How Tori Amos & Maynard From Tool Met Added May 27, 1997

Tori performed Muhammad My Friend at the RAINN benefit concert on January 23, 1997, as a duet with Maynard from the group Tool. Be sure to check out the tool web page toolshed.down.net (tdn), which includes quicktime video clips and still images from this duet, and an introduction.

The following was emailed to me by Shane Brouse (shane@toolshed.down.net)

Tori and Maynard met after Tori's show at The Greek in Los Angeles CA on June 29, 1996 while the band was mixing Ænima in North Hollywood CA.

About a year and half (winter 1995) before that I was watching a local TV rebroadcast of Tori's November 1994 show in Montréal PQ and was taken aback when I heard a story about her father being hip by knowing bands like Nine Inch (Nails), Pearl (Jam), and Tool.

I contacted Maynard to find out if he knew her or was familiar with her work. It turned out that he, like I, was a "huge fan" and wasn't aware that she was familiar with Tool's work but was really pleased to hear it.

I was put in touch with Rantz Hoseley through rec.music.tori-amos and found out that he had introduced her to the band during the recording of Under the Pink. I acted as a go-between between Maynard and Rantz for a while.

Rantz set out to get word to Tori that she and Maynard were mutual fans. By this time (winter 1996), Tori was in the middle of a media promotion tour for Boys for Pele and on tour shortly after (thus, *very* busy). Tori and Maynard still had neither met nor spoken.

Outside, after her May 1996 show in Montréal, I gave her a short note from Maynard and told her that he was going to try to attend one of her upcoming (June) LA shows. Since there was a large crowd of people vying for her attention, I had a hard time telling her *anything* so I couldn't go into detail.

Despite the band being very busy, Maynard managed to attend one of the LA shows and got backstage where Tori picked him out of the waiting crowd. The two had a chance to speak alone and have been friends since. Tori was one of the first people to have a copy of Ænima.

Performing Muhammad My Friend at the RAINN show was Maynard's choice. The two of them took about an hour before the show to work out the details.

I'm not sure what any of their future plans are.

I'm really proud of the duet. It's really odd to hear two familiar voices sing as one but very gratifying knowing the amount of work that went into getting the two together.

Please give me feedback, comments, or suggestions about my site. Email me (Michael Whitehead) at mikewhy@iglou.com