Maynard James Keenan is a man as complex as his music, so it’s no surprise his new authorised autobiography, aptly titled A Perfect Union of Contrary Things, is a rich tapestry rife with tales about Keenan and his storied career.
A prominent guest star in A Perfect Union of Contrary Things is Tom Morello, whom you best know as the guitarist for Rage Against The Machine. As Tone Deaf previously reported, Keenan recently revealed he was almost the frontman for Rage.
“Well, there wasn’t a Rage when I was working with Tom [Morello],” Keenan told Rolling Stone earlier this month. “I think he was working with Timmy [Commerford], perhaps. I can’t remember if Brad was drumming or not.”
“They were looking for a more serious approach, so I think that was pretty much immediate,” the frontman continued. “If there was a consideration for that at all, it was very brief, but it was all at the same time.”
Rage came together at the same time that Tool, the band Keenan would eventually go on to front and with whom he would find international success, was forming. The two bands maintained a strong relationship, with Keenan contributing vocals to the Rage track ‘Know Your Enemy’.
And as Rolling Stone now reveals, via an excerpt from Keenan’s new biography, Tool’s ‘Part of Me’ and Rage’s ‘Killing In The Name’, arguably the latter band’s signature song, were in fact conceived during the same jam session.
“I was jamming with different people as Rage was beginning,” Morello recalls in the book. “One day, Brad Wilk, a bass player named Noah, Maynard, and I were jamming and pairing riffs. Maynard was developing a brand-new song called ‘Part of Me.'”
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Yeah, that’s the ‘Part of Me’ we know and love from Tool’s 1992 Opiate EP. But according to Keenan’s biography, as the frontman was jamming out the riff to ‘Part of Me’, Morello was busy trying to figure out a new song he’d dubbed ‘Killing In The Name’.
“It was pretty clear right away that the songs fit together,” Keenan recounts. “We didn’t actually create a song. We were just having fun.” You can check out both songs in the embeds attached and find tour dates for Keenan’s Puscifer below.
Puscifer Australian Tour Dates
Friday, 20th January
Mona Foma, Hobart, Tas
Tickets mofo.net.au
Saturday, 22nd January
Plenary, Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre, Vic
ticketek.com.au or 132 849
Monday, 23rd January
Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide, SA
ticketmaster.com.au or 136 100
Wednesday, 25th January
Darling Harbour Theatre, Sydney, NSW
ticketek.com.au or 132 849
Thursday, 26th January
Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, QLD
ticketek.com.au or 132 849
Sunday, 29th January
Vector Arena, Auckland, New Zealand
ticketmaster.co.nz or 0800 111 999
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