Maynard James Keenan
Maynard James Keenan
Maynard James Keenan, often referred to by his initials MJK, is an American musician, record producer, winemaker, and actor, best known as the vocalist for Grammy Award-winning progressive metal band Tool. He is originally from Ohio, but spent his high school and college years in Michigan. After serving in the United States Army in the early 1980s, he attended Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids. He moved to Los Angeles, California in 1988 to pursue a career...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth17 April 1964
CountryUnited States of America
But I'm a hot-blooded Italian by nature. Whatever the situation you present, I'm going to make something out of it.
All I can do is say I smell a rat. I don't know where it is or what kind of rat it is, but as an artist, I can express how. But I couldn't responsibly stand up and tell people which way to go, because then I'm just as guilty as the people who are telling everybody else what to do and where to go.
I think the biggest problem working with me would be that I'm an only child, and so I have an internal dialogue that goes on that I just assume you can hear.
I feel like with music there's so much ego rooted in expressing your thoughts and your experiences with it.
Why did Father give these humans free will? Now they're all confused.
Liar, lawyer, mirror show me. What’s the difference?
Reading is more of a left-brain process, and listening to music is a right-brain function.
I think the Grammys are nothing more than some gigantic promotional machine for the music industry. They cater to a low intellect and they feed the masses. They don't honor the arts or the artist for what he created. It's the music business celebrating itself.
I just hope that our fans are people who are inspired by music, and just use our music as a background or inspiration for whatever it is they do.
I think there's a reason why wine figures into so many religions. There's something transcendent about it. It's sort of the way that music is more than the sum of its parts. You have all these elements that make up the terroir that wine can communicate.
Shows are really strange. Sometimes you really don't know what to expect
Finding beauty in the dissonance
I think people in general have neglected to learn about history.
I'm not an educated man. I only know what I'm told, and I'm not told that much; I have no frame of reference for how to place things in history be a responsible leader. All I can do is be an artist.