It’s not every day that we get new music from Tool… and today is not such a day. However, in a next-best-thing fashion, we do have music from three-quarters of the enigmatic Los Angeles band, with guitarist Adam Jones enlisting the help of bassist Justin Chancellor and drummer Danny Carey to provide the soundtrack to a new short film, The Witness.
The film serves as a rather grand way of launching Jones’ new Gibson guitar, the Adam Jones 1979 Les Paul Custom, a limited edition recreation of his prized 1979 Silverburst Les Paul Custom.
“I’m proud to finally show the world the first release in our multi-year partnership with Adam Jones,” says Gibson CMO Cesar Gueikian. “Adam is one of the most talented and sonically innovative guitarists. I call him modern riff lord and sonic architect. His creativity and technical ability in music, visual effects, production, videography and beyond is second to none and our collaboration is a true reflection of Adam.”
Earlier this week, Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan admitted to playing two live shows while infected with the COVID-19 virus. The shows took place at the 12,000-capacity Spark Arena in Auckland, New Zealand, on February 28 and 29 this year.
Keenan made the revelation on the Joe Rogan podcast, claiming that a doctor had given him the all-clear to perform despite having lost his sense of taste the night before the band was due to fly from Australia to New Zealand to perform the two shows.
"I was just drinking water, hot showers, taking care of myself, hot tea, just trying to get through it and it sucked," says Keenan. "But you didn't know yet how bad this thing could have been. If I'd have known how bad it could have been I would have been freaking out."
Earlier this month Keenan, who says he's lost "a few family members" to the illness, told the AZ Central website about his battle with COVID. "It was ugly," he said. "I survived it, but it wasn’t pretty."
In Rogan’s podcast, Keenan suggested that conspiracy theorists who’ve claimed that he’s been paid to pretend he had coronavirus should “eat a dick”.
