THE BIG INTERVIEW: MAYNARD JAMES KEENAN

For this issue, we were going to travel to the Merkin and Caduceus wineries in Jerome, Arizona, for our How-To feature and learn how to press grapes with Tool, Puscifer, and A Perfect Circle’s Maynard James Keenan, frontman-cum-vintner who owns the two award-winning wineries. The trouble was, the harvest came early, and our dreams of stomping on Nebbiolo grapes in a wooden vat with Keenan like in that beloved episode of I Love Lucy were dashed. Disappointed doesn’t even begin to cover it! We’d already bought a leopard headscarf, an off-the-shoulder blouse, and a peasant skirt and were ready to kick off our Puma sneakers and stain our feet purple.

What’s a magazine to do? Well, it was one of those propitious moments when the lightbulb just went off like an exploding flashbulb. Gene Simmons has been unemployed since last December, so we thought he might need a job. We got in touch with the bassist and asked him if he’d like to take over this month’s Big Interview. To our great delight he said yes, so on Devil’s Night, the Demon and Puscifer went head-to-head in a very personal interview that reveals as much about Simmons as it does about Keenan. I stayed on for a few minutes to make sure the cub reporter did his job, but to be honest, Simmons got away with asking questions that I never could. Let’s see who he’ll grill next!