TOOL invites fans inside raw final rehearsal before tour

TOOL guitarist Adam Jones gave fans a rare look and listen at one of the band's final pre-tour rehearsals last week via Instagram Live.

The rare behind-the-scenes look into Tool's rehearsal showed Jones, bassist Justin Chancellor and drummer Danny Carey running through "The Patient" and later "The Pot."

Jones is one of only two members of the band who are regularly active on social media. Just before ending the live stream, he aimed his phone at a dry/erase board in the studio that read 'Last Practice." Apparently the challenge of the evening was to play through the set with no effects, using back up "crap gear" (hence Carey's smaller-than-usual drum setup).

Tool is scheduled to relaunch its Fear Inoculum tour this evening (Monday, January 10) in Eugene, Oregon, almost two years after the second U.S. leg of the tour was postponed due to the COVID pandemic.

Several fans on Reddit recalled their pleasant surprise at the intimate look into the band at work.

"When I saw the missed notification for a live video I was sure it was gonna be a message about tour cancellation...so happy," wrote one user.

Singer Maynard James Keenan, who was not shown in the clips from Jones' Instagram Live video, contracted COVID-19 twice — once during the band's last tour through Oceania in early-2020 and then again the following autumn while home in Arizona.

Keenan claimed to have suffered the excruciating effects of long-COVID after his first bout with the disease and was hospitalized briefly in December 2020 after contracting the disease a second time.