Watch: DANNY CAREY Talks About His Collaboration With Artist ALEX GREY For His TOOL Touring Drum Kit

TOOL drummer Danny Carey has shared a three-minute video in which he talks about his collaboration with Sonor drums and the artist Alex Grey for his touring drum kit with TOOL. Check it out below.

Danny said in the video (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "I've had a lot of people ask me about the drum set that I've been playing on the last few years. There's a guy that's done a lot of artwork for us named Alex Grey. He's contributed to our onstage visuals and our album covers for — God — probably 15 years now. He's done a fantastic job, taking the combination, a synergistic quality of the artwork and blended it with the music.

"I came up with an idea to have [Alex] do all the artwork on [the drum kit], just to make it more part of the show, I guess," Danny continued. "And he was happy to do it, so I was very fortunate. I had Sonor make me a really high-quality kit. I got to pick all the woods and stuff. The initial kit was beech wood and ebony, which is kind of what the old Sonor drums were made, like in the early '80s. So they made the kits, the shells and all this stuff, and I had them just paint 'em white, like white flat, like a blank canvas. And they sent 'em over from Germany, and then I sent 'em to New York where Alex's chapel is at his studios and stuff where he does all his artwork. I just kind of turned him loose on it. I didn't wanna tell him what to do. We went back and forth a couple of times, but I said, 'Here's the newest record. Just listen to this and knock yourself out.' [Laughs] And he knocked me out, and it was great. I mean, it has some of the classic Alex motifs, like the flaming eyeballs and things like that, which is really fantastic. Then the kind of the coup de grâce was he did a gong drum. He surprised me with that. And it's actually a portrait of me and a native hitting a drum. And he represented the sound waves going into my ear and then affecting my brain. It's kind of the process of inspiration of sound and the process of my drumming maybe affecting other people. But it's great 'cause it's me on the gong drum. So I was very flattered he did that.

"The drums have been fantastic," Carey added. "And I liked them so much though, and I was so worried about damaging 'em, I had Sonor make me another kit that's actually — instead of ebony and beech wood, it's bubinga and maple. So it has a little bit of a different-quality sound, but we scanned all the drums and all the images and stuff from Alex's paintings and then did wraps, like most manufacturers who do drum designs; they have wraps that go around the drums. So we did that so I don't have to worry about damaging the original artwork that Alex did for me. They're both amazing pieces of art, and I'm so flattered to have 'em. It was so nice of Alex to do that for me. And maybe I'll do it again. [Laughs] We'll see."

Carey began drumming at nine and joined his high school jazz band. In college, he expanded his studies to include geometry, science, and metaphysics. After college, he moved to Los Angeles, working as a studio drummer and performing with various bands. Carey joined TOOL after meeting singer Maynard James Keenan. Danny also participates in projects like PIGMY LOVE CIRCUS and VOLTO!

Quite possibly the era's most highly anticipated album, TOOL's latest LP, "Fear Inoculum", arrived in August of 2019. Debuting at No. 1 on Billboard's Top 200, the album earned heaps of critical praise with NPR saying, "'Fear Inoculum' was worth the 13-year wait," Revolver proclaiming the album "a masterpiece to be dissected for years to come" and Consequence saying the release finds "TOOL in peak performance."

In 2022, TOOL released "Opiate2", a re-imagined and extended version of the 1992 EP's title track and an accompanying short film, marking the band's first new video in 15 years. The band also unveiled the first incarnation of "Fear Inoculum" vinyl, dubbed the Ultra Deluxe edition, the limited offering included five 180-gram vinyl discs emblazoned with a unique etching and accompanied by an elaborate pictorial booklet including never-before-seen artwork.

TOOL formed in 1990, releasing five studio albums: "Undertow" (1993),"Ænima" (1996),"Lateralus" (2001),"10,000 Days" (2006) and "Fear Inoculum" (2019); two EPs: "72826" (1991) and "Opiate" (1992),and the limited-edition boxset "Salival" (2000). The band has won four Grammy Awards: "Best Metal Performance" (1998, "Ænima"),"Best Metal Performance" (2002, "Schism"),"Best Recording Package" (2007, "10,000 Days") and "Best Metal Performance" (2020, "7empest").