Tool guitarist Adam Jones once enlisted the help of a Texas police officer in order to play an elaborate and hilariously cruel prank on his friends in Melvins.
Tool and Melvins share a mutual appreciation which goes way back - Buzz Osborne’s wife Mackie was actually friends with Maynard James Keenan and Danny Carey while they were still in Green Jello, pre-Tool, and Buzz has described Adam Jones as “one of my dearest friends” - and among the ‘look back and laugh’ moments the two bands have shared, is the occasion when Jones had a Texan cop plant cocaine and a firearm on the Washington state sludge rock kingpins, and threaten them with jail.
Melvins drummer Dale Crover related the anecdote during a conversation with podcast host Chuck Shute, and it’s hard not to be impressed by the savagery of Jones’ prank.
As Crover explains, Melvins were pulled over by Texan law enforcement officers outside Houston, and were informed by one police officer that a quantity of marijuana had been found on the ground outside the bus after a search of the vehicle. The bemused musicians were then told to present their bags for inspection, and were handcuffed while a police officer pulled out personal belongings from the bags.
“He’s like, ‘Look, what we got here’,” Crover recalled. “He pulls out a gun — pulls out out a 9mm [pistol]. 'You got firearms. That’s a federal offense in Texas here’.”
While the dumbfounded drummer was still processing this information, the policeman produced what Crover describes as "the biggest bag of cocaine I've ever seen in my life", and informed the drummer that he would be going to prison. At this point, fearful that he was being set up, Crover insisted that he would only speak via a lawyer.
A tense stalemate ensued, until the police officer broke character, and said, "Well, you know, just want to tell you guys, Adam Jones from Tool said, ‘You guys are pranked’.”
Top quality shit-housery, which we can surely all admire. Hats off to all concerned.
You can hear further revelations from Melvins man Crover in the full interview below.
