Maynard James Keenan is having himself a busy fall. Onstage, the TOOL vocalist is getting ready to honor none other than Ozzy fucking Osbourne at the upcoming Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, and offstage, he’s been plotting the launch of his new Queen B Vinyl Café. While some of the broader strokes are still under wraps, Keenan has dished some details in a new episode of The Allison Hagendorf Show.
Premiering via Revolver today (October 17th), the episode first finds Keenan dropping hints at what exactly he’ll be doing to pay tribute to the Prince of Darkness during this Saturday’s ceremony at Cleveland, Ohio’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse arena. Keenan confirmed that he will indeed be singing an Ozzy classic on the weekend, and while the proposition initially left him “terrified” and worried whether he could hit all the right notes, he accepted the challenge.
While it’s unclear what the song will be or which other musicians he’ll be jamming out with, it was previously revealed that the night will also find Jack Black, Zakk Wylde, Metallica’s Robert Trujillo, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, country rapper Jelly Roll and more making their way to the stage to salute the Ozzman.
Throughout the interview with Hagendorf, Keenan also talked up how he and his wife Jennifer are rebranding Puscifer the Store as the Queen B Vinyl Café venue/record store/restaurant, and moving it from Jerome, Arizona, to Cottonwood at the end of the month.
He also offered up some anecdotes around his Merkin Vineyards wine business, discussed the great fun of the Sessanta concert experience between A Perfect Circle, Puscifer and Primus, dug into his approach to vocal technique, and relayed a few details about the time he almost joined Rage Against the Machine.
Without spoiling too much, it’s a deep dive with MJK, and you can imbibe it like a fine glass of Merkin Vineyards wine up above.