Maynard James Keenan is a mysterious fountain of constant creation. From his soul-searing lyrics and extraordinary music in multiple bands to his astoundingly delicious wine, he has permeated our culture like no other artist. He straddles guises and genres and makes us wonder what could fuel such original superhuman output.
Behind every extraordinary person is a crisis overcome. Most fans of Maynard’s work understand the significant impact of his mother’s health and her faith. From the age of 11, Maynard was destined to be different, because his life at home set him apart from his peers. Both the creative artist and the shaman are classic outsiders to conventional society; their experiences of alienation, illness, and mortality give them a unique perspective, an altered state. This enables them to see what others cannot.
The native American Lakota people have a tradition of the heyoka, a contrarian, jester, or sacred clown. The heyoka speaks, moves, and reacts in an opposite fashion to the people around them. Maynard embodies both the trickster and medicine man archetype. It’s not surprising that he lives in an area near Sedona where the kachina, the trickster god, and powerful natural forces are linked.
In my art for Tool’s Lateralus album, the flaming central point is the throat. I saw the magic of the word empowering the music and giving it a unique poetic depth and height. Maynard swims in those depths, so his songs become the soundtrack of the soul, the confession of our united unconscious bubbling forward. I once visited his house in Hollywood Hills and saw his amazing collection of sculptures by outsider artist Stanislav Szukalski. Maynard’s not only an artist, but he surrounds himself with eccentric and amazing artwork.
The rock star who writes songs sung by millions is a person of power. To ecstatically uplift packed stadiums around the world night after night is pure shaman magic. MJK is renowned for his uncompromising artistic integrity and a willingness to face frightening subjects. By luring listeners into the collective shadow, he guides us to face what is and what needs healing.
After all, why do we go to the rock concert or the shaman? The ecstatic leader is in contact with a higher level of creative spirit and becomes a channel of powerful transformative energies. We go to the show for a taste of that higher reality, the source of all things good, true, and beautiful. Without saying the word, we feel his love running through all he does. Maynard’s message points us back to ourselves, and the lesson of his life is our artistic challenge: Be positively inebriated with life, be true to yourself, spiral out, keep going, keep growing.
