An anonymous woman has accused Maynard James Keenan of Tool and A Perfect Circle or raping her backstage at an A Perfect Circle show in 2000, alleging she was 17 years old at the time.
Sharing the story via the Twitter handle @IWas17HeWas36, the first-hand account has already been shared multiple times across the platform — prompting multiple women to come forward with similar experiences regarding sexual assault and Maynard James Keenan.
The original poster (who has decided to remain anonymous “directly out of fear”) claims she was lead into a private room with Maynard, who allegedly raped her after putting on a movie.
You can read the account in full below:
“Deep breath. I have to anonymously tell this story because I tried to tell it from my real account and couldn’t name him directly out of fear, so I deleted the tweets. Here goes: I was 17 and he was 36.
I went to see A Perfect Circle and NIN in the year 2000 with my high school boyfriend. I will leave out the city in an attempt to protect myself. We were looking forward to this all year as both of us were really huge fans, teenagers obsessed with great music.
We were in the front row and my boyfriend had his arms around me. The band started. Maynard noticed me in the crowd. Not that it matters what I wore, but I was wearing a NIN tank top and baggy cargo pants with flat-soled combat boots.
Maynard saw me and threw a water bottle in my direction. The guy next to me caught it. My boyfriend and I laughed and thought that was cool. Minutes later, a heavy-set, blonde, white woman came out to meet us. She looked at me and asked, “Do you want to meet the band?”
I said, “Can my boyfriend come with me?” The heavyset woman said “I only have one pass. You can meet them now if you want.” I told my bf that I’d see him in a few minutes, and then I followed her backstage. She lead me back to the VIP area, and I never saw her again.
Maynard was sitting on a picnic table and was staring at me. NIN hadn’t gone on yet so I thought I had plenty of time to get an autograph and get back to the show and my boyfriend. I didn’t have a piece of paper, so I asked Maynard to sign my hand.
I was ready to go back with my bf. NIN was starting and I didn’t want to miss it. But Maynard kept chatting. He asked me how old I was. I said, “I’m 17.” Then he said, “I can’t talk to you here, let’s go watch a movie” and he pulled me away from everyone and onto a tour bus.
He lead me to a bed in the back on the bus and closed the door. He put on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I decided to watch a few minutes and at least have a weird story to tell my boyfriend later. Yes, 17 year olds can be naïve. This is why older men target teenage girls.
He started rubbing my neck. At this point, I fell silent. He talked about the film, Johnny Depp, and Hunter S. Thompson while he started taking his pants off. All I could do was sit there, looking at the movie, unable to move.
I froze so he had to move my body into a missionary position. He pulled off my cargo pants. He forced himself in- there was no attempt at “warming up”. I mention this because this wasn’t about sex. This was about raping me as fast as he could.
He penetrated my vagina without a condom, moving rapidly, while I lay there frozen in a stunned silence. If I sound clinical it’s because it has been a long time and I have tried to push down any sort of fear or shame that comes with a rape.
There was no consent made. I was not high. I was clean. He did not seduce me, he forced me, quickly taking advantage of my paralyzed state. It took me years to process his actions. He came all over my torso and didn’t wipe me off. There were stains on my tank top when I left.
I don’t remember the next few minutes but I do remember this- my boyfriend was waiting for me at the doorway where I had been lead. His face was sick with worry. I didn’t want to upset him so I kept it to myself.
I’m sure to some this doesn’t sound like rape. I’m telling this story because in the year 2000 the conversation about consent was non-existent, at least not at my high school. Statutory rape in this state is 16 and under. Lucky for him he beat it by 1 year.
I kept it in for years because I knew I wasn’t going to be believed by the legion of dedicated fans. Because he chose to not use a condom when he raped me, he also gave me a strain of HPV, which thankfully was not the cancerous type.
Later on, I heard from a male friend that he did this in every city, at every show. He preferred underage girls (or as close to underage as he could get). What happened to me has likely happened to a lot of underage girls by this same man.”
Deep breath. I have to anonymously tell this story because I tried to tell it from my real account and couldn’t name him directly out of fear, so I deleted the tweets. Here goes: I was 17 and he was 36. 1/
— Iwas17HeWas36 (@IWas17HeWas36) 23 June 2018
The account has sparked others to come forward with allegations of their own, detailing similar experiences.
A Perfect Circle tour November 6, 2003, Tampa, FL.
Maynard James Keenan and Twiggy Ramirez invited me back to the hotel, A high-rise in downtown Tampa, booked under another name which I had to use to get upstairs. Maynard tried to rape me.
— [email protected] (@Dingledoddiesg1) 26 June 2018
Another user responded to that story with a similar account:
“This sounds similar to an experience my roommate had at a Tool show in 2002. She went to the bathroom while her boyfriend and I were waiting in line for a beer. She comes out of the restroom and an official looking guy with an ID approaches her and asks, “Do you know the lead singer’s name?”
She says, “Yeah, Maynard.”
He says, while waving some kind of pass, “Would you like to go backstage and met him?”
She says, “Can I bring my boyfriend?”
The dude says, “Sorry, he’s not into guys anymore,” then walks off to another group of people.”
In 2016, a similar account was posted on the forum Ultimate Guitar.
“My friend almost slept with Maynard James Keenan, the lead singer of Tool. This time he was opening for NIN as APerfect Circle. I’ll try to keep it short, but after being offered backstage passes by a security guard, she was waiting around to meet Trent [Reznor]. That’s when Maynard approached her and invited her to hang out in the trailer to chill and ‘watch movies.’ They were watching Happy Gilmore and he was wearing silk pants. That’s when he whipped it out. She immediately got up and left.”
None of the accusations has been proven in any court of law and no criminal charges have been laid. Maynard James Keenan has not yet released a statement.
