Maynard James Keenan states that Tool have become “grandpa music,” and he has compelling evidence to support this claim.

During a recent appearance on the Steve-O’s Wild Ride podcast, Keenan was asked how the band Puscifer fits in with his other, more renowned groups. The singer shared an anecdote about his interactions with an old friend and their children.

“All the kids from ages… 16 to 30, whatever, [were] are huge Puscifer fans,” Keenan explained. “And they view Tool as like, when your uncle was into Steely Dan. You know, it’s this other thing that’s like, my weird uncle is into that.”

The singer found humor in the kids’ perception. “I just thought it was funny like that,” he noted, “because I’m in that [band] and I’m like, ‘We’re not Steely Dan.’”

What Makes Tool ‘Grandpa Music’?

Keenan further analyzed the situation, explaining that the evolving perspective of Tool was inevitable given their long history.

“I understand the procession because whatever you’re into as that adolescent kid, whatever your older siblings or uncle or grandfather was into, that’s silly. That’s grandpa music,” the singer remarked. “And we’ve been around long enough that we’re like, I’m spanning like three generations of people listening.”

Tool released their first EP in 1991, with their debut album, Undertow, following in 1993. Basic math shows that a fan who was 30 when the band started would now be eligible for Social Security. Thus, while the notion of Tool becoming “grandpa music” may be sobering to some die-hard fans, it holds some truth.

“I get it,” Keenan conceded. “We’re officially the Rush of fans that are like, ‘I don’t want to listen to Rush.’”

In a separate interview with Loudwire, Keenan referred to himself as a grandpa regarding his abilities (or lack thereof) when it comes to recording musical ideas at home.

“Sitting on my hands during COVID, I basically begged (Puscifer bandmate) Mat (Mitchell) to be patient with me, like trying to show grandpa how to screenshot an image,” he said about learning programs such as Pro Tools and Logic.

READ MORE: Puscifer: Creating Without Guardrails – The Loudwire Cover Story

“He just basically helped me crack the code and kind of level up in terms of understanding how to get ideas into a file and share them rather than me humming into a voice memo and then grabbing five songs from my library of various bands to go, ‘Somewhere between these.'”