Rock singer cultivates a passion for wine

Maynard James Keenan is what you might call an eclectic dude.

He's most famous for fronting popular hard rock bands Tool and A Perfect Circle. But he also has an experimental solo project called Puscifer and has been known to do occasional stand-up comedy.

Most recently, Keenan is becoming a wine man. He owns Merkin Vineyards and Caduceus Cellars -- both within 10 minutes of his home in Arizona -- and has spent a couple of weeks this year on a wine tour that's taking him to Whole Foods locations in California and Arizona.

On Tuesday, he and partner Eric Glomski will stop at the Fresno location.

In this world, he describes himself as a "slave to the sun and the rain." He broke ground in 2002 and planted his first crop in 2003.

"Vineyards are a commitment," he says. "If you're going to put in a vineyard, you know 'I'm in this for the long haul.' "

While Keenan is often known as being reclusive and tight-lipped about his music, he's more than happy to gab about his turn toward wine.

Here's what he had to say during a recent phone interview:

Question: So first things first -- how did you get into wine? Answer: It's just like anything else -- I'm kind of an obsessive person when it comes to finding things that are better than other things. When I first started drinking coffee, it was like, "Ohhh." But then someone gave me hazelnut; next was espresso.

I just like looking for the best things in life. Someone gives you a glass of wine, then they give you another one and you can taste the difference. It just followed that eventually I was going to get caught up in it.

You have a pretty interesting background: military, art and design school and hard rock -- where does wine fit in? It's expanding your sensory database in general. Rather than just mumbling through life, [it's about] embracing new experiences and growing as a conscious being -- not to get all esoteric on you. I'm an artist, so I like new experiences. Expressing a landscape through wine is just another direction.

Do you find you get a lot of rockers who don't usually drink wine, but will try it because your name is on it? And conversely: do you meet wine people who have no idea about your rock background?

Yeah, basically. On the rocker side, you have a lot of people coming to the initial events for one particular art form, and they leave with a new form of art. Then at the next event we notice they come and they have wine questions now, instead of staring at my head and going "You rock!"

You're often called a recluse. So what is it about the wine stuff that makes you want to get out there and do these face-to-face events? I think rock draws an odd element. I just think for the consumer American population, the marketing side of things has really pushed the idol worship angle constantly. When people come to a Tool show, they think of the individual pieces as someone that they aren't.

With the winemaking, it's adults talking. They tend to put that idol worship aside. It's a little bit more anonymous. I don't really know what I'm doing, so I get to be a nobody, just learning.

Since you've done the first round of these Whole Foods events already, can you tell us a little bit about what happens during them?Although we'd like to spend time with everybody and walk them through stuff, these are pretty packed. In order for us to get everybody through the door, it's sort of a quick "How you doing?" Again, it's not really about me, it's about what's in the bottle.