Enigmatic Tool and A Perfect Circle frontman Maynard James Keenan is quite well-known for his bombastic personality that leads to a wide variety of public statements, the one last weekend may have been one of the weirdest.
Donned in full riot gear at the Boston Calling music festival over Memorial Day weekend, Keenan ripped apart those he viewed as “whining, entitled snowflakes,” a categorization of people which apparently included himself.
Keenan didn’t exactly specify what had inspired him to give a dogmatic speech about the role of the military and law enforcement in society, presumably it the tragic Manchester Arena terrorist attack, which had inspired a great many of artists to speak up.
Apparently, during a set which included the band’s first performance of “Eulogy” in 16 years, Keenan took the opportunity to say “As artists, we interpret and report. That’s our job. We are merchants of emotion. We have the privilege to do that because of active and former law enforcement and military, defending our right to do so.”
Keenan went on to say “Those of you who are law enforcement and military, your job is to defend our right to act like whining, entitled snowflake assholes. Myself being one. Snowflakes, your job is to respect that I’m f**king doing that for you. Divided we fall. Don’t believe the hype dumb-dumbs, we’re all in this together.”
Keenan previously served in the US Army as a forward observer before founding Tool.
Tool will remain on the road until mid-June. Although reports had said Keenan had begun work on vocals for the upcoming Tool album, any allegations of 2017 release were quickly shot down. In the meanwhile, hopefully fans will be satiated with some new material from A Perfect Circle, Keenan’s other widely acclaimed band.
Check out a video of Keenan’s speech below.
Photo Credit: Marv Watson
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