Tool are riding high right now, as their first album in thirteen years is currently #1 in many countries across the world. But this is a high that bassist Justin Chancellor almost missed completely.
Chancellor spoke with Ernie Ball Strings' new podcast, Striking A Chord, and revealed that when Tool was looking for a replacement for Paul D’Amour in 1995 and sent him an invite to audition, he initially politely declined.
“They were like, ‘We'd like you to come out and audition to be in the band.’ It was a little too much, really, to absorb and take in. I think right on that first call, I basically immediately just said, ‘Oh, I can't do that. I can't do that.’ Out of total fear. Just intimidation,” Chancellor said on the podcast.
Thankfully, his brother knocked some sense into him and told him to give it a shot, even though the band lived in a totally different country.
“I had the difficult thing of basically calling them back, and saying, ‘Would it be all right if I changed my mind?’ … “Anyway, they were really cool and they said yes,” Chancellor adds.
Unfortunately, his band at the time wasn't as supportive, but it all ended up working out. “I got kicked out of my band, because as soon as I told them I was going for this audition, there were fireworks. Everyone got really upset … I was assuming that the future was looking pretty open because I didn't have a band anymore. There's no way I'm going to get the Tool gig. So I'm sitting there writing music frantically, for my new project … Actually, I wrote the riff of ‘Forty Six & 2’ in that period.”
Listen to the full interview below:
[via Loudwire]
