Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan talked about the idea of ever retiring after suffering a hip injury on tour this summer and undergoing surgery.
Keenan said, “I’m with the Stones on that one. On tour with [alt-rock supergroup] A Perfect Circle this last summer, we’d do our walk, find a coffee shop and do two miles there, two miles back or whatever. I woke up one morning and my hip decided not to work. I could not walk, like, ‘What the f*ck?’ Ice wasn’t working, heat, nothing.”
“I had to basically limp through the rest of the tour, then get on the phone to my doctors back here [in the US], because by Christmas I’ll have been in 18 different countries with three different bands, having played 28 shows.”
“[Live performance is] my world – not doing those shows is not an option. Retirement is not a f*cking option. Work the problem, figure out what you’ve gotta do and get back to work.”
The singer’s comments arrive less than two months after he went under the knife, and they line up with a touring calendar that leaves little room for rest. What follows is the context behind the injury, his recovery and the schedule that kept him from stepping back.
Keenan’s hip gave out on July 3 in Luxembourg during A Perfect Circle’s European tour, and he finished the run performing with a cane. His medical team in Los Angeles scheduled hip replacement surgery for August 26, and he asked for the procedure to be done before a September 1 cutoff so he could heal in time for his fall commitments. His first planned post-surgery appearance was Tool’s September 20 set at the Louder Than Life festival.
Keenan addressed the decision to press on rather than pull dates in his own words. He said: “Cancelling isn’t an option. People have purchased tickets and booked travel and lodging, most of which is probably nonrefundable.”
The August procedure was not his first. It was Keenan’s second hip replacement, following an earlier operation in June 2015. He returned to the stage just 25 days after this year’s surgery, joining Tool at Riot Fest in Chicago while performing with a cane.
That pace reflects a career split across three projects. Keenan has fronted Tool, A Perfect Circle and Puscifer, and he expected to play roughly 28 shows in 18 countries with those bands by Christmas 2026.
The remainder of the year is booked accordingly. His post-surgery schedule included Tool appearances at Riot Fest, Louder Than Life and Aftershock, a Puscifer European tour beginning October 25, and a joint Latin American run on which Puscifer and A Perfect Circle would perform separate sets. Additional dates in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Hawaii were also planned.
