#986 - Maynard James Keenan

Joe Rogan (0:07)

What's it called again, what's the gym called?

Maynard James Keenan (0:09)

Verde Valley, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, so Verde Valley BJJ.

Joe Rogan (0:12)

And what town is that in?

Maynard James Keenan (0:14)

Old Town Cottonwood in Arizona.

Joe Rogan (0:16)

So you essentially invested and built a gym out there so you'd have a place to train?

Maynard James Keenan (0:21)

Basically, yeah.

Joe Rogan (0:22)

That's such a smart move. It's kind of what you have to do, right?

Maynard James Keenan (0:25)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (0:26)

Otherwise, you'd have to drive hours to go somewhere.

Maynard James Keenan (0:28)

I mean, there's megatons down south, there's a bunch of places down there, but it's a two-hour drive. There's also Ted Osborne, Osborne Jiu Jitsu has an academy there.

Joe Rogan (0:38)

When you decide where you're going to live, when you decide where you're going to decide to spend all your time, do you ever go, what the fuck am I doing in the middle of nowhere in Arizona?

Maynard James Keenan (0:48)

I'm maintaining peace of mind, and I remind myself of that right away.

Joe Rogan (0:53)

So that's essential. It's planned out in a sense.

Maynard James Keenan (0:56)

Just that isolation a little bit, just to be able to unplug and reset.

I think just my introvert nature, I need that time. I need that introspection. I need that moment.

Joe Rogan (1:08)

Yeah, because for you, you are kind of an introvert, but you're also kind of an extrovert. I mean, you're the lead singer of Tool. I mean, it's not like, I mean, you can only be so introverted and do what you do. So you have to kind of like fluctuate in between.

Maynard James Keenan (1:23)

It's a balance, but I need to recharge. I need to unplug and go back and recharge, and then I can go back out and do that.

Joe Rogan (1:28)

A lot of people never figure that out, right? They just kind of burn.

Maynard James Keenan (1:31)

They burn the fuck out.

Joe Rogan (1:33)

Yeah. How'd you figure out to not do that?

Maynard James Keenan (1:37)

First couple years of being in LA, realized it was just such an energy sap I needed to actually literally go someplace where there were very few people.

Joe Rogan (1:47)

Yeah, that's the move, right? God, I always keep thinking I should do that.

Every time I go to some small town, I'm like, this is probably the way to live. Just like know the people around you, who live around a few thousand people, you know, have a grocery store.

Maynard James Keenan (2:01)

Back in Backfire, too.

Joe Rogan (2:03)

Oh, totally.

Maynard James Keenan (2:03)

Yeah, small town drama, big town drama. It ends up being the same thing, but you actually, it's not a stranger yelling at you, it's your neighbor.

Joe Rogan (2:12)

Well, I think the small town drama is better if there's a college in town for some reason, right? Like those places like Boulder or there's a bunch of cities like that, like Bozeman, Montana is a good example.

There's these places that are like, they're not big, but the university somehow or another balances out the intellectual vibe of the town.

Maynard James Keenan (2:33)

I could see that. Yeah, like Boulder.

Joe Rogan (2:35)

Yeah, I wonder what Boulder's like now in the height and fury of social justice warrior, online activism. I wonder if Boulder's gotten weird. I haven't been back in a while.

Cause every place has kind of ramped up that shit over the last few years.

Maynard James Keenan (2:50)

You get me okay on this?

Joe Rogan (2:52)

You sound beautiful.

Maynard James Keenan (2:53)

Can you hear me okay, Connor?

Joe Rogan (2:54)

He's got Connor McGregor standing right in front of him for advice, so if anything goes south. Connor doesn't have his fuck you pinstripe suit on though.

Maynard James Keenan (3:02)

He's got his fuck you attitude in his fists right now though.

Joe Rogan (3:05)

Did you see the press conference?

Maynard James Keenan (3:06)

No, that's one of those, I was trying to find, what's the edit to like watch that thing rather than this? There's so much streaming going on, I had no idea what I was looking for.

Joe Rogan (3:14)

Yeah, the best, all you want to see is Connor talking. And a little bit of Floyd Mayweather responding, but Connor talking. There's Dana White's video feed. You can watch on, we can put it up right now.

You want to listen to it?

Maynard James Keenan (3:27)

Why not?

Joe Rogan (3:28)

Go to Dana White's Instagram profile. And then once you go to his Instagram profile, go to the video that's playing in his YouTube. There's like a link on his Instagram page. Connor's hilarious, man. He's fucking hilarious. And he's laughing and having a great time. And Floyd seemed like, he seemed a little rattled by how confident this guy is. When they were going face to face and standing off with each other.