Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan recently spoke with Allison Hagendorf and shared a regret about the band’s career: their late arrival to streaming services.
Keenan discussed Tool’s relationship with streaming platforms and why the band’s albums weren’t on them until 2019.
“I feel like we missed the boat,” Keenan admitted. “Like it started with downloads, you know, 24 years ago. And then by the time we actually came out, downloads are done. We missed 20 years of reaching two generations of people to understand what it is that we do, in a format that, you know… I don’t like listening to the mp3 version. I listen to CDs and vinyl. But that’s the gateway to get them into the vinyl and the CDs.”
“I feel like we made a mistake not being on those on those mediums for 20 years. Me every year, saying ‘we should do this,’” he added.
The band’s music was not available on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music until August 2019. Before that, fans mostly had to find their songs on YouTube. The decision to join streaming platforms came just before the release of their album ‘Fear Inoculum.’
“Our obsession with, and dream of, a world where BetaMax and Laser Disc rule has ended. Time for us to move on,” the frontman said of the band’s decision in a press release in 2019. “But never fear. There’s a brand new thing we think you’re really gonna dig. It’s called digital downloads and streaming. Get ready for the future, folks!”
In other news, Tool has announced its first set of 2025 tour dates, including four festivals. These will be the band’s first performances in South America. The band will perform at three Lollapalooza festivals and Festival Estéreo Picnic.
These four shows will happen at multi-day festivals between March 21 and March 30. The band’s most recent performance was at the Tons of Rock Festival in Oslo, Norway, on June 27. They played a 10-song set with two tracks from each of their five full-length albums.