Maynard performs Queen

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Maynard took part in the Activision E3 event last night, singing a version of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody with Billy Howerdel on guitar.  This appears to be in aid of the forthcoming Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock game out in September 2010.  Here’s a video:

According to Wikipedia, The Outsider by A Perfect Circle will be one of the playable tracks.

Update: Here’s a little more info from Rolling Stone:

For Keenan, performing "Bohemian Rhapsody" on Monday was an unexpected chance to revisit a big rock song from his own adolescence. Dressed in a black suit and red tie, he approximated the soaring operatics of Freddie Mercury against the strings and woodwinds of the L.A. Philharmonic, as animated characters from Guitar Hero sang along.

His A Perfect Circle collaborator Billy Howerdel filled in for guitarist Brian May (who was originally set to perform), rising from the floor with an old Vox amp and Gibson Les Paul to ignite the original glam riffs, adding touches of modern guitar texture. As the song faded out, Keenan hugged the guitarist, and then grabbed his ass as they descended into the stage.

47 thoughts on “Maynard performs Queen”

  3. Slave I

    [quote comment=""]Hope those who attended knew what they were witnessing.[/quote]

    A couple of guys getting paid a shitload to perform a Queen song?

  4. Wow what a nice surprise!

    Sounds like Maynard’s voice is in good shape anyway!

    Hilarious that the poster thought it was Satch on guitar – nice little Vox amp on Billy too….

  6. That was absolutely awesome. Great to see those guys together on stage again.  Sorry I had to bring up the negative part about this, but someone would…the 2 classic sentences can be heard during this presentation….”Who is that, Moby?”  and  ”TOOOOOOL!!!”
    Wow…

  7. Ok…I see Maynard. I see Billy. But where in the hell is Satriani?!?!
    Oh wait! He must be the one filming alongside all the screaming  teenage girls!!

  8. Slave I

    [quote comment=""]Ok…I see Maynard. I see Billy. But where in the hell is Satriani?!?! Oh wait! He must be the one filming alongside all the screaming  teenage girls!![/quote]

    Not screaming girls – screaming games journalists!

  9. The screen shots from that video game were absolutely terrifying.

  10. if those are screaming game journalists, do they even have the slightest clue who MJK is??? and God forbid, if they do, can we at least HOPE he doesnt give a flying fuck about them? cuz then, ya know, those game journalists would rank a notch higher than the real fans. haha LOL 8~)

  11. I so wished I was there…instead I was sitting at work about 10 min. away being bitter! Lol! Wonder what time they’re going on tomorrow at Viper Room?

  12. Bravo, Maynard and Billy. God damn Maynard’s voice is so pristine.  Any cover he chooses to do ends up sounding as good as the original.
     
    I doubt many people knew who was singing or on guitar, but how special and exclusive do you think the Tool fans in the audience felt when they realized what was happening? surreal.

  13. wow Maynard did sound really really good! Enjoy the upcoming show you lucky bastards who have tickets in the US! Living in London at the moment, and was hoping they would have made it here by now, probably have more luck back home in NZ (seen them twice there!)

  15. i am a dude….and i like girls, but Maynard really knows how to make beautiful everything he touches. i just wish those people in attendance would shut the fuck up, so we could hear it even better.

  16. Why do people insist on singing aalong with that song. Another utterly great performance ruined by annoying fans. I hope there was a professional recording of that since I say camera booms flying around in the back. Also, did MJK check his cell phone in the middle of the song (around 4:30)

  17. [quote comment=""] Also, did MJK check his cell phone in the middle of the song (around 4:30)
    [/quote] maynard has a cell phone..?!? what has this world come to!?? lmao. yeah, he probably has the iPhone4 before the masses can get it haha ;-)

  18. Since this looks like the ‘official’ post on this, somebody did get clear audio, sans über-annoying “background” vocalists joining in. And then the guy with the better video synced it up… it’s kind of… revealing, shall we say? Maynard does an admirable job on most of it, but there were clearly some challenging notes for him… this isolated audio gives you a completely different take from all the other audience perspective versions… nowhere to hide. Thoughts?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ikzaCelH7M

  20. spiralout247 – 5 hours ago  » 

     Also, did MJK check his cell phone in the middle of the song (around 4:30)

    maynard has a cell phone..?!? what has this world come to!?? lmao. yeah, he probably has the iPhone4 before the masses can get it haha ;-)

    Yeah, Maynard is super tech savvy he has twitter accounts for his wine and Puscifer. He also has a clothing line. If you look in his journal at his caduceus site you can see pics of him living it up with giant Gucci bags and all. I guess it is difficult to ignore material pleasures when you are that wealthy :p

  21. spiralout247 – 13 hours ago  » 
    if those are screaming game journalists, do they even have the slightest clue who MJK is??? and God forbid, if they do, can we at least HOPE he doesnt give a flying fuck about them? cuz then, ya know, those game journalists would rank a notch higher than the real fans. haha LOL 8~)

    Yeah, I think that if they had a clue who it was there would have at least been bouncers by the stage. Plus, no one was screaming hysterically lol.

  24. kittaan – 3 hours ago  » 
    Since this looks like the ‘official’ post on this, somebody did get clear audio, sans über-annoying “background” vocalists joining in. And then the guy with the better video synced it up… it’s kind of… revealing, shall we say? Maynard does an admirable job on most of it, but there were clearly some challenging notes for him… this isolated audio gives you a completely different take from all the other audience perspective versions… nowhere to hide. Thoughts?
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ikzaCelH7M

    That’s a huge difference. And wow…some places he really sounds, well, terrible… Damn.

  25. I listened to the video with the better audio and I think he still sounded fantastic. Not really getting which parts you think he botched it on.

  26. [quote comment=""]I listened to the video with the better audio and I think he still sounded fantastic. Not really getting which parts you think he botched it on.[/quote]
    I’m not sure why people would pick this apart too much.  How many people can sing other people’s material?  And realistically how many times do you think he’s rehearsed this?  A handful at best I’d say.
    I think the parts he struggled with are parts that Freddie struggled with live himself (the parts where Maynard tries to go into falsetto territory).
    Personally I’m more excited about another APC album now that I’ve heard this.  His vibrato control sounding very good and it’s like his voice has developed a “thickness” in the low end.
     
     

  27. Slave I

    [quote comment=""] I’m not sure why people would pick this apart too much.  [/quote]

    Unfortunately the nature of the internet is to be hypercritical.  What makes it worse is that people judge based on poorly recorded Youtube videos.  Did Maynard miss a couple of note?  Sure did.  Did Freddy Mercury miss a few notes when he sung it?  Probably!

    I thought Maynard did a pretty good job overall, and agree that people should give him a break.

  28. I for one wasn’t being hypercritical, based on youtube video/audio or not, some of those notes Maynard was definitely off key. Rather than being critical, I was actually rather quite amazed he was actually off key. I thought he was perfect, dammit. LOL

    Overall, though, I think he did an AMAZING job. I love his version, he definitely Maynard-ized it. :)

  29. I thought he was incredible and I can’t wait for a better audio and of course the new APC album I wonder if the scalpers know who they are/remember them? Same suit as some of the pussy-fur east coast tour shows as well

  31. Oh, shiiiiit. Maynard just got onstage. APC jams incoming? I WANT TO BELIEVE

  32. Slave I

    [quote comment=""]Oh, shiiiiit. Maynard just got onstage. APC jams incoming? I WANT TO BELIEVE[/quote]

    They’re probably gonna play eMotive from beginning to end…

  34. admin – 1 hour ago  » 

    Oh, shiiiiit. Maynard just got onstage. APC jams incoming? I WANT TO BELIEVE

    They’re probably gonna play eMotive from beginning to end…

    Apparently not:

    @mjkeenan was COMPLETELY uninterested in being on that stage. Hopefully he’ll come back up and at least fake it.
    about 1 hour ago via Echofon from West Hollywood, West Hollywood

  35. i mus admit i dont really like seeing maynard singing for guitar hero…
    he shouldnt do it is my opinion , it kinda damages the message he wants to give with his music from Tool…, atleast that is my opinion.

  36. i thought he sounded great on the better audio versions. sure, he strained to hit a couple notes and hold them, but who wouldnt. Justin Bieber could hit those notes, but he is a 16 year old whos balls have not dropped yet. name one other person who could hit those notes perfectly(that has hair on their balls).

  37. seanhalas – 1 hour ago  » 
    i thought he sounded great on the better audio versions. sure, he strained to hit a couple notes and hold them, but who wouldnt. Justin Bieber could hit those notes, but he is a 16 year old whos balls have not dropped yet. name one other person who could hit those notes perfectly(that has hair on their balls).

    Ok, I’ll bite. I’ll bet Freddie Mercury could hit those notes. Oh wait, he did hit those notes back in the day.

  38. [quote comment=""]

    seanhalas – 1 hour ago » i thought he sounded great on the better audio versions. sure, he strained to hit a couple notes and hold them, but who wouldnt. Justin Bieber could hit those notes, but he is a 16 year old whos balls have not dropped yet. name one other person who could hit those notes perfectly(that has hair on their balls).

    Ok, I’ll bite. I’ll bet Freddie Mercury could hit those notes. Oh wait, he did hit those notes back in the day.
    [/quote]
    Guess he and Maynard have something in common then, since there’s videos of both of them struggling with those notes :) .

  39. All things considered, they did an amazing job. I’d like to hear Freddy Mercury do a reasonable version of 46 & 2, even in his prime.
     
    I like how Maynard made the song his own, as someone else posted. Even singing a Queen song, it felt like he was singing to his own mother, oooh ooh oooh.

  40. [quote comment="38468"]i mus admit i dont really like seeing maynard singing for guitar hero… he shouldnt do it is my opinion , it kinda damages the message he wants to give with his music from Tool…, atleast that is my opinion.[/quote]
     
    dude bro, you haven’t listened to hooker with a penis? bro.

  41. Just listened to the “cleaned up” version and I think Maynard sounds fucking incredible!

  43. Thanks for taking those photos. What did Maynard perform? I couldn’t find anything.

  44. [quote comment=""]Thanks for taking those photos. What did Maynard perform? I couldn’t find anything.[/quote]
    I didn’t take them a friend did. He sang “The Prey” with them. Well he mostly moved around taking pictures of them while they played than he did singing the song.
     
    Nembutals – Where were you standing? How about that version of “The Chain”?
     

  45. I wasnt there (unfortunately). I was just following on twitter. They had me all fucking giddy though cause I thought someone was gonna shoot them playing some APC tunes and throw them up on Youtube. Oh well.

  46. Yeah! Too many rumors about the APC stuff but it was a smart move to have him there to bring more people in for Ashes. I don’t think they needed the help but nonetheless it was cool to see the little guy there. We read the one about how the smell hadn’t changed at The Viper Room since 1999 and just lit up… No not that way.
    Ashes are a great band to see live if you get the chance. I’m looking forward to seeing them again next week and then off to Denver. That version of Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain was just awesome and i wonder what they’ll do next week.
    I created some event pages for meet ups if anyone here is on FB that would like to join in. They are on the TA FB page.
    http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2204691936&ref=ts
    You might have to scroll down a bit.
     
    Hellboy not sure if there’s anything on here to do the same as some people might not have FB accounts.

  47. I’m sorry, what was Maynard singing? All I could focus on was “grabbed his ass”, and then after getting the giggles out of my system, realized that Maynard and Billy were performing together again, which is good.
    This reminds me of that horribly awkward video interview that Maynard and Billy did in 2000 where someone sent in a question asking if they were in love with each other.
    In all seriousness, I’m looking forward to hearing new material from both of them. I saw Ashes Divide live at a small show and had a great time. They write music really well together, so I’ll be a happy camper if there’s any new APC stuff in the future.
    I don’t really care what Maynard does for money. I like his music. What he does with his personal life doesn’t matter. But I do really like Billy, and I think he deserves 10x the amount of attention that he currently gets.

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