The 7 Artists That Maynard James Keenan Picks His Favorites

Maynard James Keenan picks his favorite artists ever. Tool‘s frontman Maynard James Keenan is one of the creative artists and Maynard also likes to add old-school style to his music and lyrics for Tool, A Perfect Circle, or Puscifer.

Maynard James Keenan’s Favorite Artists of All Time

Maynard James Keenan was born James Herbert Keenan on April 17, 1964. Maynard is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and winemaker. Keenan is also best known as the singer and songwriter for the rock bands Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer.

Maynard James Keenan went to Michigan and Ohio for high school and college. Following high school graduation. After being discharged from the Army in 1987, he enrolled in his first college, the Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He moved to Los Angeles in 1988 to seek a career in interior design and set construction. After a short time, Maynard co-founded Tool band with Adam Jones.

Maynard owns Merkin Vineyards and Caduceus Cellars in Arizona, where he lives, in addition to his music career. He has been described as a recluse since becoming a celebrity. However, he does appear to promote humanitarian organizations, and for the rare interview. He has also dabbled in acting too.

During the interview with Revolver Magazine, Maynard James Keenan shares his favorite artists and musicians of all time:

• David Bowie
• Steve Martin
• Gerald Casale (Devo)
• Henry Rollins
• Bill Murray
• Joni Mitchell
• Patti Smith

Tool‘s frontman Maynard James Keenan revealed this in an interview with the magazine. Here is the Maynard picks as follow:

1. David Bowie

“Bring Me the Disco King” is a song written by David Bowie in the early 1990s and recorded three times, the last of which was released in 2003 as part of Bowie’s Reality album. A remix was also released in 2003 as part of the soundtrack to the film Underworld.

Danny Lohner, ex-Nine Inch Nails bassist/keyboardist, remixed the song for the soundtrack of the 2003 film Underworld.

This song’s remix version also features Maynard James Keenan, Milla Jovovich, Josh Freese, and John Frusciante.

In 2007, Maynard James Keenan told to Revolver Magazine:

“He went through his changes gracefully, also. And he explored all these different areas as an actor, a music maker, and a visual artist. ‘Ashes to Ashes’ is still one of my favorite videos ever.”

2. Steve Martin

In 2007, Maynard James Keenan told to Revolver Magazine:

“He shreds on the banjo. He has totally inspired me as a frontman, as a performer, and as a musician.

I never saw him onstage other than on video. But he’s amazing with a crowd, and his stand-up albums were like rock records.”

3. Gerald Casale (Devo)

Devo also talked about Maynard and his music:

I think it is two totally separate worlds. Of course, I see the connection, and I’m sure if it hasn’t already been done there will be books done on all the musicians who were seduced by the wine-making life. I certainly know Maynard, from Tool, he’s serious, he’s making his own wife himself. Music and wine are very similar in a lot of ways; each time you drink a bottle of wine. Even if it’s the same producer, same type, same name – it’s different.

Each time you go on stage, you play the same song, it’s different, it’s a ritual. You sit down at a nice dinner party with people, and you all drink the same wine, and you have this experience. And the same thing with a concert. And again, making music, there’s a lot of science, a lot of craft, but there’s a lot of intuition and experimentation. Same with making wine. It’s part farming, part science, part pure, undemocratic artistry.

In 2007, Maynard James Keenan told to Revolver Magazine:

“He’s an absolute nightmare in the best way possible.

The things that come out of that guy’s mouth are just pure poetry. He is his own man. He speaks his own mind. It’s like he has no filter from brain to mouth.”

4. Henry Rollins

In 2007, Maynard James Keenan told to Revolver Magazine:

“I saw Black Flag perform half a dozen times back in 1982. The intensity he was putting out onstage was really inspiring—that raw, crazy energy.

These days, he’s not the same intense, fly-off-the-handle open nerve that he was back then. He has evolved, and he’s come gracefully to where he is now. He’s not afraid to say what he thinks, and it’s great to see.”

5. Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell’s fourth studio album, which she wrote during a tumultuous romance with James Taylor, influenced Keenan at a young age. In ‘A Case of You’ and ‘This Flight Tonight,’ Blue delves into the negative aspects of relationships.

In 2007, Maynard James Keenan told to Revolver Magazine:

“On her early stuff, she was doing everything herself. So never mind that she was a female performer trying to make it in a male performer’s world.

She was actually producing, writing, and performing all on her own, which was pretty ballsy back in the day.”

He also talked about Joni Mitchell:

“That was my aunt. Now she sees me going down the spiral of Kiss and Black Sabbath, and she goes, ‘hang on, check this out.’ I don’t know how she managed to express all this in such a short, concise period of time to a kid who was watching monster movies on Saturday. But she was actually able to convey to me, here’s a person who’s a woman, who is writing her own songs, who is producing and mixing and releasing her own songs.

And it’s a woman fighting this uphill struggle in arguably a man’s rock world. So that sunk in right away for me. Even as young as I was, that made sense, like, ‘Oh, this is somebody who is going against the grain in a way.'”

6. Bill Murray

Maynard’s short memory about Bill Murray: He joined the United States Army in 1981, inspired by Bill Murray’s performance in the 1981 comedy picture Stripes, with the idea of using the G.I. Bill to fund his desire of going art school. He’d lived in Kansas, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Texas by this point. He was a forward observer in the Army before attending West Point Prep School from 1983 to 1984.

In 2007, Maynard James Keenan told to Revolver Magazine:

“As far as being an eloquent a**h**e and p***k, he’s amazing. He was recently busted for driving a golf cart drunk. That’s better than Axl Rose ever did. And Axl Rose wasn’t in Groundhog Day, so f**k him.”

7. Patti Smith

In 2007, Maynard James Keenan told to Revolver Magazine:

“She did freeform poetry and it was amazing. I don’t ever have the balls to do that kind of stuff where you kind of just go for it and jam in front of people and riff.”