Tool's Keenan on his singing - it came from listening to Joni Mitchell while running
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.