What's going on my fellow rock n' rollers. Don't forget to hit the bell notification icon to be
notified every time i put out a new video on my channel. With it being Remembrance Day this
week in Canada and veterans day for our friends south of the border I wanted to take a look at a
rockstar who not only served in the military, but used that experience to shape his outlook
on his life and career. Today let’s look at Tool’s Maynard James Keenan’s time in the service.
Prior to fronting the hugely successful band Tool and A perfect Circle,
frontman Maynard James Kennan spent some time in the US Army.
He talked about his time in the military in greater detail in 2016 after he co-authored
a book titled A Perfect Union of Contrary Things. During an interview with Rolling Stone
magazine to promote the book he revealed the rationale behind him joining the army claiming
He needed the money. The singer wanted to use the GI Bill which helps veterans pay
for their post-secondary schooling and he had a desire to attend arts school and thought that
enlisting in the military would help pay for that. The other reason he joined was because of the Bill
Murray 1981 film Stripes. He was quoted as saying: "Bill Murray's character in Stripes played a part
in my decision to join the Army," "It just felt right to do at the time, and I excelled he'd say
And he was correct, he did excel as a soldier
Keenan would tell Revolver Magazine that he enlisted in the service in 1982
after graduating from high school. He did his basic training in Oklahoma,
and was initially stationed in North Kansas. He would serve as a military forward observer
which directs mortar and artillery fire onto enemy positions.
According to same Revolver piece He also went to military preparatory school in New Jersey from
1983 to 1984 and finished out his term in Texas. The singer would tell the publication "At basic
training, I received the distinguished graduate award for my battery, overall, I got a big trophy
and got to shake the colonel's hand. And then for advanced training, same thing" he'd say.
Following him finishing his advanced training he was offered a chance to attend West Point,
which is a 4 year military school that has produced some of the best and brightest
military minds. But for the Keenan, something didn’t seem right. He would tell Revolver
"In that moment, when you're staring at this thing going, OK, is this what I want to do? Is there
something else? I had an overwhelming feeling that this wasn't what I was supposed to do, "I'm pretty
in touch with my intuition, and in that moment, I had to listen to it and decline the appointment."
The singer would spend a total of 3 years in the service before finally leaving..
Like a lot of people including myself and I’m sure a lot of you have asked yourself this as well.
How would life be different if you would have made one different decision or chose a different
path in life, and Maynard James Keenan was no different saying in the same interview:
"Recently, I reached out to an old classmate of mine from preparatory school just prior to
West Point. I wanted to see where he's at. He's basically in charge of Afghanistan. He's a colonel
now. And it makes me kind of wonder where I would have been had I taken a different path. Because if
I had accepted my appointment and made it through the next four years, my career was set" he's say
And while he may have declined a longer career in the military, his service shaped
his view of life as he would tell Rolling Stone I feel like from an artist perspective there is
that warrior’s perspective and I feel like that’s in each one of us. And if you can embrace it in
some way and understand … even in terms of martial arts, when you step into that ring,
on that mat, you have to kind of embrace that warrior side of you. You’re competing against
yourself more than you’re actually competing against your opponent across from you.
And that’s not to say his opinions on the military hasn’t drawn criticism from some people. Back in
2016 he appeared on the cover of ballistics magazine holding a Tool inscribed rifle. The
gun was given to the frontman by a soldier named Nick McGarry on behalf of one of his friends Staff
Seargent Robert J Miller who died at the age of 24 in Afghanistan after being. Miller for
his bravery would receive an honor few soldiers have gotten, which was the medal of honor. Miller
was a huge Tool fan and would crank 10,000 days at his outpost during his service. To honor the
fallen soldier Keenan had Miller’s name engraved on the rifle and he would tell ballistics magazine
“It seemed strange having a monogrammed rifle for me to commemorate Miller’s sacrifice. It made more
sense for it to have his information so every time we used it we would think of him, and not me.”
The singer would end up being criticized for appearing on the cover of the magazine
by those who claimed he supporting the military industrial complex
he would publicly speak out on this in 2016 during a tool show as you can see here.
yesterday was the 8th year anniversary of Robert Miller
who gave his life for his friend whose hear tonight Nick.
Nick and Robert''s favourite song is what you just heard Vicarious so Nick gave me a rifle
with robert's information on it and the lyrics to vicarious. The universe is hostile and impersonal.
I posted that photo and i got a lot of from it from a bunch of people who didn't really recognize
the sacrifice that Robert had made and the gesture that i was making thanking him for the rifle.
I get that most people think that Tool is all about reaching for a higher conciousness,
digging a little deeper for some spiritual awareness
and maybe posting that photo had something to do with endorsing the military industrial
complex or something similar. I am not making any claims either way, however i do acknowledge
that some people were upset. This is not an apology at fing all.
This is just me acknowledging that people were upset by that thinking that Tool is just that
a higher spiritual path so i'd like to do a song
about digging a little deeper looking for that spiritual reaching.
But not everything is so black and white in Keenan’s world as he would be asked by Rolling
Stone whether he recommends people enlist in the military. He would be torn revealing
Um ... yeah, that's a tough one. Because when I joined the military, I was pretty convinced that
all of that crap was over. I believed we kind of found some kind of groove as far as world peace.
We didn't really have any major conflicts – Grenada and a few things when I was in.
Yeah, we were going through a lot of growing pains as a nation.
I don't know that I would recommend going into active service right now. It might be good for
some people. Yeah, that's a tough one, because the parts that I'm looking for, that discipline, that
connection, was being absolutely vulnerable and having your life in the hands of your teammates,
your friends, your colleagues. The growth that occurs in those spaces where you're just broken
down and then being built back up – there's a lot to be said for those kind of things" he's say.
Then on memorial day weekend in 2017 during a Tool live show in Boston
the frontman called out snowflakes and brought up the police and military saying the following
As artists, we interpret and report, that’s our job. We are merchants of emotion.
We have the privilege to do that because of active and former law enforcement
and military defending our right to do so. Those of you who are law enforcement and military,
your job is to defend our right to act like whining, entitled snowflake assholes, myself
being one. Snowflakes, your job is to respect them fingdoing that for you. Divided we fall.
Don’t believe the hype dumb-dumbs, we’re all in this together. So that does it for today's
video thanks for watching. Be sure to hit the like button and subscribe. We'll see you guys tomorrow
with another special episode of rock n' roll true stories. You won't wanna miss it. Take care.