Tool are so influential to us rock and metal fans that it's easy to forget the band can be an acquired taste for some. For example, on the new WTF With Marc Maron, comedian Marc Maron laid out why he doesn't like Tool's music — though he's friendly with the band.

The episode from Thursday (March 23), which centered on a talk with comedian Nick Youssef, finds Maron recalling his separate run-ins with Tool singer Maynard James Keenan and Tool guitarist Adam Jones.

But Maron explained how he feels like he lost his chance to enjoy Tool's music because he didn't find out about the band until later on in life. Yet the funnyman, actor and podcast host still made a connection with Tool's gestures to comedy. Listen to the episode toward the bottom of this post.

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"That shit's gotta be planted young, dude," Maron tells Youssef of his distaste for Tool's music. "If it wasn't planted in my weird, angry, adolescent head. … That's where it happens, but I missed all that. So, there I was, like in my 40s, kind of listening to Tool. But they were comedy fans; they were [Bill] Hicks fans. There's a painting of Hicks on one of their records."

Affirming the references to Hicks on Tool's 1996 album, Ænima — an image of the late comedian in one Ænima panel calls him another dead hero — Youssef adds, "They have a clip of his stand-up [on the album]. That's how, weirdly, I found out about Hicks."

Marc Maron Is Cool With Tool Personally

Maron interviewed Keenan in 2013. "We had an extensive conversation about parrots," Maron remembers. "He used to work at a pet store. I wasn't a huge Tool guy but I got the opportunity to interview him, so we ended up talking about pet stores and parrots."

Plus, "I sat next to their guitar player at AEW [Wrestling]," Maron adds before Youssef confirmed it was Jones.

"We had a nice thing, but he knew who I was," Maron says of the encounter. "Someone DMed me like, 'That's the guy from Tool next to you.' And I'm like, alright, well I can't be like, 'I liked Oculus,' or whatever — I don't know. What's the albums' names?"

Youssef responded that he was likely thinking of 2001's Lateralus. And when Youssef asked Maron if meeting the Tool members made him appreciate their music more, Maron answered no. Hear the episode below.

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Nick Youssef on WTF With Marc Maron - March 23, 2023

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