Lawrence.com

September 5, 2006

Born and bred in Kansas, Danny Carey was a typical small-town kid: he scrapped with his brothers, he played basketball and he joined his high school band. After being born in Lawrence, Carey excelled at drumming from an early age. At age 13, now living in Paola, he began lessons on the drum kit; by 17, he was playing with jazz bands. He passed on a scholarship to the Conservatory of Music in Kansas City, spent a few years studying drums at UMKC, and then headed west to Los Angeles.

As with all aspiring musicians newly landed in L.A., Carey worked a day job - in his case, at a tape duplication studio - and sought gigs in the clubs at night. He did session work for Carole King, played '60s covers for a short-lived TV sitcom and drummed for the outrageous and litigiously handicapped shock-band Green Jelly. His neighbor, Maynard Keenan, was also trying to get a band together. Carey offered Keenan the use of his practice space and the rest is history. In 1990, Carey, Keenan and guitarist Adam Jones became Tool.

Six albums and 25 years later, Tool is one of the world's best-selling and most provocative hard rock bands. Their virtuoso performances are praised as loudly as their dark and mystical image is decried. Former Lawrencian Danny Carey phones in to our black leather-lined podcast studio to catch up on hexagrams, Mandalas, surfing, Volto! and The Pigmy Love Circus - all things near and dear to a Kansas boy's heart.