 BIOGRAPHY
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James Herbert Keenan
Maynard James Keenan was born on April 12th, 1963 to a Baptist family and grew up with an older sister in Ravenna, Ohio, described by one of its residents as a "lower middle class town with no purpose". When Maynard was about twelve, he was a major KISS maniac. Maynard attended Brown Jr. High and then Ravenna High School through the 10th grade until he moved to Michigan. There he attended Mason County Central High School in Scottville, Michigan. His senior class voted him as the most artistic in the class. By the time he entered the army, in 1982, he had lived in Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas.
Maynard was a member of the West Point Academy Prep School class of 1984. He was member of the cross-country and wrestling teams, the glee club, and the "Knight Crier", which was the school newspaper.
Maynard attended West Point Prep School and United States Military Academy Prep School, hence references to the Honor Code "I will not lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate those who do"; and to the term "tool". Tools are seen as sellouts. They follow the regulations to the letter and will turn even their best friends in for the slightest violations.
Maynard quit the military to study art, which eventually led to a job in LA applying spatial design concepts, called "Feng Shui", to remodeling pet stores. While Maynard was in Michigan, he attended the Kendall College of Art and Design, which is one of the best in that area. His artwork is rumored to be very interesting, symbolic, and bordering on abstract. Maynard was friends with Gillian Anderson, Agent Scully from the TV show "The X-Files", while he was at Kendall.
Before Tool, in the 80's, Maynard was in a band called the Children of the Anachronistic Dynasty that released an independent cassette called "Fingernails". He was also in another band called the TexAns.
Maynard is guitarist Adam Jones and drummer Danny Carey's neighbor in LA. His home in LA is where is wife and son Devo reside.
Maynard's step father died in early 1998.
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Adam Thomas Jones
Adam was born on January 15th, 1965. Not much is known about his early life except that he was a fan of the band Devo. Maynard named his son after Adam's obsession with Devo.
Adam is originally from Illinois, and played violin in elementary school. He was accepted into the Suzuki program, and continued to play violin through his freshman year in high school. He then played a stand up bass for three years in an orchestra.
In addition to playing in an orchestra, Adam played bass in a band called Electric Sheep with Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine in high school and while he never received traditional guitar lessons, they learned from each other. Adam also studied film, and received a scholarship to go to film school.
Adam began by learning make-up because he thought it would help him out. He then began work as a sculptor and special effects designer where he learned the stop-motion camera techniques he would later apply in Tool's videos "Sober", "Prison Sex", and "Stinkfist".
Adam went to school at the Hollywood Makeup Academy. After he graduated, he went to work at The Character Shop. He was there for quite a while, 1-2 years, and worked on a TV show called "Monsters". He designed and fabricated a Grim Reaper makeup and a zombie head on a spike used in the film "Ghostbusters 2". Adam worked on several commercials, and was one of the designers. He worked on an Olympic Stain commercial, a Duracell commercial, and a salad dressing commercial that never aired. He also worked on movies, "Nightmare on Elm Street Part 5" and "Ghostbusters 2". After that, Adam went to Stan Winston's. There he worked on "Predator 2", where he sculpted a unique looking skull for the "Predator 2" space ship interior.
Adam worked on several other big films in Hollywood doing makeup and set design, including "Jurassic Park" and "Terminator 2". He also helped Green Jello with their costumes, and actively sculpts and paints.
Adam is living next to Maynard in LA. He currently has three dogs, two cats, and two pigs, one is on the back of the Undertow album.
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Daniel Edwin Carey
Danny grew up in a very typical, middle-class American house in Paola, Kansas. His father was a manager for a large insurance company and his mother was a school teacher. Danny has one older brother and one younger brother. Danny's earliest musical memory was when his father took him into the music library at the University of Kansas and played The Planets by Gustov Holst. Danny started taking lessons when he was ten or eleven, just on the snare drum in school band, and then again when he got his first kit at thirteen. Danny received a scholarship in High School to go to the Conservatory of Music in Kansas City.
Danny studied music for over three years at the University of Missouri. He had a couple of offers to play basketball at small colleges, but knew he wasn't good enough to play major college basketball or to go pro. Danny spent years working on his rudiments and doing drum corps. He always loved Billy Cobham and Buddy Rich because no matter how fast they played, you could hear every note. When he was in college he got a lot of classical training, doing recitals for three and a half years. He could have earned a degree if he stuck it out a while longer, but just wanted to play the drum set a little more, so he bailed on school when an opportunity came to go on the road with a band.
In 1986, Danny moved to Los Angeles , and spent four years there before anything really happened. However, at that time he was heavily into electronic drums. He was playing an electronic kit with real cymbals, and played the clubs. Then he got more into real drums, and attributes that to finally finding a quality set that sounded good. Danny also worked as a session player for Green Jello, Pygmy Love Circus, and Carole King. Danny's day job in LA was working in a tape duplication house. Then he met Adam Jones through Tom Morello of Rage. Danny is also living beside Maynard. He never auditioned for them (Keenan and Jones). He felt sorry for them, because they would invite people over to play, and they wouldn't show up, so he would fill in.
Danny never auditioned. After a while, Maynard and Adam just got used to having him around and asked Danny if he wanted to be their drummer. Danny agreed.
Danny still loves playing jazz when he gets the chance. He is also working on a side project called ZAUM, which deals more in an electronic medium. Danny has also been involved in other side projects, including a TV sitcom called "Sibs". The sitcom gave him the opportunity to play stuff from James Brown and Sly and Family Stone material. Danny is with Tool and another band called Zaum.
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Justin Gunnar Walte Chancellor
Justin was born on November 19th, 1971. Justin first met Tool in New York, and kept in touch with band members for a couple of years until Justin's band in England, Peach, did a tour with Tool in Europe in 1994. When original bassist Paul D'Amour left to play guitar in Lusk, Tool gave Justin a call. At first Justin turned them down. Peach had broken up about six months before, and he was forming a new band with the guitarist. Justin felt very loyal to his friend who he'd played with since he was 14. But then decided he couldn't deny himself the opportunity. Justin flew to the US, auditioned, and got the job. He beat out some stiff competition, which included Filter's Frank Cavanagh, KYUSS's Scott Reeder, Zaum's Marko Fox, who did the voice on "Die Eier von Satan", and Pygmy Love Circus's E. Shepherd Stevenson.
Justin adds a different sound to Tool because he is a heavy bass player and added a lower end to the overall sound of the band.
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Paul M. D'Amour
Paul, born on June 8th, 1968 was with the band from the earliest of days, but quit the band in September of 1995. Paul D'Amour is originally from Spokane, Washington, and is actually a guitar player at heart.
Adam Jones brought Paul into Tool. Paul actually came to LA because of the film industry. He hadn't played music for a while and was thinking about giving it up. He was angry all the time, and Tool's music suited him perfectly because the loud and hard core riffs let him blow some steam.
Paul played guitar in Kings of Oblivion, also known as the Replicants, a cover band that included members of Failure, they do songs by everyone from Missing Persons to T-Rex, and have a disc out on Zoo.
Paul left Tool because of a shift in his musical taste away from heavy, powerful riffs, and he wanted to do something more experimental. He is currently in a band called Lusk. Paul still has a good relationship with his friends in Tool. Paul's name was not mentioned in Tool's album Aenima, even though he wrote 3 of the songs.
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