Tool's Keenan on his singing - it came from listening to Joni Mitchell while running
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Maynard James Keenan of Tool is an upcoming guest on AXS TV’s series Rock and Roll Road Trip, hosted by former Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar. In a pre-release clip from the episode, Hagar asks Maynard about how he comes up with the rhythms and time signatures in Tool songs (“6/8, or 6, 7/9 or whatever”), with Keenan explaining that it came about while running cross country in high school and listening to music: “Everybody has their own breathing rhythms, right? I was actually running to my [footsteps]. So, if you’re going over hills, or down hills, or in chuck-holes, or whatever, my breath would follow those rhythms”. The music he listened to while running, Joni Mitchell - “Odd time signature stuff. There’s some Joni Mitchell stuff that’s crazy.” Watch the clip at Spin.