Tool’s Maynard James Keenan: Rape Allegation Is ‘Despicable False Claim’

Tool‘s Maynard James Keenan denied accusations that he raped a 17-year-old woman in 2000, calling the allegation a “despicable false claim.”

“Many thanks to those of you who saw right through this despicable false claim that only does damage to the #MeToo movement,” Keenan wrote on Twitter. “And shame on those of you who perpetuate this destructive clickbait. As for my delayed but un-required response, I had my phone off. You should try it.”

Last Friday, an anonymous woman took to Twitter using the handle @IWas17HeWas36. She claimed Keenan raped her after a Nine Inch Nails concert, which featured Keenan’s other band, A Perfect Circle, as the opener. The woman alleged that Keenan, then 36, spotted her in the crowd, took her back to his tour bus, put a movie on and began touching her and taking off his clothes.

“I froze so he had to move my body into a missionary position,” said the woman, who claimed she was 17 at the time. “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… 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.”

The woman also claimed that Keenan penetrated her without a condom and gave her a strain of HPV, “which thankfully was not the cancerous type.” She said she kept her story a secret for years because she felt she “wasn’t going to be believed by [t]he legion of dedicated fans,” adding, “I’ve carried a sense of deep shame from this assault for many years. I thought it was my fault. How could I let him do this to me? But he was 36. I was 17. He knew exactly what he was getting away with.”

The accuser did not immediately respond to a request for comment following Keenan’s statement.