Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan flushes L.A. away, sells his house tucked under Hollywood sign
Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan -- whose mid-'90s anthem "Ænema" called Los Angeles "one great big festering neon distraction" and said "Here in this hopeless [bleeping] hole we call L.A. / The only way to fix it is to flush it all away" -- has just sold the house he's owned since 2001, practically in the shadow of the Hollywood sign, for $2.37 million.
Opinions of the house are as trenchant as they are of Keenan's music. The property listing delicately calls the house "unique" and "sumptuous." Our friends at Curbed deem it "hideous." And Internet commenters are all over the map:
• "My faux-finished nightmare."
• "A bit garish for my taste."
• "This is the best house in L.A. You are all just a bunch of yes-men idiots. ... Now stare at your beige walls."
• "It's like a movie set, a half-gothic dream! If you can't appreciate artistic vision, then move on. I'm sure Sharon Osbourne's house could be more to your taste."
• "What a boring house. My image of MJK just dropped down a few notches because of this. No dark rooms, torture devices, or items of death or mayhem."
• "I get what he was going for, but the colors and patina miss egregiously."
• "Warm and inviting in a kooky sort of way."
• "Dark woods and wrought iron? I'm down."
• "This style is influenced by the designs you find in Indonesia, India, the Middle East, perhaps Turkey. ... The decor you find there is anything but cookie cutter like in the U.S., and yes, it makes you feel like you are high - it's great. ;) "
• "Aladdin, your house is ready ... "
• "Some of you people are the absolute, embodied epitome of everything that is wrong with America. You are so proud to bash anything but your mind-numbingly boring McLifestyle. GOD FORBID a home actually represent the owner, instead of how the owner wants their neighbors to view them. ... That's an amazing home, and it'll be a total shame when someone buys it looking to 'fix it up' and murders any real life it has."
• "A beautiful house once you become Zen with it. It might take a few weeks, but you'd love it once it becomes Yours. There is certainly a lot of craftsmanship in it, on a lot of levels. Total rocker house. Very cool."
• "We all have different tastes, rock stars especially. :) "
Hard as it may be to believe, the house appears to have been toned down a smidgen. As you'll see in the slideshow, a handful of earlier listing photos show a daringly blue master bedroom and red master bath.
Keenan has actually spent much of the last decade as a winemaker in Arizona, where he now makes his home.
