Adam Jones

Lore & Background

Raised in Libertyville, Illinois, he was accepted into the Suzuki program and played violin through his freshman year of high school. As a child, he transformed animation ideas into three-dimensional sculptures, a hobby that later explained Tool's frequent use of 3D clay effects in their videos. He was offered a film scholarship but turned it down and moved to Los Angeles to study art and sculpture. Before that, he formed Electric Sheep with future Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello.

The duo met in Los Angeles—Jones had moved there for film work, while Morello was already attending UCLA—and they learned guitar together without traditional lessons. His path led him to Rick Lazzarini's Character Shop, where he worked on the TV show Monsters for two years, designing makeup like a Grim Reaper and a zombie head later used in The Frighteners. He subsequently joined Stan Winston's workshop, sculpting a unique skull for Predator 2.

Reader's Guide

Jones is known for a playing style that avoids a single dominant technique, instead combining power chords, scratchy noise, chiming arpeggios, and off-beat rhythms. On the 2019 album Fear Inoculum, he utilized drop D tuning almost exclusively, though songs like "Parabola" and "Prison Sex" feature other tunings. He employs unusual time signatures, such as the 7/8 intro in "7empest," and heavy triplets on Lateralus and 10,000 Days. His sound is expanded through experimental tools; he famously used an epilator as a plectrum on Ænima and Lateralus, a talk box on "Jambi," and pick slides on "Third Eye."

Live, his setup includes a DOD FX-40B Equalizer, Boss BF-2 Flanger, Boss DD-3 Digital Delay, a Dunlop Cry Baby, and an MXR Micro Amp. He primarily plays a prized 1979 Custom Silverburst Gibson Les Paul, which became a signature model in 2020, amplified by Marshall, Diezel, and Mesa Boogie stacks.

Did You Know?

• He created the makeup actors wore for the music videos of "Schism" and "Parabol/Parabola."
• In 2010, he co-wrote an X-Files/30 Days of Night crossover comic with Steve Niles.
• Jones received a Grammy Award in 2007 for Best Recording Package for his art direction on Tool's album 10,000 Days.