Tool Nearly Burned Down Their Studio While Recording Fear Inoculum

Given the complexity and innovation of Tool's new album Fear Inoculum, one would probably be unsurprised to learn that its recording wasn't without pitfalls. Besides the well-known delays leading up to the band writing and releasing the album, there were also mishaps and misunderstandings that went down during the process of tracking the record. But few of them compare to when drummer Danny Carey went a little hard in the studio… and nearly burned it down.

In the latest episode of our new podcast Inside Track, producer Joe Barresi remembers the recording sessions for Fear Inoculum, and how during the recording of Danny Carey's drums, calamity almost struck.

"We were tracking," explains Joe. "We always like to set up the room so it's visual. Dan's got, like, some geometry thing behind him, and there's always a PA and candles. It's very vibey. And I remember the drum tech, Bruce Jacoby, was in front of the console, and I saw this look of panic in his face. And I was like, 'What? What's going on?'

"All of a sudden, he just bolts out of the control room through this back door," continues Joe, "and he gets behind Danny's drum kit, where, I guess Dan was playing with such power that one of the candles fell over on his floor tom and started burning the floor tom, so the head went on fire. And there's sprinklers in the ceiling, so we were trying to get the fire out before the sprinklers went off and the whole recording would be ruined. So that was one of the most insane moments, actually -- Dan almost burning down the studio."

Listen to the full episode here:

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To learn more about the recording of Fear Inoculum and to hear all of the episodes of Inside Track, SUBSCRIBE NOW at one of these fine podcast distribution sites:

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And if you want to see Danny Carey bring the house down figuratively, catch Tool at one of their upcoming tour dates:

October

25 San Antonio, TX AT&T Center
27 Houston, TX Toyota Center
29 Tulsa, OK BOK Center
31 Milwaukee, WI Fiserv Forum

November

02 Indianapolis, IN Banker’s Life Fieldhouse
03 Chicago, IL United Center
05 Cincinnati, OH US Bank Arena
06 Cleveland, OH Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse
08 Pittsburgh, PA PPG Paints Arena
09 Detroit, MI Little Caesars Arena
11 Toronto, ON Scotiabank Arena
12 Toronto, ON Scotiabank Arena
14 Boston, MA Garden
16 Newark, NJ Prudential Center
18 Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center
19 Brooklyn, NY Barclay’s Center
21 Uncasville, CT Mohegan Sun Casino Arena
22 Atlantic City, NJ Boardwalk Hall
24 Raleigh, NC PNC Arena
25 Washington, DC Capitol One Arena