Artist Direct have a new article online where they’ve invited a bunch of artists, including Tom Morello, Rob Trujillo and Bill Kelliher to talk about their love for Tool:
Greg Puciato of Dillinger Escape Plan
Greg Puciato: The first time I heard them was the music video for “Sober”. I watched so much MTV at that time. I was enamored with all of the bands coming out. Being a kid watching MTV, that time period was amazing. There was one great band after another Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, Tool, Rage Against the Machine, and Pearl Jam. Every day there was a new exciting band coming out. Being 10 to 13-years-old, I was like, “Oh my God!” I didn’t really get into Tool until Ænima though. When I heard “Stinkfist”, I thought, “Wow, this is really next level musically!” They were the first band that I saw really trying to preserve themselves artistically. I latched on to how much they didn’t do. They didn’t do anything normally. They weren’t in their videos. They never did whacky tours with shitty bands. They refused to do anything that wasn’t exactly in line with their aesthetic. That really stuck with me more so than it musically influenced me. I realized what you don’t do is as much if not more important than what you do.
Some quite interesting answers actually. I found Steve Harris from Iron Maiden‘s response a little strange – like he’d barely even heard of the band!
