Maynard James Keenan Research Paper

Maynard James Keenan (born James Herbert Keenan) is not your average artist. He is a jack-of-all arts kind of guy. His massive amount of works of art can be visualized as a great river with many streams and tributaries. He has taken on all kinds of roles, a role as a vintner, a comedian, singer/songwriter, and he’s played every band member’s role in at least one of his productions. Because of the deep philosophic meaning his fans find in his lyrical works he is practically seen as a god. Maynard James Keenan is far from divine, he is human, that is what inspires me about him. He in an artist through and through, he sees through ruse and facade of humanity in the modern era. He speks from his heart. He is genuine in his emotion, and his emotion flows through all of his artistic …show more content…
To me he is an inspiration as an artist, a great mind, and inspiration in his work which is meticulously thought out to have meaning, and impact the audience.
Maynard James Keenan was born in Ravenna, Ohio on April 17th 1964. He was born unto Judith Marie and Micheal Loren Keenan. Keenan’s mother suffered a cerebral aneurysm in 1976 when she was 31 years old, Keenan was only 11 years old (McAlley, 2007). She was left paralyzed, and when she died 27 years later it fed as inspiration for a number of Keenan’s musical writings including the songs Wings For Marie pt 1&2 (Tool), and Judith (A Perfect Circle), and even as inspiration for the first of his wines under the his label Caduceus which he named Nagual del Judith (Petrovic, 2012). After Keenan’s birth father divorced his mother, she married again bringing Keenan into “an intolerant and unworldly household, where his intelligence and creative expression would be stifled” (McAlley, 2007). He then