I’m a huge fan of the band Tool. I think they’re great.

I’m also a Christian. So that means that sometimes I simply disregard rock lyrics if they don’t jive with what I believe… and sometimes I find alternate interpretations of rock lyrics; interpretations that support and/or challenge and/or harmonize with what I believe.

Tool has always been a band that gave me a lot to ponder, spiritually. Especially with the lyrics on their last album, Lateralus. In fact, there’ve been times when I’ve almost been sure that Tool’s lead singer and lyricist, Maynard James Keenan, was exploring some of the same spiritual ground where I’ve found myself.

So I was pretty interested in this news story from MTV’s website:

Recent postings on two Tool web sites — one of them purportedly by Keenan himself — contend that the singer has found religion and has left Tool. Could this really be? On Tuesday afternoon (April 5), MTV News' Kurt Loder e-mailed Keenan for confirmation, and this is what he e-mailed back: "I did, in fact, find Jesus. More news to follow. God bless ya."

Keenan's letter to fan site toolshed.down.net explains that "some recent events have led me to the rediscovery of Jesus" and that "Tool will need to take the back seat." A posting on Tool's Web site alludes to Maynard's newfound Christianity as well, but who wrote the post is unclear. It reads, "I went to the studio to give Maynard a bottle of wine ... [and] not only wasn't Maynard there, but ... I was told Maynard has indeed 'found Jesus' and that, for this reason, he's abandoned the project for the time being, if not entirely."

Alright, the odds here are that I’m the willing victim of a huge April Fools joke. Tool is known for their warped sense of humor, and they’ve been known to play April Fools jokes in the past.

But it could be true. Probably not, but it could be. Maybe I’m fooling myself here, but I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that it’s possible that Maynard has been alluding to Christianity in his lyrics for a while now.

Check out these lyrics from the song The Grudge. Could they be a reference to a sort of baptism?

Saturn comes back around to show you everything
Let's you choose what you will not see and then
Drags you down like a stone or lifts you up again
Spits you out like a child, light and innocent.
Give away the stone…
Let the oceans take and transmutate this cold and fated anchor.
Give away the stone.
Let the waters kiss and transmutate these leaden grudges into gold.
Let go.

I’ve often wondered about the spiritual implications of the lyrics to The Patient:

If there were no rewards to reap,
No loving embrace to see me through
This tedious path I've chosen here,
I certainly would've walked away by now.
Gonna wait it out.
If there were no desire to heal
The damaged and broken met along
This tedious path I've chosen here
I certainly would've walked away by now.

Then there’s these lyrics to the wonderful song Parabola:

We barely remember who or what came before this precious moment,
We are choosing to be here right now. Hold on, stay inside
This holy reality, this holy experience….
Twirling round with this familiar parable.
Spinning, weaving round each new experience.
Recognize this as a holy gift and celebrate this chance to be alive and breathing.
This body holding me reminds me of my own mortality.
Embrace this moment. Remember. We are eternal.
All this pain is an illusion.

My favorite Tool lyrics, however, are to the title track from Lateralus. Maynard may not have had the Christian experience in mind when he wrote these lyrics… in fact, he probably didn’t… but when I listen to the song, it becomes something very personal, very spiritual, and very Christian to me:

Feed my will to feel this moment urging me to cross the line.
Reaching out to embrace the random.
Reaching out to embrace whatever may come.
I embrace my desire to
feel the rhythm, to feel connected
enough to step aside and weep like a widow
to feel inspired, to fathom the power,
to witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain,
to swing on the spiral
of our divinity and still be a human.

Even the Tool songs that seem at first to be critical of Christianity are really, to my way of thinking, simply critical of hypocrisy in all it’s forms. I love, for instance, the lyrics to the song Eulogy:

Standing above the crowd,
He had a voice so strong and loud and I
Swallowed his facade cuz I'm so
Eager to identify with
Someone above the ground,
Someone who seemed to feel the same,
Someone prepared to lead the way, with
Someone who would die for me.
To ascend you must die.
You must be crucified
For your sins and your lies.
Goodbye.

There are, however, other songs that seem to be outright indictments of the Christian faith. Opiate, for example… and the song Judeth, by Maynard’s other band, A Perfect Circle.

I suppose we’ll find out if it was a joke for sure in the next few days. It may simply be Maynard’s way of mocking Brian “Head” Welch, the former Korn guitarist who’s decided to devote his life to Christ.

Nonetheless, as a Tool fan and a Christian, I love the idea of Maynard James Keenan turning his songwriting skills to an exploration of the same path I’m on.

Wow. WOW!

We’ll see.