Plenty of musicians are involved in multiple bands and side projects, but few have retained as loyal a following as Maynard James Keenan, the frontman for Tool, A Perfect Circle and Puscifer. The vocalist believes his ambitious and somewhat perfectionist attitude has helped his bands amass the fanbases that they have.
Keenan is currently out on the road with Tool, and then later this year, he'll embark on a run with Puscifer for their set of rescheduled Existential Reckoning dates. But no matter which band he's performing with, the show is always a captivating event, and they always has an audience.
"Well, they're not gonna support it if they show up and it's boring. They're not gonna come back. You have to have follow-through, you have to have a thoughtful presentation," the singer told Rob Rush (as heard below). "People wanna be entertained, they wanna be moved in some way."
"And I think in order to do that — depending on your agenda — people like me, I just need to do a thing and I need to do it well. And I'm never satisfied with how I did it, I think I can do it better," he continued. "So if you get in that mindset, you're always trying to improve on the thing you did, even if it was the night before and you've done this thing ten thousand times, there's always room for improvement and adjustment."
The frontman thinks that fans know that his bands are meticulous about their performances and are always striving to enhance them, so they can anticipate that the experience will be better each time.
Listen to the full chat below.
Tool's tour continues later this weekend, with their next performance being in Newark, N.J. on Feb. (26). See the rest of the dates here, and check out our gallery of photos from their show last night in Long Island, N.Y.
Why Maynard James Keenan Thinks He Has Such a Loyal Following
