TOOL

TOOL
Biography

Tool are an American band formed in Los Angeles in 1990. Singer Maynard James Keenan, guitarist Adam Jones, drummer Danny Carey and bassist Paul D'Amour started it, and Justin Chancellor has played bass since 1995. After the Opiate EP in 1992 they released Undertow in 1993, Ænima in 1996, Lateralus in 2001 and 10,000 Days in 2006, and then, thirteen years later, Fear Inoculum in 2019. Lateralus, 10,000 Days and Fear Inoculum all reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and the band have won three Grammys, with a fourth going to Adam Jones as an art director. As of October 2026 they were working on their sixth album, which Danny Carey hoped to release in 2027.

The members and the formation (1990-1991)

According to the description of his authorised biography, Maynard James Keenan grew up in the American Midwest, spent years in the Army, went to art school and worked for a while in a pet shop in Boston (Blabbermouth, 2016). In the band's early days he was making a living building film sets in Hollywood, and in 2015 he said the hypocrisy he saw in the film and music businesses had driven many of the first songs (Rolling Stone, 2018). Adam Jones had played with Tom Morello, later the guitarist of Rage Against the Machine, in a school band called Electric Sheep (Louder, 2026). After art school Jones went into film effects, creating the make-up for A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child and working on Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Jurassic Park among others (Planet Rock, 2022). Danny Carey grew up in Paola, Kansas, studied percussion at the University of Missouri in Kansas City and moved to Los Angeles, where he played sessions for Carole King among others and drummed with Pigmy Love Circus (Sonor). From the late 1980s he also drummed for the comedy band Green Jellÿ (Louder, 2016).

An excerpt from Keenan's authorised biography, A Perfect Union of Contrary Things, tells how Jones, who had heard a cassette by Keenan's earlier band C.A.D. and seen him perform with Green Jellÿ, spent months suggesting that the two of them should work together. Keenan held back at first, but once they had jammed he recognised Jones's rhythm skills. Jones then brought Paul D'Amour, a co-worker at the Stan Winston effects studio who had come from Spokane, to Carey's rehearsal room, and Keenan thought D'Amour ideal to fill in on bass until a permanent player turned up (Metal Injection, 2016). Carey, for his part, has said that it was he who heard Keenan's voice across an alley, recognised a singer and introduced him to Jones, who was putting a band together (Songfacts).

The band formed in 1990 (Blabbermouth, 2023), and in 1991 they made 72826, a six-song demo tape with early versions of "Sober" and "Crawl Away", both later recorded for Undertow (Rolling Stone, 2018; Ultimate Classic Rock, 2019). Keenan has said they wanted to get past the hair-metal bands that filled the Los Angeles clubs and to build a new scene with the city's underground bands (Rolling Stone, 2018). Their first deal was with Zoo Entertainment, the label founded by Lou Maglia (Louder, 2016).

Opiate and Undertow (1992-1994)

The first official release was the Opiate EP in March 1992 (Louder, 2016). Jones said in 2013 that about half of Undertow had been written by then, but someone at the label told them to put out their heaviest songs to get noticed, so they picked the heaviest ones and made a kind of teaser record (Rolling Stone, 2018). They played with Rage Against the Machine, White Zombie and the Rollins Band, opening for the Rollins Band on a 1992 tour, and Keenan made a guest appearance on Rage Against the Machine's "Know Your Enemy" (Louder, 2024; Rolling Stone, 2018).

The first full-length album, Undertow, was recorded in the autumn of 1992 at Grandmaster Recorders in Hollywood and Sound City in Van Nuys, and co-produced by the band with Sylvia Massy (Rolling Stone, 2018). It came out in April 1993 (Louder, 2024), entered Billboard's Heatseekers chart at No. 25 on 24 April and went on to reach No. 1 there; on the Billboard 200 it peaked at No. 50 that November (Billboard, 2019). On "Bottom" Henry Rollins recorded his own take on a spoken passage Keenan had been doing live. For the closing "Disgustipated", Keenan fired four shotgun rounds into an old upright piano, and Chris Haskett of the Rollins Band then smashed it with a sledgehammer, which earned him a credit on the album (Rolling Stone, 2018; Louder, 2016). It went on to sell more than two million copies in the US (Rolling Stone, 2018).

The videos for "Sober" and "Prison Sex" were stop-motion films directed by Fred Stuhr with input from Jones, and the band hardly appear in them. "Sober" became a fixture on MTV (Rolling Stone, 2018), but MTV refused to show "Prison Sex", a song about the cycle of sexual abuse (Louder, 2024 and 2016). In 1993 the band played the Lollapalooza tour and Britain's Reading festival, and in 1994 Glastonbury (Louder, 2024).

The Undertow liner notes named the comedian Bill Hicks. The band and Hicks became friends, and in August 1993 he introduced Tool at Lollapalooza in Irwindale, California, but he died of pancreatic cancer in February 1994 (Rolling Stone, 2018).

A new bassist and Ænima (1995-1998)

Paul D'Amour left the band in 1995 (Louder, 2024). Carey says that D'Amour, a guitarist by nature, had wanted them to bring in another bass player even before Undertow so that he could play guitar (Rolling Stone, 2018). D'Amour said in 2024 that the band hit a sophomore slump after Undertow, and that spending a year writing the next album and coming out with about five songs frustrated him (Louder, 2024). His replacement, Justin Chancellor, played bass in Peach, an English band that had toured with Tool (Songfacts; Louder, 2016). Chancellor says that when he was first invited to audition he turned it down out of sheer intimidation, and only changed his mind after his brother talked him round (Ernie Ball).

The second album, Ænima, came out on vinyl on 17 September 1996 and on CD on 1 October (Louder, 2016; Loudwire). Its producer, David Bottrill, had worked on King Crimson's Thrak the year before (Louder, 2026). The album was dedicated to Bill Hicks: the inner sleeve shows a drawing of him dressed as a doctor with the words "Another dead hero", and recordings of his routines lead into "Third Eye" (Loudwire). It reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in October 1996 and had sold 3.7 million copies in the US by 2019, making it Tool's biggest seller (Billboard, 2019). At the 40th Grammy Awards, in 1998, "Ænema" won Best Metal Performance (Recording Academy).

MTV, unhappy with the title, showed the video for the single "Stinkfist" as "Track #1" (Louder, 2026; Loudwire). In 1997 the band were on the main stage of the Lollapalooza tour (Songfacts), and in 1998 they toured with Ozzfest (MTV News, 1998).

The Volcano dispute and Salival (1997-2000)

Zoo Entertainment, the label that had signed Tool, was sold to Volcano Entertainment in 1996 (Louder, 2016). According to MTV News, Volcano sued the band for 25 million dollars in the summer of 1997, claiming they were trying to slip out of their 1991 record deal, and the band countersued, arguing that the label had failed to pick up their option and that they were free to sign elsewhere. The dispute lasted eighteen months, and the settlement of December 1998 gave Tool their own label through Volcano Entertainment II (MTV News, 1998). In these years the band also dismissed their long-time manager, who then sued them for commission (Stereogum, 2021).

In 1999 and 2000 Tool played a single show (Pollstar, 2001). Keenan formed A Perfect Circle with Billy Howerdel, a former guitar technician of Tool's, and released Mer de Noms, while Jones played with Buzz Osborne of the Melvins and Carey with Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys (Stereogum, 2021). Carey also worked with his own project, Zaum (Pollstar, 2001). At the end of 2000 came Salival, a box set of CD and video with live recordings and unreleased studio tracks (MTV News, 2001), which reached No. 38 on the Billboard 200 (Billboard, 2019).

Lateralus (2001-2005)

In January 2001 MTV News reported that the new album would be called Systema Encéphale, and the band's site posted invented titles, but on 28 January the site announced the real title, Lateralus (MTV News, 2001; Spin, 2001; official site, 2001). David Bottrill produced it, as he had the previous album (MTV News, 2001).

Lateralus came out in May 2001 (Louder, 2016), sold more than 555,200 copies in its first week and became Tool's first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (Billboard, 2001). The artwork in its booklet of layered clear pages is by the painter Alex Grey (Ultimate Classic Rock, 2019). The single "Schism" reached No. 67 on the Billboard Hot 100 (Billboard, 2019) and won Best Metal Performance at the 44th Grammy Awards in 2002 (Recording Academy). In August 2001 King Crimson joined Tool for a short American tour that ran from Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado to San Diego (Pollstar, 2001).

10,000 Days (2006-2009)

The fourth album, 10,000 Days, came out in May 2006 (Louder, 2016) and entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1 on the chart of 20 May (Billboard, 2019). According to Louder it sold more than half a million copies in its first week, twice as many as Pearl Jam at No. 2 (Louder, 2016). Joe Barresi, who would later make Fear Inoculum with the band, worked on it too (Blabbermouth, 2019). The CD package had stereoscopic lenses built in for viewing its 3D artwork, and Jones, its art director, won Best Recording Package for it at the 49th Grammy Awards in 2007 (Blabbermouth, 2007; Recording Academy). The single "The Pot" spent four weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart (Billboard, 2019), and "Vicarious" and "The Pot" were both nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance (Recording Academy). By February 2007 the album had sold more than 1.41 million copies, and the band were finishing a tour of Japan (Blabbermouth, 2007).

The long wait and Fear Inoculum (2007-2019)

It took thirteen years for the next album to follow 10,000 Days (Blabbermouth, 2019). In 2007 a friend of Jones's who had worked for the band claimed credit for artwork he said he had created for them. The band expected their insurer to deal with it, but the insurer refused and then sued the band, and Jones said the fight was costing them millions (Rolling Stone, 2014; Yahoo Music, 2015). Carey said in 2014 that the members' changing priorities, now that some of them had children, were also making it hard to schedule the band (Rolling Stone, 2014). The case was settled in the band's favour in early March 2015 (Yahoo Music, 2015; Stereogum, 2015).

On 2 August 2019 Tool put the records they had until then released only on CD and vinyl on download and streaming services (Consequence, 2019; Billboard, 2019). On Billboard's Top Rock Albums chart of 17 August, Ænima, Lateralus, 10,000 Days and Undertow stood at Nos. 1, 2, 4 and 5, and Opiate entered the Billboard 200 for the first time. The title track of the new album, "Fear Inoculum", released on 7 August, entered the Billboard Hot 100 at 10 minutes 21 seconds, the longest hit in the chart's 61-year history (Billboard, 2019).

The fifth album, Fear Inoculum, came out on RCA Records on 30 August 2019. The band produced it themselves, with Joe Barresi engineering and mixing (Blabbermouth, 2019). It sold 270,000 equivalent units in its first week and went to No. 1 on the Billboard 200, pushing Taylor Swift's Lover, the previous week's No. 1, down to No. 2 (Blabbermouth, 2019; CNBC, 2019). Fans queued outside record shops on release day for the limited CD edition, whose package had a built-in four-inch screen and speaker (CNBC, 2019). At the 62nd Grammy Awards, in 2020, "7empest" from the album won Best Metal Performance (Recording Academy).

Since 2020

In March 2020 the Fear Inoculum tour was cut short by the pandemic after a show in Portland, Oregon (Blabbermouth, 2022). The North American dates were first postponed and then, in June, cancelled altogether (Billboard, 2020). That August Carey said the band no longer had a record deal and were free agents (Blabbermouth, 2020). Touring resumed on 10 January 2022 at the Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Oregon (Blabbermouth, 2022).

In March 2022, marking thirty years since their first release, the band put out "Opiate²", a reworked and extended version of its title track, as a download and stream, followed that month by a Blu-ray of a short film of more than ten minutes made by Jones with the visual artist Dominic Hailstone, housed in a 46-page art book. It was Tool's first new video in fifteen years. In April a five-disc vinyl edition of Fear Inoculum followed (Blabbermouth, 2022).

In 2023 the band played American festivals including Rockville, Sonic Temple, Louder Than Life, Aftershock and Power Trip, and in the autumn toured North America, with their first Canadian shows since 2019 (official site; Blabbermouth, 2023). In 2024 they toured the United States in January and February and Europe in May and June (official site). In March 2025 they toured Mexico and South America, playing the Lollapalooza festivals in Argentina, Chile and Brazil and Estéreo Picnic in Colombia (official site; Blabbermouth, 2025). On 5 July 2025 they played Back to the Beginning, Black Sabbath's farewell concert in Birmingham, England, where their set included Black Sabbath's "Hand of Doom" (Stereogum, 2025). In November and December they toured New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Hawaii, their first shows in Hawaii in nearly fifteen years (official site; Consequence, 2025).

In February 2025 Chancellor said that after the South American trip the band would spend three months in the studio organising their ideas, and that they had talked about releasing a single song or an EP (Blabbermouth, 2025). In February 2026 Carey said they were working on new songs with the aim of releasing them in 2027, and that they had been in talks about a residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas (Louder, 2026). In the summer of 2026 Keenan's hip gave way during an A Perfect Circle tour; he had it replaced in August, and 25 days later, on 19 September, he was back on stage with Tool at Riot Fest in Chicago, using a cane (Louder, 2026). As of October 2026, 2027 was the tentative goal for the new album (Louder, 2026).

Videos and artwork

Jones has directed most of Tool's videos (Blabbermouth, 2007). The stop-motion techniques he learned in film effects run through the videos for "Sober", "Prison Sex", "Stinkfist", "Ænema", "Schism", "Parabola" and "Vicarious", and his films are a regular part of Tool's concerts, played alongside the music (Planet Rock, 2022).

The band's packaging is very much his work as well. Around the release of 10,000 Days, Jones said they always tried to do something with album packaging that had never been done before (Ultimate Classic Rock, 2019). The Ænima package was nominated for Best Recording Package at the 39th Grammy Awards, and 10,000 Days won the award (Recording Academy). The limited edition of Fear Inoculum was also his idea (Ultimate Classic Rock, 2019). The painter Alex Grey first worked with Tool on Lateralus and contributed to the two albums that followed (Ultimate Classic Rock, 2019); he also wrote the foreword to Keenan's authorised biography (Blabbermouth, 2016).

The members

The line-up is Maynard James Keenan on vocals, Adam Jones on guitar, Danny Carey on drums and Justin Chancellor on bass (Blabbermouth, 2025). Chancellor says the four are equal members and that nobody calls the shots: everything is decided by the four of them (Ernie Ball). The original bassist, Paul D'Amour, went on to the Replicants and Lusk after leaving, and has played bass in Ministry since 2019 (Songfacts; Louder, 2024).

Besides Tool, Keenan leads A Perfect Circle and Puscifer. A Perfect Circle's first two albums, Mer de Noms (2000) and Thirteenth Step (2003), both went platinum (Songfacts). Puscifer began as the name of a fictional band Keenan played on the sketch show Mr. Show (Louder, 2016); it released its first album in 2007 (Songfacts) and the album Normal Isn't in February 2026 (Louder, 2026). Keenan moved to Jerome, Arizona, in 1995, founded the Caduceus Cellars winery and released its first wines in 2004 (Phoenix New Times, 2024). His authorised biography, A Perfect Union of Contrary Things, written by Sarah Jensen, came out in November 2016 and entered the New York Times hardcover non-fiction best-seller list at No. 10 (Blabbermouth, 2016).

Carey joined Pigmy Love Circus in the early 1990s but was soon taken up by Tool, and in 2004 he played on The Power of Beef, that band's first full-length album in more than a decade (Rolling Stone, 2004). With John Ziegler and Lance Morrison he plays in Volto, who released the album Incitare in 2013 (Rolling Stone, 2013), and with Brent Hinds of Mastodon and others in Legend of the Seagullmen, who released their album in 2018 (Louder, 2018). He is known for his fascination with sacred geometry and draws arcane shapes on his drum heads (Louder, 2026). In 2026 he appeared on the soundtrack of Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die, a film directed by Gore Verbinski (Louder, 2026).

Outside Tool, Jones has created effects for films, drawn comics and published photography (Ultimate Classic Rock, 2019). Chancellor also plays in MTVOID, a project with Peter Mohamed (Blabbermouth, 2025).

Discography

The five studio albums, the EP and the box set, in order of first release. Beyond these there are the 1991 demo tape 72826, put on YouTube in 2019; "Opiate²", released as a download and on Blu-ray in 2022; and the five-disc vinyl edition of Fear Inoculum from the same year (Rolling Stone, 2018; Ultimate Classic Rock, 2019; Blabbermouth, 2022). Since 2 August 2019 the whole catalogue has also been available for download and streaming (Consequence, 2019).

Released	Title	Type	Label	Notes
1992	Opiate	EP	Zoo Entertainment	The first official release; includes live recordings of "Cold and Ugly" and "Jerk-Off"
1993	Undertow	Studio album	Zoo Entertainment	Co-produced with Sylvia Massy; Henry Rollins appears on "Bottom"
1996	Ænima	Studio album	Zoo Entertainment	The first with Justin Chancellor; dedicated to Bill Hicks
2000	Salival	Box set (CD and video)	Volcano Entertainment / Tool Dissectional	Live recordings and unreleased studio tracks
2001	Lateralus	Studio album	Volcano Entertainment / Tool Dissectional	The band's first No. 1 on the Billboard 200; booklet art by Alex Grey
2006	10,000 Days	Studio album	Volcano Entertainment / Tool Dissectional	A Grammy for its package with built-in stereoscopic lenses
2019	Fear Inoculum	Studio album	Tool Dissectional / Volcano Entertainment / RCA Records	The first album in thirteen years; No. 1 on the Billboard 200

Concerts in Japan

In Japan, Undertow came first, on BMG Victor on 21 May 1993, with the title track of the Opiate EP added as a bonus track. Ænima followed on Fun House in 1996 and Lateralus on Zomba Records Japan on 16 May 2001, and the same company issued the Opiate EP in Japan for the first time on 27 June 2001. 10,000 Days came out on BMG Japan on 10 May 2006. Fear Inoculum was at first available only as an import; the Japanese edition followed on Sony Music Japan International on 18 December 2019 (Oricon; Tower Records; Sony Music Japan). The Salival box set was never issued in Japan (Tower Records; Oricon).

Tool's first visit to Japan was Fuji Rock Festival '01: on 29 July 2001, the third day, they played the GREEN STAGE at Naeba Ski Resort in Niigata, between System of a Down and Eminem (Fuji Rock Festival; official site). Their first headline shows in Japan, promoted by Udo Artists, followed in April 2002: two nights at Akasaka Blitz in Tokyo, then Mother Hall in Osaka and DIAMOND HALL in Nagoya (Udo Artists; official site). In August 2006 they headlined the SONIC STAGE at SUMMER SONIC 06 on both days, in Osaka and in Chiba (SUMMER SONIC; Creativeman). The second headline tour, promoted by Creativeman in February 2007, played Zepp Osaka, two nights at Zepp Tokyo, CLUB CITTA' in Kawasaki and DIAMOND HALL in Nagoya; the second Zepp Tokyo night was added after the Kawasaki show sold out, and the Kawasaki show had itself been moved there from Yokohama BLITZ (Creativeman; CDJournal). On 12 May 2013 they played the second day of OZZFEST JAPAN 2013 at Makuhari Messe, before Black Sabbath (OZZFEST JAPAN; Natalie). TOOL TOUR IN JAPAN 2025 brought their first headline shows in Japan since February 2007, at K-Arena Yokohama on 11 December and GLION ARENA KOBE on 13 December; on a tour that also took in New Zealand and Australia, these were the only Asian dates (Creativeman; Sony Music Japan; Mikiki). Earlier that year, on 1 September, Danny Carey had played the Nippon Budokan as a member of BEAT (Kyodo Tokyo).

Date	Venue	Show
29 July 2001	Naeba Ski Resort (Niigata)	FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL '01, GREEN STAGE; first visit to Japan
10 April 2002	Akasaka Blitz (Tokyo)	First headline show in Japan
11 April 2002	Akasaka Blitz (Tokyo)	Headline show
12 April 2002	Mother Hall (Osaka)	Headline show
13 April 2002	DIAMOND HALL, Nagoya (Aichi)	Headline show
12 August 2006	WTC Open Air Stadium, Intex Osaka & Zepp Osaka (Osaka)	SUMMER SONIC 06, headlining the SONIC STAGE
13 August 2006	Chiba Marine Stadium & Makuhari Messe (Chiba)	SUMMER SONIC 06, headlining the SONIC STAGE
8 February 2007	Zepp Osaka (Osaka)	TOOL JAPAN TOUR 2007
9 February 2007	Zepp Tokyo (Tokyo)	TOOL JAPAN TOUR 2007
10 February 2007	Zepp Tokyo (Tokyo)	TOOL JAPAN TOUR 2007, added show
12 February 2007	CLUB CITTA', Kawasaki (Kanagawa)	TOOL JAPAN TOUR 2007, moved from Yokohama BLITZ
14 February 2007	DIAMOND HALL, Nagoya (Aichi)	TOOL JAPAN TOUR 2007
12 May 2013	Makuhari Messe International Exhibition Halls 9-11 (Chiba)	OZZFEST JAPAN 2013, day 2
11 December 2025	K-Arena Yokohama (Kanagawa)	TOOL TOUR IN JAPAN 2025
13 December 2025	GLION ARENA KOBE (Hyogo)	TOOL TOUR IN JAPAN 2025

About the sources

The sources are the list of shows on the band's official site, toolband.com (its 2001 and 2002 pages as kept by the Internet Archive); the Recording Academy's Grammy site; Rolling Stone; Spin; Billboard; Blabbermouth.net; Louder (Metal Hammer, Prog and others); MTV News (its 1998 and 2001 reports, as kept by the Internet Archive); Loudwire; Consequence; Stereogum; Ultimate Classic Rock; Metal Injection; Pollstar; Yahoo Music; CNBC; Planet Rock; Phoenix New Times; Songfacts; and the artist pages of Sonor and Ernie Ball. Some release dates and labels were checked against MusicBrainz. The Japanese editions and the concerts in Japan were checked against the pages of Oricon, Tower Records, Sony Music Japan, Creativeman, Udo Artists, SUMMER SONIC, Fuji Rock Festival, OZZFEST JAPAN, Natalie, CDJournal, Mikiki and Kyodo Tokyo, some of them as kept by the Internet Archive.