Welcome to the show, Everyone! Enjoy my deep dive analysis of a legendary band and powerful songs! Please note there is a brief video glitch while I speak toward the very end (not during the reaction). The audio is fine. Don't worry it goes away :) Enjoy, Subscribe and leave a comment! :)

Tool lover here. My beautiful wife died in 2020 and she suffered from breast cancer. During her treatment and after she gave up the fight through chemo, this became her song.i got to take her to see Tool in 2019 right before she died. They opened w Aenima. My bby loved Tool!!and I love her still..❤

"Fetch me the spirit, the Son, and the Father! Tell them their pillar of faith has ascended! It's time, now! My time, now! Give me my wings!" Every time I hear that line I break down and cry...

You cried, you laughed and you contemplated deeply. That about sums up the Tool experience 🤘🌀

I am terminally ill and I had a Tool cover band where I did the vocals. Tool has always supported me and opens the third eye. Peace be with you. The next one will be me like Mary.

"10,000 days in the fire is long enough. You're going home."  Gets me every time.

GREAT reaction Rosalie! Judith Marie was Maynard's mom. She suffered an aneurysm/stroke in 1976 and was paralyzed for 27 years (approx. 10,000 days) when she passed in 2003. This song deals with Maynard's love of her, and coming to terms with her passing...and her faith (in stark contrast to the song Judith - by A Perfect Circle - in which he's deeply angry with God over her condition). Here he's resigned to her faith - can't understand it, but appreciates her steadfast belief (him even saying 'hallelujah' is remarkable considering). Above all, it shows his deep love for her!
I break down in tears every time I hear "10,000 days in the fire is long enough, you're going home"...the line and harmonies just gut me.
I know Maynard regrets making this song, putting such personal emotion behind it, but I'm glad he did. It's cathartic for so many people who have lost a loved one, especially through debilitating disease. What surprised me was that MJK sung this live for a while! THAT was gutsy!
Haven't even mentioned the music in either part...but who am I kidding - it's Tool...so it's excellence personified!

You young lady have summoned the Tool Army.  We are a unit, family, one. Loved listening to your breakdown of this masterpiece.   Have heard this played 1000 times and I always weep. I wept with you tonight sister.  Welcome to the tribe.

A lot of comments have told that Judith Marie was Maynard’s mother who was stricken with a dibilitatating condition which she spent approximately 10.000 days almost 27 1/2 years. She was very religious and kept her faith the whole time. What’s been glossed over is that some within her congregation she was a member of had told her that she wouldn’t have been in that condition if she had been “a better Christian” hence his disdain for the people who were part of said church.

My youngest daughter was extremely disabled.  She had Cri-du-chat, a rare chromosomal disorder. She loved church, even though my wife and I were devout Atheists. We let her go with no complaints. The beginning of the lyrical journey hits hard. 2 years ago, at the age of 16, she passed away. I played this song at her funeral. Not a dry eye in the house and my whole little town was there because she lit some many others candles. Love you Rebekah

It was always emotional watching Adam Jones hug Maynard after every performance of this song live.

Tools music helped me get through rehab and addiction and get in shape while in the gym and I lost 30 pounds.

A really powerful part is that Maynard is acknowledging his “outsiderness” from the faith by telling his mom to make sure to shake her fist and demand her wings. He KNOWS that’s not how it works, but as someone who values his mother higher than the god he doesn’t believe in, he’s telling her “you deserve everything, and I’m gonna make damn sure you get it, even if it means naively demanding things from this so-called god”. Advocacy for his mother in relation to a thing he doesn’t even believe in is so human and beautiful… she comes first.

James Maynard Keenan's mother, Judith Marie Keenan was a devote Baptist who suffered a paralyzing cerebral hemorrhage when Maynard was just 11-years-old. Judith would remain paralyzed in a wheelchair for 27 years until her death in 2003 at the age of 59 from complications following a brain aneurysm. The album "10,000 Days" is about Keenan sitting vigil over his mother as she dies the amount of time Judith spent paralyzed inspired the album.  Judith’s faith was strengthened upon her hemorrhage something that gave James issues as he's known to be staunchly anti-religious, he viewed his mother’s devotion as reason enough for her to be granted wings and ascend to heaven. “Ten thousand days in the fire is long enough/You’re going home.”  His mom also inspired.  " Wings for Marie ", that contains many of the same themes of religious devotion and struggling to understand and appreciate the faith that Maynard did not share. Also " Jimmy " on 1996's AEnima album that also makes reference to her incident, " 11 and she was gone, 11 is when we waved goodbye."  My favorite song about his mother isn't a Tool song but Maynard's other band ' A Perfect Circle ' with the song, " Judith ", saying things like "You're such an inspiration for the ways that I will never ever choose to be, " and " Oh, so many ways for me to show you how your savior has abandoned you."  I could go on and on but this is already long so I doubt anyone will even read this novel lol but James for a very long time was extremely angry about Judith faith.  He couldn't wrap his head around the idea that his mother who truly was a very amazing person who he loved deeply could have her faith only strengthened even though to James what happened to his mother was proof that religion, a God, faith was complete bullshit. To James if God was real and faith actually means something then the suffering he had to watch his mother go through should have never have happened because of her dedication to her faith.... God wouldn't have allowed that to happened to her or would have healed her and not kept her stuck in suspended animation for 27 years suffering in pain... For James if God was real these kind of things are what would happen to pieces of shit that deserved it, not his mother.  In her last few years her condition was extremely painful to watch as much as it was painful for her.  James Maynard Keenen would let us know what he thinks and feels about a God ( if there is one ) that would be okay with the suffering she endured for 27 years. Basically at times spitting in his face if he could because if God was real then James didn't want anything to do with a so called " God " that seemed to take pleasure in her suffering or at least give absolutely no shits about Judith... So James gave no shits about the thought of him.

If you haven’t cried uncontrollably and inconsolably like a baby listening to tool, you haven’t listened to tool

🕊️Yes, Judith Marie was paralyzed and suffered approx 10,000 days. During this time, someone from her church (Southern Baptist I believe) had completely convinced Maynard’s mother that HER sins WERE THE REASON she was suffering! This was wrong to have done to her! Yet, she continued to keep the faith despite all of this. Maynard demands that she deserves her wings as she was a pillar of faith, never murdered anyone and barely spoke a lie. Maynard’s life experiences and his thoughts on organized religions are reflected throughout his musical career. There are other songs he’s done with T{}{}L and with A Perfect Circle, circle back to these thoughts. It’s an absolute masterpiece. 🕊️

'didn't have a life, but surely saved one, see? I'm alright' 😭

Man, kicks me in the guts every time

Been listening to tool for 30 years... These are my fav two songs, but I rarely listen to them because they make me weep every time.  I'm glad i found your reaction so we could weep together.

Your reaction is precisely why we love Tool. There is no other band like them. Cried right along with you.

We played this song at my mothers funeral because she loved tool and because we shared the sentiment of the song.