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The history of Tool‘s formation is interesting. It all started back in 1989 when vocalist Maynard James Keenan and Adam Jones got introduced through a mutual friend. Then drummer Danny Carey came into the picture when Tom Morello introduced him to both Keenan and Jones, with original bassist Paul D’Amour coming into the picture later.
In an interview with Rick Beato, Carey said he only joined Tool because they kept hooking up with flaky drummers… and Carey owned a PA system, so it worked for everyone.
“I lived in a couple of garages, guest houses, the apartments and things and then I stumbled on this with a buddy of mine who was a photographer who rented a place down the street,” said Carey as transcribed by Metal Injection. “The landlord told him about it. It was just a barren shell when I moved in here. Now we’ve decked it out like a semi-studio.
“The band actually got put together here. I had the space, I had my drum set up and actually when Maynard moved in next door – upstairs in a loft there – him and Adam were kind of trying to get something going. I had a little PA in the room so I said, ‘oh. I’ll rent you space to do it.’ And every time they rented the space, whoever they asked to drum for them would flake out because you know, they didn’t want to move their crap or something. I go ‘well okay, I’ll jam with you guys.’ That’s how the band got put together.
He continued: “I was playing with Jeff Buckley and Carol King, and doing a TV show and doing lots of stuff with John Humphrey, who taught over at [Musicians Institute]. So you know, when I played with Adam and Maynard it was pretty weird – heavy stuff and like, odd time signatures and all this stuff. I thought ‘this is really cool, man. I’m going to do this for myself. I’m not never going to make any money doing it but you know, but I really love doing it.’ So I kept playing with those guys even though I figured one of these other things would be how I made my living.”
And now all these years later we’ve got dozens of Tool albums to enjoy! Just kidding, we have five. But there might be a sixth one coming within the next few years.
