Maynard James Keenan Calls Tool’s ‘4°’ a ‘Stupid Song’ In Steve-O Interview

Even the most obsessive Tool fans can admit the band’s catalogue is a rabbit hole of cryptic lyrics, strange poetry, and meaning that changes depending on your mood, your age, and how deep you’re willing to spiral.

According to Maynard James Keenan though, some of it isn’t mystical at all, in his words, it’s just plain dumb.

In the latest edition of Steve-O’s Wild Ride!, Keenan opened up about the push and pull between seriousness and humour across his work in Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer.

As reported via Revolver though, It’s a balancing act he’s played with for decades, but sometimes he reckons he dropped the ball.

“There’s some old Tool songs I don’t like playing them because I feel like I failed them,” he confessed.

“They’re popular songs, but I feel like I was trying to make a joke and it was a dumb joke. I should have just moved on.”

Maynard singles out ‘4°’

One track he can’t seem to let off the hook is ‘4°’, pulled from Tool’s 1993 debut album Undertow, musically, he still rates what the band built around it, lyrically though, he’s a bit more brutal.

“I feel like the lyrics don’t hold up under scrutiny,” he said. “The way I wrote it… I was trying to f**king make a butt sex joke and it was dumb.

“The song’s beautiful, what those guys did musically is great and I think maybe the melody’s a good melody but the words are just dumb. I don’t know what the f**k I was thinking.”

It’s a rare moment of Keenan pulling the curtain back and basically admitting that not every lyric is sacred scripture, sometimes it’s just a dumb gag that outlived its own punchline.

Tool haven’t played it in years

It also explains why ‘4°’ has largely been left to rot in the setlist graveyard, according to setlist.fm, Tool haven’t played it live since 2002, with the last performance reportedly happening at Erie Civic Center in Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile, Tool’s most performed song is still ‘Stinkfist’, which I was lucky enough to catch live in Melbourne at last years Good Things Festival.

The full chat in true Steve-O fashion is a fun one, available via the podcast, with the ‘4°’ discussion kicking off around the 46 minute mark.

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