Maynard James Keenan, second from right, founded the band Puscifer as a place for ideas that didn't fit in Tool or A Perfect Circle.
Maynard James Keenan knows that he has a reputation of being difficult with fans.
"I'm not sitting on a beach taking surf lessons from David Hasselhoff," says Keenan, in a call from Los Angeles. "I work very hard. And I've never been one to understand the whole idol worship thing. We're all supposed to be putting our time in and playing our part, so when people single me out and want an autograph or a photo just somewhere I don't understand it. I can't process it. It doesn't make any sense as to why it's important to you. And I can't understand why someone would give away their power like that. I am not better than you. I don't understand why you insist that I am. That's depressing to me. So I come off like a (jerk) because I don't want to do those things and I'm trying to tell you that you don't need 'it.' You don't need my (expletive) autograph."
Keenan is the lead singer for Tool, A Perfect Circle and Puscifer, the latter of which he is leader. But, he says, he is not dictatorial in the band.
"I'm absolutely a collaborator," says Keenan. "If you put it in terms of filmmaking, I'd be the producer and I have an idea so I'm also the writer. I have a script in mind and a direction, and I hand it off to (programmer/engineer) Mat Mitchell and (keyboardist) Josh Eustis, who are in a way the director and the director of photography. So it's going to end up looking like they would shoot a film, but the reason they went in the direction that they did is I laid out a direction."
Keenan is definitely better known for his work in Tool and A Perfect Circle. On the Puscifer website he calls Puscifer his "island of misfit ideas." He says he's always had creative projects going on that the general public isn't aware of.
"That's sort of been my M.O. since birth. I'm always working on something."
One element that always seems to show up, and even more so in Puscifer, is humor. Even in the darkest moments with Tool, a band known for its bleak lyrics and complicated instrumental work.
"It's life in general," says Keenan. "It's the Shakespeare of it all. There's a balance between the comedy and the tragedy. You have to feel good about it. If it all makes you feel bad and depressed, I don't see any reason to hang around. That doesn't sound very healthy. You have to have some levity."
One of the things that Keenan is the most serious about is the winery that he runs in Arizona, where he now lives. In fact, his musical life is determined by his grapes. Keenan, unlike many star winery owners, is a hands-on vintner.
"There is a harvest season that we can't move around or reschedule. I don't spend a lot of time in the actual vineyards. I have a team of people who concentrate on that so I don't have to be around in the spring for pruning and training and fruit tending. My focus is in the winery. I have to be there, because I am the wine maker. I don't hire anybody to do that. So I have to be there from the beginning of August to the beginning of November."
He says he feels a responsibility to create a business that helps sustain his local community.
"If you look at some of the best wineries around the world, that's a 300-year business plan."
Keenan says getting into the music business a little later (he was in late 20s) gave him a more mature perspective on what he "would and would not tolerate" as an artist and a person. He says if the music in Puscifer finds its audience, he'll be happy, but if fans of his other projects don't quite get it, he isn't going to worry about it.
"I don't necessarily move to the beat of that drummer, the beat of what people want. I kind of have to move to my own impulses and hope that it finds its own audience. If people who like King Crimson show up that's great. If people who like Hank Williams, Sr., Jr. or III show up, that's great, too. It's not really up to me who is going to like it. I'm just compelled to do what I'm doing and hopefully it will find an audience."
© 2011, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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