Maynard James Keenan acknowledged that the buzz around Alex Honnold’s Taipei 101 Tool climbing playlist is “actually depressing.”
The American rock climber recently ascended one of the world’s tallest skyscrapers while listening to Tool, Linkin Park, and other bands.
Last month, Honnold successfully scaled Taipei 101, setting a new record for the tallest urban free solo ever, climbing the 101-floor, 1,667-foot building without any ropes or safety equipment.
He completed the climb in just one hour and 31 minutes, with the ascent broadcast live on Netflix. In an interview with Variety, he explained that the playlist he selected, which quickly went viral, played a key role in helping him maintain his pace during the climb.
“It was mostly Tool. It’s a random playlist that I made, that I shared with production. I made it months ago while I was driving. I’ve been training to it a bunch. Basically, rock music that I’ve liked my whole life. Part of the appeal of music is that actually it helps me with pacing.”
“Each bamboo box had been taking me about five to six and a half minutes. I just know how long the songs are. So it gives you a sense of if you’re going fast or slow. But in this case, it all kept cutting out anyway, and I couldn’t really hear and I was kind of like, ‘Whatever. I’m just doing my thing.’”
Shortly after completing the ascent on January 25, Honnold revealed that he relied on a carefully curated playlist to keep his rhythm during the climb. The mix, titled “T101,” was heavily dominated by Tool, featuring eight complex tracks from the band’s catalog including “Lateralus,” “Schism,” “The Grudge,” “Pneuma” and more.
In a recent interview with NME, Keenan discussed Honnold’s playlist and his remarkable climb.
When asked whether he had spoken with Honnold or planned to meet him, he replied: “I’m sure we’ll run into each other or something. I’ll be the one falling off the building and he’ll be the one climbing up it. But yeah, I definitely got some thunder off of him saying he was playing Tool songs. It’s actually depressing that what gets the attention is not the fact that this id*ot is climbing that building, which is still impressive, it’s the playlist.”
Keenan added: “My God, man. The balls to do what he did. When I get up from this chair, I’m going to have to take a minute before I take a couple steps, then I might have to do yoga before I hit the stairs. But for him, all his accomplishments get overshadowed by a rock band that can’t put out records in a very timely fashion. That’s pretty weird.”
