Part II:

His talk covered a wide array of topics from his early love of music, his progression to being in Tool, how the band formed, how they write music as a band, his approach to guitar, lessons on poly-rhythms, pretty much everything. The entire thing with the Q&A was nearly 2 hours long.

A few choice nuggets:
-We have that iconic banjo line in “Deliverance” to thank for Adam picking up the guitar.
-Tool was started as a joke band between Adam and Maynard. However, once Adam really heard Maynard sing, they started to take it more seriously.
-Danny only drummed for them out of pity, he had refused them previously due to his busy schedule in bands and house bands for TV shows. They had scheduled a drummer, but he bailed on them. Once Danny played with them, he quickly turned his focus to it.
-When picking a replacement bassist for Paul, Adam was worried the discussion would come to blows. Adam wanted Justin, but he thought Maynard and Danny wanted a different bassist. Maynard and Danny also wanted Justin, but they thought Adam wanted the other bassist. They quickly realized they all wanted Justin and had a good laugh about it.
-The song title “Jambi” comes from the character Jambi in Pee-Wee's Playhouse. The original riff that Justin brought in reminded them of when Jambi would say “Meka leka hi meka hiney ho”.
-Both Danny and Adam are classically trained musicians. Adam was trained in the Suzuki method of violin.
-Adam lived with Tom Morello for a while and was in a band with him.
-Adam met Maynard at a BBQ, which Maynard was attending through his girlfriend at the time.
-Adam, Danny, and Justin write and jam together for a long time before Maynard gets involved. Once the songs have gotten close to their final shape, Maynard will come in and write the vocals.
-Maynard often puts vocals where the other members weren't expecting it when they wrote the music.
-Adam is extremely detail oriented, and will spend hours on something. Maynard is often able to come in and just nail his part in a few takes.
-Adam's stop motion work in Jurassic Park was cut out for “new technology”, ie CGI.
-The money in Tool is split evenly, 4 ways.
-Adam mentioned highly creative people can often have an abrasive personality, or just a strong character flaw of some sort. Whenever they'd meet someone that was an asshole, they had a running joke, “What, your dad take you out to the tool shed and molest you?” Which turned into take you out to the tool shed, to Tool.
-Adam mentioned they gave back a lot of the record label advance in order to keep control of their music.
-On several occasions, Adam has hidden stinky cheese on another band's tour bus. While on tour with Fishbone in Europe, he mentioned doing this. He mentioned doing it to The Flaming Lips as well. As a result, the members of Fishbone ended up in a fist fight over accusations of who was responsible for the smell. Adam never admitted to it, and kept low the rest of the tour! To be fair, this was in response to Adam picking up a cup full of urine in the dressing room and spilling some on himself. Apparently one of the members of Fishbone had a habit of peeing into any available object when he needed to go.
-After spilling said urine on himself, some record executives came to meet him. Without hesitation, he shook their hands with pleasure. He was quite upset with them at the time. Tool's albums weren't in the stores in many of the European cities they were playing, like the label had promised.

As the climax of the talk, he gave a guitar lesson on “Jambi” and then proceeded to play it live for us using a click track with the rest of the band. Seeing him play it in such a small, personal space really was amazing. As I mentioned earlier, he spent a lot of time in front of our row. When he was playing in front of us, he was so close you could hear the unamplified scrape of the strings.

After his talk wrapped up, he opened it up to questions from us. After a few questions had been asked, I mustered the courage to raise my hand. I was beyond nervous, and just praying that I was able to form a coherent sentence. I got a little tongue tied, but managed to get my question out. I asked if Tool had any intentions to put their music on high resolution digital sites like the upcoming Pono Music Store. He said he didn't know what Pono specifically was, but that they do want to put their music out on iTunes and other digital platforms. He said it basically comes down to disagreements with the label. Their label is basically trying to say they own the digital rights to the music, and obviously Tool disagrees. So hopefully they get it resolved by the time the next album comes out. I can't imagine they'd try and promote it without a digital presence.

As the Q&A portion ended, we got ready to take a picture with Adam. As we lined up, we went to a table and picked up our phones. When it was finally my turn to take a picture with him later, he shook my hand and said thank you. All I could stammer out was a “thank you” in response, I was still star struck. He asked if I had a good time, and I just shook my head and said thank you again. Not the best use of my time with him, but I was just trying to concentrate on not looking like a crazy person.

I had brought my poster from my first Tool show, The Woodlands, TX 9/11/2006 by Jermaine Rogers, in the hopes I might get it signed. The information specifically said not to bring personal items for autographs, but it was worth a shot. My plan was to wait at the back of the line for pictures, and ask him to sign the poster instead of taking a picture. However, we were already running nearly 25 minutes late, and the head security guy had reiterated to please not ask for autographs. So I decided against asking. The first VIP show they did, they allowed people to get things signed, and it took nearly 2 hours. They made the change that Adam would presign our VIP posters for us to save time. Would have been nice, but oh well, I get it.

After the picture, we came back into the conference room and picked up our swag bag. It included a special VIP Tool poster signed by Adam, a VIP Tool T-shirt, a beanie, a keychain, a sticker, and a VIP laminate, all in a Tool tote bag.

Before Adam left for the pictures, he left his guitar and said he were welcome to pick it up and hold it. He just stressed to be careful with it, as it is one of his original guitars and he still plays it on stage. The level of trust that must have taken is pretty impressive to me. Unfortunately the guitar got taken away by the guitar tech relatively quickly, they were late and needed it for the sound check. Adam had talked longer then he was supposed to, and because our room was open air to the arena, they couldn't sound check some things while the talk was going on. However, this again turned out to be a blessing.

As we all were gathered in the conference room again, they brought in two video props. The guy from the “Parabola” video, and the guy from the “Schism” video. Really cool to see them up close. Once again the level of trust necessary to have them out was pretty high. Both pieces were art pieces, they were extremely fragile and not made to be sturdy. You could tell too, unfortunately the “Schism” model had some toes broken off, and a finger was cracked. Juan told us it has it's own custom case for travel.

We went out as a group for a smoke break as we waited for sound check to start. I don't smoke cigarettes, but I was ready to use my vape pen. As we were outside, I over hear the guy next to me say, “I left my butane hash oil in the car, don't think I can go get it”. Hearing that, I give him a nod and hand him my vaporizer. His eyes light up and tokes enthusiastically. So once again, a shout out to EJMix and the Liquidizer team for allowing me to enjoy some heady goodness in complete stealth. No more smuggling, I use it in regular e-cig equipment. My high refreshed, it's time for the sound check.

We were told we wouldn't see Maynard at the sound check we had access to. Maynard would come in, do his sound check and leave. We would then be allowed in for the rest of the sound check with the remaining band. However, we were still able to hear Maynard do his portion of the sound check. If you remember, I mentioned our conference room was open air to the arena, so we were able to hear it fairly easily. Got to hear him do Aenima (I think? For some reason I'm fuzzy on this now).

Maynard leaves, and we are allowed into the arena. As you walk in, you're greeted by a floor to ceiling display of LED screens and the sounds of Tool messing with their instruments. They just jam for a bit before busting into “Sober”, followed by “Hooker with a Penis”.

At first I was slightly apprehensive about hearing “Hooker”. I've been watching the setlists Tool had played leading up to Cedar Park. They had a habit of alternating the opening song between “Hooker” and “Third Eye”. The last show they played, they opened with “Third Eye”. That, coupled with hearing “Hooker” at sound check had be worried I'd miss “Third Eye”. “Third Eye” is probably in my top 3 Tool songs I want to hear live, and is probably the best opener in their catalog. It just sets the tone for the rest of the show. So needless to say, I'm holding out hope that maybe we get “Third Eye”.

Sound check is over, and as we are walking out, I hear one of the most beautiful sounds I could hear at that moment. Over the speakers comes Timothy Leary, “Think for yourself, question authority”. My smile spreads from ear to ear, we're getting “Third Eye” for our opener!

Something pretty cool happened to my girlfriend during sound check too. As she was leaving from taking her picture with Adam, he said, “I'll see you in sound check”. As she was walking out during sound check she was looking at Adam. He saw her and gave her a wave and smile. Something little, but pretty cool in my opinion.