Maynard James Keenan has by no means been one for myth-making — particularly in terms of himself. Showing on Steve-O’s Wild Ride!, the Software frontman supplied a sometimes blunt tackle the concept of being labeled a “rock icon,” distancing himself from the basic extra usually related to the title.
“Properly, after I consider rock, I consider fucking Lemmy, man,” Keenan mentioned, as transcribed by The PRP. “Like up until fucking 11 a.m. having been up two days straight doing fucking pictures on the Rainbow. I simply, that is simply not me.”
Quite than embrace the icon tag, Keenan reframed his personal function extra pragmatically. “I do not know what I’m,” he admitted. “I assume I am extra like an entrepreneur. Storyteller. what? I am going to take storyteller.”
Keenan additionally dug into his method to songwriting throughout his many tasks: “The entire tasks are for me lyrically, they’re completely severe play. All of it’s severe play,” he defined. “It is all steadiness. It is all, there’s one thing being achieved.”
That mentioned, Keenan did not draw back from critiquing his personal catalog, revealing that there are early Software songs he actively avoids revisiting. “There’s some previous Software songs that I do not like taking part in them as a result of I simply — I really feel like I failed them,” he mentioned. “They’re well-liked songs, however I simply really feel like I used to be attempting to make a joke and it was a dumb joke. I ought to have moved on.”
One observe, particularly, drew his sharpest self-criticism: “4°” from Tool‘s 1993 debut album Undertow.
“I do not really feel just like the lyrics maintain up below scrutiny,” Keenan admitted. “‘4°’ is a silly tune, okay? It is the way in which I wrote it. Prefer it’s simply — I used to be attempting to fucking make a butt intercourse joke and it was only a fucking… It was dumb.”
Whereas he praised the musicianship behind the tune — “The tune’s lovely. What these guys did, you recognize, musically is nice” — Keenan laughed off his lyrical decisions. “The phrases are simply dumb. I do not know what the fuck I used to be pondering.”
The lesson, he mentioned, was easy: study and transfer ahead. “So, so do not do this once more. Like, you recognize, repair it and make a tune like ‘Stinkfist’.”
Keenan additionally shared an statement about generational shifts in fandom, significantly in terms of Software‘s place in fashionable rock tradition. In keeping with the singer, youthful listeners more and more gravitate towards Puscifer whereas viewing Software as a legacy act.
“All the children… like ages from 16 to 30: enormous Puscifer followers,” he mentioned. “And so they view Software as like when your uncle is into Steely Dan, you recognize?”
The irony is not misplaced on him. “I am in that and I am like, ‘we’re not Steely Dan,'” Keenan joked, earlier than acknowledging the cycle of musical growing older. “No matter you are into as that adolescent child… that is grandpa music.”
With Software now spanning three generations of listeners, Keenan sees the comparability as inevitable. “We have been round lengthy sufficient that we’re spanning like three generations of individuals listening,” he mentioned. “So, I get it. We’re formally the Rush of followers which are like, ‘I do not need to take heed to Rush.'”
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