The NSFW Meaning Behind the Band Name Tool

The members of Tool aren’t shy about the meaning behind the band name. Formed in 1990 in Los Angeles, the group was founded by frontman Maynard James Keenan, Adam Jones and Danny Carey. After bassist Paul D’Amour left in 1995, he was replaced by Justin Chancellor, with Tool becoming one of the biggest metal bands in the U.S.

Tool has been known to push boundaries when it comes to music and censorship, particularly when the video for their breakthrough video in 1992 “Hush” featured the band members in the nude with a sign reading “Parental Advisory Explicit Parts” covering their butts and genitals and their mouths covered by duct tape. The video was made in retaliation against the Parents Music Resource Center, an organization that was formed in 1985 and is responsible for Parental Advisory Warning labels printed on albums with explicit content.

In a 1994 interview with Ray Gun Magazine, Keenan opened up about how the meaning behind the band’s name is both comical and philosophical, with the hope of inspiring fans’ on their own journeys. “Tool is exactly what it sounds like: It’s a big dick,” Keenan stated. “It’s a wrench. It’s also what it sounds like: It’s a verb, it’s a digging factor. It’s an active process of searching, as in use us, we are a shovel, we are the match, we’re the blotter of acid, your tool; use us as a catalyst in your process of finding out whatever it is you need to find out, or whatever it is you’re trying to achieve.”

Keenan went on to explain how the group carries this mindset into their songwriting. “Granted, there’s definitely a sense of humor that is sewn in,” he continued. “That’s what people are kinda missing. I think a lot of times when people are listening to what we’re doing, they see this really intense band, young, Tool, and they think of this big, heavy wrench phallic thing.

“But there’s totally this sense of humor and the other side, the serious approach to the world around us. There’s humor sewn into all the songs.”

Over the past 33 years, the band has won three Grammy Awards for Best Metal Performance for “7empest” in 2020, “Schism” in 2002 and “Aenema” in 1998. All five of Tool’s studio albums have reached the Top 20 on the Billboard 200, with Lateralus in 2001, 10,000 Days in 2006 and Fear Inoculum in 2019 all hitting No. 1 on the chart. Among their most well-known hits are “Sober,” the controversial “Prison Sex,” “Schism,” “Fear Inoculum” and “Pneuma.”

Photo Credit: Travis Shinn / Courtesy of Speakeasy PR