Adam Jones Of Tool Talks New Album & January Tour

2016 will mark 10 years since the release of the last Tool album, 2006’s 10,000 Days. The band has been hard at work on a new LP and guitarist Adam Jones discussed its status, Tool’s upcoming tour with Primus and more in a new interview with Rolling Stone.

When asked about how the new album is coming, Jones responded “I’ll tell you, it’s wonderful. Things are really flowing and going really well, and I’m just blown away at the stuff that’s coming together. I’m excited and can’t wait for it to be done. It’s something I’ve been missing for a long time [laughs], that beautiful collaboration that we have because we’re all so different and have different tastes. But again, when you are all meeting in the middle and that thing you do that meets in the middle is just beautiful, it’s very rewarding. So yes, I’m very happy.” He revealed the band has 20 potential song ideas to choose from adding, “I’ll tell you, there’s nothing better than having too many good songs then not enough. It’s great. You pick your faves.”

Tool debuted part of a new song called “Descending” at their lone appearance of 2015 on Halloween. “We have a song that’s probably about 13 or 14 minutes long, so what we’ve done with it is … I don’t want to call it a “best of,” but it’s a shortened, different approach to it. It is a new song. It’s like a vague movie trailer to the real movie [laughs]. Sometimes we do jamming between songs or some kind of segues, and it’s usually involved in some kind of new material. But that one’s just a little taste of things to come,” Adams said of “Descending.”

Primus and Tool both performed at the Monster Mash Festival on Halloween. Jones tells the story about sitting next to Primus’s guitarist his flight home, “I got on the plane to go home, and I’m sitting next to some guy and he goes hi, and I go hi, and he goes, ‘Adam, it’s Larry [LaLonde] from Primus.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, my God. I didn’t even recognize you.’ The last time I saw him, he had his hair dyed and it was shorter. We started talking and I said, ‘We’ve got to play together; we’ve got to tour together.” And he’s like, “Absolutely.’ I got back and our manager had already talked to their manager about possibly touring together. The stars were aligned.” Tool’s tour with Primus begins in San Diego on January 9.

Head to Rolling Stone for more from Adam Jones including how Tool setlists come together.