In a newly published interview with azcentral.com, Maynard James Keenan—the iconic frontman of Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer—shared his unfiltered thoughts on the chaotic state of the modern world. The expansive conversation took place while the singer was promoting Normal Isn’t, the latest album from Puscifer. Released last month, the record serves as a wry, cautionary reflection of our current societal landscape.
When asked how society arrived at its current state of unrest, Maynard pointed to the steady decline of the education system as a primary catalyst for the widespread susceptibility to misinformation.
“Uh, well, I mean, that’s. … That’s a long conversation, right? But you could see, historically, and of course, the whole point of education is for you to understand historically what that means. And so having been the son of an educator and his whole family are teachers as well, I watched in the ’80s, ’90s where the education system was undermined and, you know, you weren’t allowed to fail kids,” he said.
Maynard continued: “And so I feel like that just kind of lowers the education bar. That’s definitely historically where regimes start is to make sure that the people are kind of dumb and then they can just kind of tell them whatever they want and they don’t have the frame of reference or the tools to debunk what they’re being told, to critically think, to reason out puzzles, and then you end up here.”
The discussion naturally progressed to the topic of Artificial Intelligence. While many in the creative fields are panicked about being replaced by technology, the vocalist views AI through a slightly different historical lens, though he remains deeply concerned about the broader implications of unchecked extremism.
“I think it will just have to come to a head. You know, right now, artistically, you have a lot of people kind of flipping out about AI. There’s a million arguments from many angles, but one of the ones is that it’s going to somehow replace actors, artists and all that. And of course, we heard that when drum machines were invented, and we heard that when the cameras were invented.”
He continued: “I think there’s other considerations of why AI is a bad idea. But as far as being replaced, I don’t feel like that’s legitimate. I guess my point is that it’s somehow. … This has to find a balance. It has to be a breaking point when you have religious fundamentalists calling all the shots. True believers are scary. It doesn’t sustain, right?”
“Historically, when you have people that are choosing violent oppressions, it doesn’t last. It lasts long enough to hurt and do damage, like generational damage, but it doesn’t last. So I don’t know. I don’t know where that breaking point is in this crashing wave. I’m hoping it’s soon, but I don’t know, man. It’s gonna get darker before it gets better,” Maynard added.
Addressing the alarming trend of younger demographics being drawn toward religious fundamentalism, he emphasized his uncompromising stance on the separation of church and state.
“The separation of church and state, I absolutely believe that, because when it comes to state, it’s like … it’s a mechanism. It’s a car, it’s an engine, it’s mechanics. There’s no faith involved. There’s a mechanics to this thing. You can have your faith, but it shouldn’t affect how your car runs. It shouldn’t affect any of that.”
He added: “That’s why separating church and state is important to me, ‘cause the government should not be an emotional being. It should be a mechanism. It’s a machinery. No faith involved.”
He further reiterated this hardline stance against fundamentalism during a recent appearance on “Kyle Meredith With…“, stating boldly:
“I’m always going… to be on the side of f**k fundamentalist extremists in any way. Left, right, center, I don’t care if you’re a person who doesn’t understand humor and irony, and you mobilize on people who disagree with you. Um, sorry. That will always be the side that I go on is, fundamentalist extremists can go [f**king] suck a bag of d**ks. And you can quote me on that.”
Beyond politics and religion, the frontman also lamented the intense, manufactured division prevalent across social media platforms, attributing much of the modern culture war to the nefarious use of algorithms and bots.
“…It’s just constant. And, you know, it’s, of course, a rabbit hole of conspiracy theory here, but there are entire bots and chat rooms that all their job was is to drive wedges between us online, just start fights that were not fights and then get people to join the fight, and then they just step back and let you guys fight over everything. Over anything. Litter boxes in classrooms. F**k off.”
“Right down to like, you know, I think pronouns are important, but I don’t think that it’s a die on this hill fight. I respect whatever you want to call yourself. That’s completely fine. I don’t think you need to have a fistfight with a stranger in a parking lot that you met 30 seconds ago because they didn’t acknowledge your pronouns. That’s absurd,” Maynard continued.
He added: “I just feel like that algorithm and those bots have been feeding that over the last 10, 15 years. Just cultivating and just feeding that division and those just absolute silly fights.”
Acknowledging the irony of discussing these highly sensitive topics online, where nuance is often lost, he quickly noted:
“Yeah! Absolutely. Everything I just said, someone’s gonna take a piece of what I just said out of context, and there’s gonna be a fight online over five words instead of 200 words.”
Ultimately, the overwhelming negativity of the modern era served as the primary creative catalyst for Puscifer‘s latest release. Explaining why he chose to tackle these heavy themes on Normal Isn’t, he concluded:
“It just grabbed me. You know, you go in a certain direction with a song and then something comes up and it just changes the direction, especially nowadays. It’s an endless barrage of madness and inhumane behavior toward each other.”
