that you read about

or come up with or see in a film

or hear about in a
song, those are in you,

and if you deny those
things are in you,

they're gonna come,
they're gonna bite ya.

- Opiate and Undertow,
they're both great records,

but when you compare
'em to the other records

that they've just put it,

it's almost like
two different bands.

You would assume that they're
weren't the same at all.

- [Narrator] The
most significant step

in Tool's evolution to
enigmatic rock icons

took place in September 1995.

In the lead up to the recording
of their second album,

bassist Paul D'Amour
left the band,

to be replace by with British
musician, Justin Chancellor.

- The real watershed was the
dismissal of Paul D'Amour

who was sort of holding
back the sessions

and preventing Tool from
blossoming, I think,

into a more creative,
experimental and
psychedelic band.

The addition of Justin
Chancellor to the lineup,

I think was that
ingredient that they needed

cause I think he and
Adam really vibed

on the

sort of experimental

approach to music.

- [Narrator] The more complex
and experimental directions

which Tool were
branching out into,

would necessitate the
recruitment of a new producer.

The more functional
stylings of Sylvia Massey

were abandoned in favor
of David Bottrill,

who by this point had
worked with luminaries

such as Brian Eno, Peter
Gabriel and King Crimson.

- They called me up.

They called up my
manager in England

and said they were
interested in talking with me

about doing work on their album.

They sent me Undertow.

I had never really done anything

of the sort of

LA metal or that kind of heavy,

King Crimson was the
heaviest thing I'd done,

but that really
wasn't, wasn't heavy

or a metal style of music.

So I kinda thought they had me
confused with somebody else,

and my manager had
said, yeah they're

a really hot band at the moment.

The only people who
are gonna get a look in

at producing this
record are people

that are kinda kicking
their door down.

So I said, well
I like the music,

but it's not really something
that I know that much about,

so maybe I'm kinda on their
list but way down at the bottom

and it's not gonna
really matter that much,

so don't worry about it that
much if they don't call back.

Well a week later
they did call back,

and said, no we know who he is

and we don't wanna sound like
every other LA metal band.

We wanna be different.

So we really wanna talk to him,

and they detailed the
records that I had done

that they all listened to.

Maynard was really into a lot

of the world music records
that I had done at Real World.

Danny, again, King Crimson,
a real disciple of Bruford,

had heard the King
Crimson stuff,

and Adam, his favorite record

of the last two or three years

had been that David Sylvian,
Robert Fripp record that I did.

So they were very specific
about wanting to work with me.

I went over, sat in
on some rehearsals

and we hit it off well,

and I liked what I heard and
I thought I could contribute,

so we started off the
Aenima record right away.

- [Narrator] Bottrill's
involvement with King Crimson

forged a unique
creative symbiosis.

Tool had long been influenced
by the work of the band,

and with their scope
and ambition growing,

this inspiration began to filter
through like never before.

[atmospheric progressive rock]

- You can sight their
inspiration musically,

which was

the progressive
bands of the 70's.

Most

acutely

King Crimson.

Tool harkens King Crimson.

Harkens the
improvisational vibe.

Harkens the aggressive rhythm

and

the no boundaries sort of
appeal that their music has.

That they're not
feeding into anything.

- I think Adam had
listened to a lot

to the playing of Robert Fripp,

and Danny was a real disciple

of Bill Bruford's
style of playing.

A lot of the Simmons
Pads that Danny had

were straight out of what
Bill had started working with,

and the way that they
would individually write

and work on their
parts using the same

kind of textures and the
same kind of time signatures.

Adam I suppose and
the band in Tool,

they write in that way.

King Crimson is more,
they practice a lot

and then it's
improvisational throughout.

[atmospheric progressive rock]

So there's a difference
in the style of writing,

but Adam, I think, and
the band kind of write

in the way that Robert
and King Crimson

rehearse and practice and then

when King Crimson play
the song, perr, that's it.

It's like, it's an
improvisational thing

and they usually have sections

where it's all, play what
you like kind of thing.

Listen to everybody else
but play what you like.

And in the Tool world
it's more worked out.

It's like, this is
how the riff goes

and this how we're playing it,

and then there's room for
improvisation a bit around it,

but they work very
hard on their parts

and how they interlock and
how they work together.

So it's kind of,

their writing

is not.

The writing process is similar,

their documentation
and recording process

is a little different.

- [Narrator] Tool's King
Crimson influence spread beyond

the mere specifics of each band.

Crimson along with other
major Tool influences

such as Pink Floyd and Genesis,

had long been categorized under

the label of progressive rock.

With their expansive and
complex new studio work,

Tool were making
the daring move,

and have been ever since,

of incorporating prog elements

into the relatively
straightforward field of metal.

- See this is the
thing about metal.

We believe that
it's a brotherhood.

Where

it's our music.

We wear the shirts.

We grow the hair.

We smoke the reefer,
we drink the beer.

Whatever stereotype
you wanna attach to it.

We own it, it's ours,

and if you're gonna
come into our community,

we have to embrace you.

It's kind of a closed community.

I never believed prog
was a closed community.

I believe prog was open.

Tool, I looked at as sort of a,

a modern

fusion

of the 70's

prog

and

modern metal.

And then I look at
Radiohead as the 70's prog

and modern alternative.

So that's why to me,

they're two of the
most important bands

in modern rock history.

The fact that Maynard is
this mysterious character

is very consistent

with

his hero, Robert Fripp.

That defines to me
a real creative soul

who isn't just

borrowing but putting it
into their own new voice.

- Well, we set the
precedent right away.

Our music isn't
necessarily something

that you just put on
and tap your foot to.

It's definitely more of
an interactive process.

So right away the entire fan
base that we've developed

over the last ten years, it's
been those kind of people,

and it kind of spread
out from there.

So that we set the
precedent initially.

It wasn't about jumping up and
down to some catchy phrase.

It was about connecting
with the music,

listening

and respecting

these people as artists

and having, and listening
with an artist's ears.

So I would say
majority of our crowd,

they're artists
in their own way.

So they have respect
for what we do.

They're very forgiving.

They listen with their hearts.

Rather than just
show up like cattle.

- It's almost postmodern.

It's Like apocalyptic modern.

Gothic modern.

The Hans Giger modern.

We're looking at the end times

through

this dark,

rhythmic, powerful,

free-form, conceptual

kind of music.

- [Narrator] With such influence

and creative impetus
spurring them on,

the recording sessions
for Tool's second album

saw the band
hitting their stride

with a swagger and confidence

that hadn't quite
manifested in earlier work.

- I had totally
remember them going

in the studio and recording it,

and then I went over and
when they were in the studio,

and I listened to it and
I was like, oh my God.

- The studio environment
was as exciting

as I'd been with any musicians.

I mean, working with these guys,

I realized very quickly

that they were all
extremely good musicians

and so that was thrilling.

To be able to record that

and to watch the
performances of that.

That's my favorite
part of recording

is watching the great
and recording the
great performances.

That's so much fun.

Everybody had their
little station.

Everybody had their
place where they'd setup.

Justin would setup in one booth

and Maynard was in another,

and Adam was in another,

but they still had great
musical communication,

and they knew their stuff.

When they played it down,

it was like, man, three takes

and we just had to edit between

what was the greatest of
the great performances

and then start our
overdub process.

It was really nice to, and
painless to record really

cause they were
such good musicians.

- [Narrator] Released
in October, 1996,

Aenima was as huge
a leap forward

from Undertow as
could be imagined,

and was instrumental
in establishing Tool

as a fully fledged
cult phenomenon.

- Aenima was the
breakthrough record.

Maybe not Tool's best record,

but it was the record
that really showed

that they could
step out of the box,

take

liberties with
sonic experiments.

♪ Something has to change

♪ Undeniable dilemma

♪ Boredom's not a burden

♪ Anyone should bear

♪ Constant over stimulation

♪ Numbs me

♪ But I would not want
you any other way ♪

- There's some, you
know, really interesting

industrial passages
on the record.

A lot of little segue-ways that
kind of create this tension

and create this new
sense of atmosphere.

- Also they went from
aggressive three minute songs

to these

complicated,

you laid down and you
could see all your problems

being solved in your head
by listening to the music.

♪ Yeah, time to
bring it down again ♪

♪ Yeah don't just
call me a pessimist ♪

♪ Try and read
between the lines ♪

♪ And I can't imagine
why you wouldn't ♪

- It went from
aggressive to sexual.

It just, all of the
sudden their music

just engulfed not only your body

but your brain and your soul,

and it made you feel positive.

[heavy rock music]

- One thing that's
interesting about Aenima

is that there's a lot
of use of electronics

and things that they
hadn't gone into before.

It also really exhibits
Maynard's sense
of humor, I think.

Especially on one track,
and on this track there's

a lot of little chaotic noises

and

Germanic

screaming,

and it sounds like a
really vicious track

with perhaps
Einsturzende Neubaten

playing at a, you know, Nazi
Youth rally or something.

[industrial music]
[singing in foreign language]

The interesting thing about that

is when you find out
what the lyrics are,

to translate the German,

it's a recipe for I
believe Spanish cookies

or truffles or something
of that respect.

Something completely innocuous,

and

it really reveals
that side of the band

that I think
sometimes is missing.

I mean, people are
very tapped into

the spiritual side and the
enigmatic side of the band,

but the sense of humor I
think sometimes goes untapped.

- [Narrator] Tool's trademark
affinity for dark humor

was reflected both inside
and outside the Aenima album.

Maynard James Keenan
had long been a fixture

within the LA comedy
performer community,

and would feature in programs
such as HBO's Mr. Show.

Also working on Mr. Show would
be composer Eban Schletter,

who would be responsible for one

of Aenima's more
bizarre interludes.

- I'd played around in a bunch

of punk rock bands
before moving to LA,

and the way I ended
up coming to LA

was playing in comedy shows.

I was in a band
with Laura Milligan,

and she started a comedy club.

It was a club called
the Diamond Club.

She started a show
called Tantrum

that was based on a
fictional character.

She played a character

who was a ex-child actor
who had gone through rehab

and was now trying to
do poetry readings,

and she always had this
mythical, asshole boyfriend,

and Maynard ended up being that,

playing the boyfriend later,

and that's when he first
heard me play organ.

Was at Tantrum and
cause that was,

I was just sort of just setting
up the mood for the shows

with these cheesy organ
renditions of Green Day,

and then I'd mix
it up with like,

a Burl Ives children's song.

Maybe go from you know
just weird, Nino Rota,

and Maynard was
one of the people

who would actually recognize,

hey, he went from
Little White Duck

to you know,
whatever weird thing.

Basically, having heard me play
all this cheesy organ stuff,

they were like, hey, we're
working on this record.

It's really long,

and they realized
given the length

they should have an
intermission to break it up,

and having heard
me play at Tantrum,

they thought, asked
me to do that.

So I was like, sure.

And I had no idea
that it was gonna

end up being on this
record that was so awesome.

[upbeat organ music]

And they asked, hey, do fun,

little, goofy
organ intermission.

Oh, that sounds like fun,

and then when you see
what the context is,

it's just way heavier
and funny still,

but heavy at the same time.

- [Narrator] As a further

and more prevalent link
to underground comedy,

the album itself was dedicated

to infamous stand-up
comedian, Bill Hicks,

who had died of
pancreatic cancer

two years earlier in 1994,

and who's routines would be
sampled on the track Third Eye.

Hicks had become good
friends with the band

and supported them at live
shows on several occasions.

Of a similar
anti-establishment slant,

and covering many
of the same themes,

many fans now see the
work of Hicks and Tool

as being creatively synonymous.

- [Bill Hicks] On
December 16, 1961,

the world turned upside
down, then inside out,

and I was born
screaming in America.

[horse's hooves clop]

It was tail end of
the American Dream.

Just before we lost our
innocence irrevocably

when the TV eye brought
the horror of our lives

into our homes for all to see.

[horse's hooves clop]

- In 1992, I was promoting

a cassette

I had called I Wish You Were
You So I Could Make Love To Me.

It was a stand-up cassette,

and we used to hit all
the stand-up open mics

in LA which was a place called
The Natural Fudge Company,

and that's where I met
Maynard for the first time,

and he was putting his name,

and even though Tool were,
you know, known in LA,

he still would go and do
open mics as a stand-up

cause he's very
influenced by Bill Hicks,

and for those people who
don't know who Bill Hicks was,

came out of Houston, Texas.

One of the outlaws of comedy.

He started with Sam
Kinison, Brett Butler.

When Brett Butler
first saw him as kid,

he started when he
was 15 years old.

He made most comics not
even wanna do comedy.

Can you imagine what he
was like in his late 20's?

Brilliant.

So Maynard James Keenan's
a brilliant mind,

Bill Hicks is a brilliant mind,

and I think Maynard couldn't
do stand-up like Bill Hicks,

but he was trying
and he was trying

to get his ideologies out,

and I remember seeing him
onstage at The Natural Fudge

just kind of riffing and
trying to come up with,

just riffing on
things of the day.

Kind of how Bill Hicks was,

but it wasn't, of course,

put in a way how Bill
Hicks could not only

philosophize on
something but put it

into a way, a manner
that would be funny.

- Stupid law.

How many of y'all wondered
like I did during the LA riots

when those people
were being pulled out

of their trucks and
beaten half to death,

how many of y'all
wondered like I did,

step on the fucking gas, man.

[audience laughs]

- There's definitely a parallel

between the music of Tool
and the comedy of Bill Hicks,

and it's not just them as an
individual band and a comic.

It's a general sensibility
towards the world as an artist.

With Bill Hicks and Tool,
they both have that,

that what I can say is maybe
psychedelic view of the world.

A deep, sort of spiritual
sense but with humor

and, but it can
also be very dark

cause a psychedelic experience

is gonna have a dark side to it.

It's not just, whoo, flowers.

There's,

when a sort of the
truth of the world

is revealed to you, it has
some ugliness to it, too,

and both of those guys,
both of them got that.

Bill Hicks gets
that, Tool gets that,

and their music
really reflects that.

It's completely psychedelic.

That's what blew me
away about Aenima,

and that's I think
also the jumping point

between Undertow and Aenima

is the level of
psychedelia in it.

Aenima's totally trippy.

- [Bill Hicks] See, I
think drugs have done

some good things
for us, I really do.

And if you don't believe drugs

have done good things for us,

do me a fovor, go home tonight,

take all your albums,
all your tapes

and all your CD's and burn 'em

cause you know what?
The musicians who made

all that great music

that's enhanced your lives
throughout the years,

real fucking high on drugs.

[audience laughs]

[atmospheric rock music]

- Bill Hicks popularity,
unfortunately,

came toward, before
he passed away

and it all came to a head
through Lollapalooza,

and it was one of the last
shows that they had done.

He was to open up for Tool,

and what he did was
something Maynard

would do later on in shows,

is that he got up on stage
and one of the bits was,

I lost my contact lens,

can you help me find it?

Funny to watch all
these idiots try to find

a contact lens

on a fucking

auditor, or 60,000 people.

So, Maynard actually
did that later on.

So you could tell
he was influenced

by what Bill Hicks was doing.

Probably wanted to do stand-up,

but I know for a fact he did

cause I saw him do open mics,

but obviously by
that time, I mean,

what would your rather be?

Even though he didn't
like rock stars.

A stand-up comic where you're
struggling at open mics

or going in front and
playing to 60,000 people?

I think he picked the
latter on that one, so.

- [Narrator] Despite
all of these elements

of comedy within
Tool's aesthetic,

the events of the next few years

would prove anything
but humorous.

A legal battle began
with their record label

which only found itself
resolved in 1998.

While in 2000, another
court case was launched.

This time revolving around
the band's ex-manager.

These trials and
tribulations were proving

deeply detrimental to
health of the group.

A break from Tool was needed.

While Adam Jones and Danny Carey

went and played with
respective side projects

featuring The
Melvins Buzz Osbourne

and The Dead Kennedys
Jello Biafra.

Maynard James Keenan
would join a new band

founded by Tool guitar
tech, Billy Howerdel.

A Perfect Circle
would surprise many

by becoming a huge success
in their own right.

[heavy rock music]

♪ Oh so many ways
for me to show you ♪

♪ How your savior
has abandoned you ♪

♪ Fuck your God

- I would have never
guessed out of all

the tens of thousands
of people I had met

in Los Angeles that
were all talented.

I would never, ever
expect that first of all

he'd pull off Tool, then
he'd pull off Perfect Circle

which was completely
different from Tool.

[heavy rock music]

♪ It's not like you drove

♪ A hateful spear
into his side ♪

♪ Praise the one who left you

♪ Broken down and paralyzed

♪ He did it all for you

- In the case of Maynard
and A Perfect Circle,

I think he had a lot
of creative energy

that he needed to
expand and they were,

at the time,

legally prevented
from or prohibited

from doing or releasing
any recordings.

So Maynard had things to say

and needed to find
another place to say them,

and you know, Billy was his
roommate and guitar tech,

and

had started this project
and approached Maynard

and he was like,
yeah, if I can't say

what I wanna say here in
Tool, then I need to do this.

♪ Recall the deeds
as if they're all ♪

♪ Someone else's

♪ Atrocious

♪ Stories

♪ And now you stand
reborn before us all ♪

♪ So glad to see you well

[atmospheric rock music]

- He didn't expect it
to do as well as it did.

The first album blew up

and that really took
him by surprise,

and then he was faced
with a situation

of okay, well my priority
still has to be Tool,

but this side project
is really blossomed

into a successful venture
that I want to tour with.

So where do we go from here?

And that of course didn't

create anymore

friendliness between the
respective band members.

- It might have
provided and impetus

to try and get things moving,

and bring that
stage of their lives

and careers to a conclusion.

So that they could then
do another Tool record.

A lot of people
at the time said,

oh, this is the harbinger of
the end of Tool and everything.

Well we found that's not true,

and I think with
a band like Tool,

that have set
themselves up to do

these kind of spaced out
recordings and albums

that a take awhile to do
and take awhile to write.

So that there's room for
people to do other things.

I mean, Adam does
a lot of film work.

Does some directing, does
some things in there.

Justin has interests
in other areas,

and Danny plays in a
bunch of different things

and does lots of different,

so I think that they're
all very, very strong

individuals

with a lot to say,

and

I think with a band like Tool,

that is, again,
setup to do things

over long periods of time,

they need to get their
creativity out in other ways

and I think that it's healthy.

- [Narrator] It was in late 2000

that Tool finally regrouped

to start work on
their next album.

With their ambitions once more

pointing towards
the stratosphere,

they looked back to the
monumental progress with Aenima,

and decided to work once
more with David Bottrill.

It would be noticeably
different experience

than that of half
a decade earlier.

- I think the atmosphere
within the band had changed.

You have to remember that
they had gone through

an extraordinarily
stressful time

in-between those two records.

They, a lot of their core
personal, not within the band,

but just on the outside of
the band and they're support,

they

had to change for
various reasons,

and

there was a lot of,

a lot of internal
stress within the band.

- It is satisfying just to know

that we were

like, had the strength

and

I guess the courage to maintain

a relationship with each other.

Instead of, I mean, it's tough.

It's tough to stay married just

with a person for ten years,

let alone stay married
to three people.

You know, for ten years.

It's hard, we've had one
change along the way. [laughs]

But it's all worked out.

- Worked out for the better.
- Yeah.

- That's what it was about.

It was about them
separating, getting distance

from each other, but
then all of a sudden

them realizing that

the pieces do fit.

And actually it sort
of helped me personally

in my life to just
say, you know what?

Maybe it is better to
work out stuff with people

than it is to hold
aggression towards them

because the time that you waste

holding aggression towards them,

is time that you are losing
being creative with them.

- They were just better at doing

the things that they were
working on on Aenima.

I think their writing was a
little bit more exploratory.

I think they were, again,
pushing the boundaries

of where they could
go in the style

that they were working on.

I think it was
kinda the pinnacle

of where they were
going along that path.

- It wasn't so much
really a five year weight.

It was,

we made a record and we toured
on it for about two years.

Got into some legal hassles.

Needed a short break.

I started working with my
roommate Billy Howerdel

on A Perfect Circle
and that took off

way more than we thought
it was gonna take off.

So I mean, you kind of
have to give it it's due.

So we just kinda

use that as our break

and that was only for like
nine months or a year.

So the actual break that we took

was when I was off
with A Perfect Circle,

and then we got right back to
work and the record's done.

- We were keeping busy
in our different ways.

We all have projects
we have working on.

I mean,

Adam's doing nonstop art.

I'm always jamming with
different friends and what not.

I mean, five years is
awhile when it goes by.

I think if anything we
probably just learned

a lot more about each
other and how to get along

and keep the band together.

Which is a lot more than all
of our contemporaries did

pretty much who started
at the same time as us.

Like Rage, Helmet, Soundgarden,

Nirvana.

Every, pretty much
everyone from that era

is gone now except us.

- We just kind of, we kind
of pulled the secret maneuver

and none of 'em really did.

[Danny laughs]
Which was

like a process of communication.

There's a whole band dedicated

to the idea and it's
called Circle Jerks.

We all just got naked

and

worked it out.

- [Narrator] Tool's
third full-length album

would be released in May 2001.

Once more epic in
scope, the running time

being two seconds short of
the maximum capacity for a CD.

Lateralus saw Tool enter
the American charts straight

at number one and further staked

their claim as the
modern ambassadors

for art based
progressive rock music.

[heavy rock music]

♪ I know the pieces fit

♪ Cause I watched
them fall away ♪

♪ Mildewed and smoldering

♪ Fundamental differing

- Well I think with Lateralus,

they really wanted
to take things

into a much more
expansive direction.

I think there's a lot more
experimentation on that record.

A lot more kind of
atmospheric indulgences

and certainly the progressive

side of the band

became a lot more important.

The singles on Lateralus

are

really

a powerful and almost
encapsulate the
rest of the album

because they're not
pop singles per se,

and Schism is a very turbulent

and loud and kind of crazy song,

and in some ways you
hear it on the radio

and your like, what the hell
is this doing on rock radio?

This is so unlike anything
by Nickleback or Filter

or Three Days Grace or whatever.

It's just

so emblematic of who they are

and that they're able to
take these left turns.

[heavy rock music]

♪ Between

♪ Supposed

♪ Lovers

- They really took things
out into left field

and just showed how far they
could stretch boundaries.

- There was a definite

intension

to make

it as

full as possible.

I don't know that it was
a conscious decision.

It's just to had all that
material that they wanted to,

and all those things
that they wanted to say.

Parabola was always my favorite

in that in the world of Tool,

it was kind of

one of the oasis of

sort of normality in a way.

It was sort of the
least challenging or
least unique song.

Even though sonically
and within the music

there was still
very interesting,

and very like, still
more than any kind

of other similar
tune that somebody

might write in that style.

♪ So familiar

♪ And overwhelmingly

♪ Warm

♪ This one

- There was something
about that melody

and they ways those guitar
parts and the tone of it.

The way that he had the
tone all rolled down.

It was down in C and it was very

kind of dark and very Sabbathy.

[atmospheric rock music]

- I think that's their most
incredible album musically.

It maybe not as
immediate or listenable

as

Undertow or Anemia,

but if you listen
with an open mind

and you're willing to kind
of go along for the ride,

it really takes
you on a journey,

and I think a very
powerful and spiritual one.

- They wanted to make
a grand statement.

Coming back after
so much time, again,

between records and
they had a lot to say.

They had a lot of
emotion built up

that cathartically got
released on that record.

- [Narrator] One of
the most remarkable

aspects of Lateralus would
be the cover artwork.

While previous Tool albums

had certainly been
visually distinctive,

this third release took Tool's

visionary aesthetic into
a league of its own.

The concept, a
translucent sleeve

featuring various
layers of the human body

would also mark the beginning

of the band's
creative relationship

with hugely distinctive
artist, Alex Grey.

- Adam Jones

came to one of my
art exhibits out in

Los Angeles.

He was talking about a concept
for their next record album.

He introduced this idea of
kind of an anatomy chart,

and he knew my work,

but his

thinking has always been

also examining the body
and examining the spirit

and the psyche and
all these things.

So we have a lot in common,

and

I had always wanted to do

a kind of flip chart
of the anatomy, too,

but

both the body and soul.

I did a few concept drawings

and things for the
Lateralus album.

I had only gotten some
lyrics from Maynard

as far as the content of what
the album was going to be,

and I didn't hear any of the

actual music

until the record was released.

I had been doing
these flaming eyes

in my artwork,

and so I added some of
those as the energy centers,

and that was an unanticipated

and

fascinating little development.

After the album, the next thing

he called me on was the video.

It was the a

Parabola video.

He had developed an entire

concept and scenario
and things like that.

He's an amazing
surrealist filmmaker,

and so he said, I've
got a minute at the end

and I wondered, I
have some ideas that,

but we need some kind
of transformation.

So he invited me to participate

and

have my sort of
directorial debut

on the

last minute of the Parabola.

So that was very sweet of him,

and he coached me along and

we made something,

kind of bringing some
of my artwork to life.

- [Narrator] The
imagines of Lateralus

and the aesthetic elements
that surrounded it,

set in stone what
as now seen as one

of Tool's most defining aspects.

The creation of an ongoing
thematic and visual universe

that few other bands could
even begin to compete with.

- Tool definitely has
their own look and sound.

It's not just, musically
they have their own sound,

but yeah, the visual
element is very like,

Nine Inch Nails is
another one like that.

Both those guys, you know,
you can, with the sound off,

you can see the video come
on and go, hey, that's Tool,

and it's not that
it's all the same,

it's that there's
a sensibility there

because it's like
an artistic style.

It's not a repetitive thing,

it's a stylistic thing.

- Adam

in himself

is a genius

and then we he takes it and
not only applies his music,

but he applies his visual and
kind of squishes it together.

It's like a whole new
level of everything.

It's not, I've listened to
Led Zeppelin a million times,

and I've seen the Led Zeppelin
videos a million times,

it's never changed
my interpretation.

All of a sudden in, you know,
a Tool video isn't about

me playing guitar and
me singing this song.

It's about a visual
and how that visual

makes you feel on
top of the music.

That's why they're never
in their own videos.

They don't think that
that's important at all.

- [Narrator] With the rapturous

critical response
towards Lateralus,

Tool's fan base and
reputation as figureheads

for American alternative rock,

would expand hugely
in the five year

interim before their next album.

When work began on their
new project in late 2005,

the band moved on
from their partnership

with producer David Bottrill,

and decided to oversee their
latest recordings themselves

with the help of
engineer, Joe Barresi.

- By going with Joe Barresi,

it kind of took them
in another path.

Their goal was to
really not stagnate.

They'd worked with Bottrill
for two albums straight.

So they wanted to
find someone else.

- I understand that people
always like to move on,

and I like to move on and do
work with other people, too.

So I don't, I respect that
people like to do that.

If they called and
asked and wanted me

to do something more, sure,

I'd love to work
with them again.

For no other reason
than I love their music

and I love their writing
and like them as people.

- For Adam, he was very excited

about working with Joe Barresi

because Barresi is a very
guitar oriented producer.

He vibed with a lot of,
where he had come from

and that sort of raw direction,

and

wanted to see what he could work

with and come out with with Joe.

Danny had told me
that he was at first

very reluctant to work with Joe

because Barresi was much
more of a guitar producer

and didn't seem,
he felt, to have

that kind of a
gift with drumming

and producing great drum sounds.

So he said initially
working with Joe,

he really kind of had to
hold his hand a little bit

and guide him and work with him,

but he said in the end,

he got some of the
best drum sound

he's ever gotten on a record.

So he was very excited
about that relationship

and what they were
able to achieve.

- [Narrator] The result of
this new creative collaboration

would emerge in May, 2006.

10,000 Days was another
immediate number one album,

and to date marks
the culmination

of the imagination,
creativity and diversity

that Tool have made hallmarks
of during their time together.

[heavy rock music]

♪ Eye on the TV

♪ Cause tragedy thrills me

♪ Whatever flavor

♪ It happens to be

♪ Like killed by the husband

♪ Drowned by the ocean

♪ Shot by his own son

- I think 10,000 Days
is again a growth.

It's a step in a direction

and there's great
songwriting on there.

There's great singing.

Maynard's voice is
sounding better than ever.

I think it's a great growth.

I think it's another
step along the way

of their creativity as a band.

[heavy rock music]

- You know what?

That album confuses
the hell out of me.

I don't know where they got it.

I don't know how they did it.

Like I said, I lived
right next to 'em,

so every single day,

I heard them making
up those songs.

Playing that riff
eight hours in a row.

I heard very scattered
bits of the thing,

and then all of a
sudden in one minute,

oh, okay we're in the
studio, we'll be back,

and all of a sudden there
were these perfect songs

and I'm like, what the?

It just sounded like
mishmash a little while ago.

How did you get me to see
the universe with this song?

I don't understand.

- 10,000 Days is a
little bit harder

to listen to than Lateralus.

Lateralus seems to
take you on a trip.

That's not quite the
case with 10,000 Days

because the band
took a couple of,

of stabs at more
straightforward rocking songs,

like I think The Pot was one.

♪ Who are you to
wave your finger ♪

♪ You must have
been out your head ♪

♪ Eyehole deep in muddy waters

♪ You practically
raised the dead ♪

♪ Rob the grave to
snow the cradle ♪

♪ Then burn the evidence down

♪ Soapbox house of
cards and glass ♪

♪ So don't be tossing
your stones around ♪

♪ You have been

♪ High

♪ You must have been

♪ High

♪ You must have been

- A little more straightforward.

A little more rock
and well put together,

and wonderful for radio,

but then you venture back out

into these sort of
esoteric realms again,

and I'm not sure it holds
together as well as Lateralus,

in terms of it being this
sort of epic construct.

I think it's still
a great record

and at this point
maybe they're incapable

of making a bad record because

what they do is always
what they want to do,

and I think that's
to be respected.

Even if they did
take these tangents,

the tangents occurred because
this is what they felt,

they were guided to do

and where their inner
muse was leading them.

- [Narrator] As well
as developing their
musical framework,

10,000 Days would also expand
on the artistic surroundings

that Tool used to
contextualize their work.

The innovative work on display,

including the album
cover featuring

a pair of stereoscopic lenses
to view the artwork in 3D,

would once more stem
from the creative

contributions of Alex Gray.

- They're really good at that.

Like adding all of that
sort of extra stuff,

which just kind of sucks
you into their brain

just a little bit more.

I don't believe most bands
are capable of doing that.

I don't think most bands
have that kind of vision,

and I don't think
most bands can come

to that kind of an agreement.

The new record, like the
goggles and all that stuff,

it's like, where are
you gonna find four guys

that'll agree on doing
something like that?

- We're four different people,

and we have a lot
of different tastes

and it's just kind of
about the chemistry

of where it meets in the middle,

and it's,

there's enough
consideration and respect

about trying stuff and

actually trying to excite each
other in an experimental way

that

it's very

rewarding.

- Adam really art
directs everything

and if he doesn't
likes something,

then it's definitely
not going to be

part of a package or anything.

And the 10,000 Days album,

we went back and
forth a little bit.

He had the idea of the

stereoscope scope

and the 3D

thing,

and so I made up a few
ideas and shared them

and I don't think it was
really going anywhere much.

Then I said, well why
don't I just show you

what I'm working on
right now in the studio,

and that was the Net
of Being painting.

We both imagined seeing it
in 3D and stuff like that,

and so he said [snaps
fingers], that's it.

We gotta use that somehow.

They wanted to develop
this booklet inside

that had the 3D art in it,

and so he invited me to work
with a computer graphic artist,

that, Meats Meier
who is an amazing

3D artist and another

fellow Bayard.

So each one took a different
image that I had developed.

One of them was the skull fetus.

I wanted to see how
that looked in 3D.

So Bayard worked on that

and

then Meats worked on this figure

that I'd developed
called Reaching,

and so I presented him with
a really simple sketch,

and then we went back and forth

and developed this
into a 3D model.

Since they liked
the Net of Being

for the album,

they just incorporated that.

In the Vicarious video,
that was I think,

the most intense

collaboration.

Probably except for
working with my wife,

probably the most
intense collaboration

I've ever done with any artist.

We worked very hard together.

We knew that we wanted
several different things.

We wanted to develop this
character that became X.

Like the X-ray kind
of character that was,

and then the Net of
Being was a place

that he was going to
visit at some point.

Adam had this notion
about the destructor,

this kind of thing
that was ravaging

the landscape.

I see the whole arc of the video

having a transformative
kind of view,

and in the end

because X is living

on a scorched

and a

really desolate and
alienating kind of landscape,

which we could say is the,
what will happen to the Earth

if we

do nothing about
the global warming

and all the rest of that.

I don't know that
that was really

at all what Adam was thinking,

but this was just the
kind of environment

that

was threatening

and

fascinating and dreamy

that emerged as we
were working together.

So I don't think

any of us had a real

linear kind of notion of it,

but in observation,

this I how I interpret it now.

- [Narrator] The
success of 10,000 Days

and the continual
uncompromising nature

of Tool's creative work,

has shown the band
to be a remarkable

anomaly in yet another way.

In an age of digital downloading

and increasingly fractured
musical consumption,

Tool remain staunch defenders

of the album format
as a conceptual whole.

They've also retained
a distinctive
anti-celebrity stance.

Avoiding unnecessary
exposure in a way

that is completely at
odds with the majority

of other modern musical acts.

- I think that's one
of their strengths.

I think that in music today and
in the music business today,

it feels to me like bands are
little bit too accessible.

I can't imagine
Jimmy Page answering

email on his Myspace page,

and I think there was a certain,

when I was growing
up with music,

and you had bands like
Sabbath and Zeppelin

and Aerosmith, there was
a dark mystery there,

and

to get too close

would have destroyed
it, I think.

I wanted my

musical heroes to
be inaccessible.

- As far as not pandering
and doing their own thing,

I mean, I can't help but believe

that they just found a different
way to market themselves.

They certainly didn't intend
on never selling any records.

I know all those guys
and just human nature,

it's like, you love
doing something,

you wanna make a
living doing it.

Well I think somewhere
in their heart of hearts,

they must have known that
what they were doing,

and the way they were doing
it and marketing themselves

had just as much a
chance as anything else,

or I imagine they never
would have done it.

They had such a
strong sense of self,

and such a deep belief
in what they were doing,

and the feedback they were
getting from everybody,

that I think it was okay for
them to do something different.

- I don't think
any of these guys

had that Sebastian Bach,

Gene Simmons thing going on

where I wanna be a rock star.

I don't think they
wanted to be rock stars.

I think they needed to get

their poetry out of their gut.

That's why they
did what they did,

and why they succeeded is
that they were true voices.

That they were given gifts.

- [Narrator] From
ear catching 1992 EP,

to post-millennial status
as art rock giants,

the story of Tool
to date remains one

of the most intriguing
and unique journeys

the world of music has to offer.

Whatever their next move,

and few are willing
to bet on what

such an unpredictable
four-piece will create next,

the fans will ensure
that their popularity

and legacy remains deservedly
one of iconoclastic acclaim.

- There will be more
bands that will look

to that kind of
model both of writing

and of running their career,

and realize that that can work,

and if they have the strength
of their convictions,

and they have the talent to
write things as good as Tool

or in that league, then
they can be successful

without having to
succumb to pressure.

- I can't see anyone
being embarrassed

because,

or even nostalgic

because they say they
love Tool in 20 years.

I think it'll be
one of those bands

like a Led Zeppelin or
maybe like a Beatles

or, where it will maintain
its integrity over the years.

- I don't know where it's going,

I just know that it is,

and I'm grateful that
somehow along the line,

Maynard didn't pay
my rent. [laughs]

[heavy rock music]