Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan will soon tell his tale in an authorized biography being penned by Sarah Jensen. Rollingstone.com caught up with Keenan as to how that project has come to be. Keenan said of the origins of the book:
“One of my best friends in high school, we’re still close, his sister’s a writer, she’s 10 years older than we are; she’s kind of been around for a while, of course, seeing everything that went on pre–high school, high school, etc. So I approached her, because she’s a writer, to see if she was interested in helping me work on a semi-autobiography. Because I didn’t really want to write it as an autobiography, first-person — I’d rather have it be more in story form, like you’re kind of along for the journey, with sidebars by me throughout, in my voice, kind of expanding on particular instances or anecdotes. But for the most part, it’s just she and I on the phone a couple times a week, just going over timelines, going over stories, etc.”
The project is pretty far along, with Keenan offering:
“She’ll write section-by-section; we’ll go back and edit and fix and tweak, section-by-section, chapter-by-chapter. We have conversations twice a week to just go over … She’ll send me the chapters, and I’ll read them through, and then she’ll have questions or clarifications, contradictions. You talk to somebody else; they didn’t remember it the same way, so you had to rack your brain and go, “OK, was I drunk? Did I sleep through that?” A lot of just editing, fact-checking. But we’re pretty much … For the most part, it’s not complete, but it’s 90 percent complete, so we’re hoping to have it out by fall, next fall.”
The topic also shifted to Tool‘s long awaited new album, to which Keenan was a bit bullish, though he vaguely offered:
“They’re working hard in their own way; I’m working hard in my own way, and I’ve got nothin’ for ya.”
Keenan had a lot more to say to Rollingstone.com of the book if you’re interested in reading more. The book should arrive in the fall of 2016. Keenan‘s current musical project Puscifer will release their new album “Money Shot” will be released on October 30th.
