TOOL’s MAYNARD JAMES KEENAN Says Cancel Culture Made People ‘Forget the Role of Comedy’

Maynard James Keenan

During a recent conversation with Kyle Meredith, TOOL frontman Maynard James Keenan touched on the subject of comedy and cancel culture.

“Generally, most comedy I think people have kind of forgotten in the age of cancel culture,” he said. “Most comedy — somebody’s going under the bus, even if it’s us ourselves, somebody’s going under the bus and we forget that that’s the role of comedy — that uncomfortable release and a laugh of things you’re not supposed to say.

“And then you release it and the demon is out and gone,” he continued. “So whatever. But PUSCIFER [Maynard’s other project] just evolved over time with some of those sketch comedy things, and our attempt to kind of put them in a musical context. And I think it wasn’t really until I started working with Matt Mitchell that the music really started to kind of become more of the focal point.

“So, working with him, and then, of course, Carina Round and Juliette Commagere, once those people kind of came into the picture, it really laser-focused. And so, that’s been a joy working with them, and an endless revolving door of other musicians coming through, just lending their talents.

“Throwing back to the Tantrum days of just watching these incredible talents come to the door, and adjust their set of whatever they were going to do to whatever was going on in the room with Laura, with Tawny, I should say, because there was always a theme for that particular day for that show.

“And then everybody was having to kind of adjust whatever riffs or whatever acts or whatever they’re working on, they would have to adjust it to what was happening in the room as a very meta situation.”

Entire interview can be watched below.