SIX DEGREES OF TOOL

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), May 4, 2007 | by CHRISTOPHER SHORT THE GAZETTE

A Tool concert is hardly the best place to get footloose, but you could still argue that they're the Kevin Bacon of bands. Since their early-'90s inception, five of the band's members have forged links to many popular rock bands of the past 30 years.

In honor of Tool's visit to the Springs, The Gazette presents a small slice of the band's twisted genealogy:

Vocalist Maynard James Keenan formed A Perfect Circle with Vandals drummer Josh Freese, who had previously drummed on recordings by Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell, Suicidal Tendencies, Social Distortion's Mike Ness and Guns and Roses. GNR's Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum are members of Velvet Revolver, along with Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots and Dave Kushner of Wasted Youth. A Perfect Circle also features guitar work by Troy Van Leeuwen, late of Failure, which also supplied members of the Replicants (see d'Amour below). Keenan and Freese were also members of the short-lived supergroup Tapeworm, with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and Phil Anselmo of Pantera.

Bass player Justin Chancellor is a former member of the British band Peach, whose only album featured a song by Robert Fripp. Fripp was a member of King Crimson, and also recorded with Brian Eno of Roxy Music and the Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel, and Daryl Hall of Hall & Oates.

Guitar player Adam Jones was in Electric Sheep with Tom Morello, whose guitar later defined the sound of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. Jones designed costumes for Green Jelly, and formed a side project called Noiseland Arcade with Buzz Osbourne of the Melvins, an early friend and idol of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain.

Drummer Danny Carey has done session work for King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew, who has in turn recorded for Frank Zappa, David Bowie, Paul Simon, the Talking Heads, Tori Amos, the Crash Test Dummies and Nine Inch Nails. Belew also performed on William Shatner's album "Has Been," produced by Ben Folds.

Former bassist Paul d'Amour joined members of Failure to form the Replicants, who covered Paul McCartney, T. Rex, Pink Floyd, The Cars and Neil Young. D'Amour then formed Lusk with Brad Laner, former frontman of Medicine.

SOURCE: allmusic.com, roadrunnerrecords.com, adrianbelew.net

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0183 or christopher.short@gazette.com

details

Tool in concert

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday

Where: World Arena, 3185 Venetucci Blvd.

Tickets: $55 from ticketswest.com

On the Web: toolband.com