View source for Adam Jones (musician)


{{other people||Adam Jones (disambiguation){{!}}Adam Jones}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name              = Adam Jones
| image             = Adam Jones by Gage Skidmore.jpg
| caption           = Jones in 2025
| birth_name        = Adam Thomas Jones
| alias             = 
| birth_date        = {{birth date and age |1965|1|15}}
| birth_place       = [[Park Ridge, Illinois]], U.S.
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}}
| instrument        = {{flatlist|
* Guitar
* bass guitar
* {{nowrap|[[upright bass]]}}
* [[violin]]
* [[sitar]]
* [[talkbox]]
* [[synthesizers]]
}}
| occupation        = {{flatlist|
* Musician
* songwriter
* [[visual artist]]
* music video director
}}
| genre             = {{flatlist|
* [[Alternative metal]]
* [[art rock]]
* {{nowrap|[[post-metal]]}}
* [[progressive metal]]
* [[progressive rock]]
}}
| years_active      = 1984–present
| label             = {{flatlist|
* [[Volcano Entertainment|Volcano]]
* [[Zoo Entertainment (record label)|Zoo]]
}}
| current_member_of = [[Tool (band)|Tool]]
| past_member_of    = Electric Sheep
| spouse = Korin Faught
}}
'''Adam Thomas Jones''' (born January 15, 1965)<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rose |first=Mike |date=January 15, 2023|title=Today's famous birthdays list for January 15, 2023 includes celebrities Dove Cameron, Pitbull|url=https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2023/01/todays-famous-birthdays-list-for-january-15-2023-includes-celebrities-dove-cameron-pitbull.html |access-date=January 16, 2023 |website=[[Cleveland.com]]}}</ref> is an American musician, songwriter, visual artist, and music video director, best known as the guitarist of [[Tool (band)|Tool]]. Jones has been rated the 75th-greatest guitarist of all time by the ''[[Rolling Stone]]''<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/5945/32609/33565 |title=100 Greatest Guitarists: 75 – Adam Jones |magazine=Rolling Stone |access-date=March 12, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612165148/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/5945/32609/33565 |archive-date= June 12, 2010 }}</ref> and placed ninth in ''[[Guitar World]]''{{'}}s Top 100 Greatest [[heavy metal music|Metal]] Guitarists.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=18446 |title=Guitar World's 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Guitarists Of All Time - Blabbermouth.net |website=Roadrunnerrecords.com |date=2004-01-23 |access-date=2015-12-28 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110902145402/http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=18446 |archive-date=September 2, 2011 |df=mdy }}</ref> With experience in [[special effect]]s and [[scenic design|set design]] in the [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood film industry]], Jones is also the director of the majority of Tool's music videos.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.toolband.com/source/video/ |title=Tool : Music Videos |website=Toolband.com |access-date=2015-12-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304050243/http://www.toolband.com/source/video/ |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

==Early years and personal life==
Jones was born in [[Park Ridge, Illinois]], and raised in [[Libertyville, Illinois]].{{cn|date=January 2023}} He was accepted into the [[Suzuki method|Suzuki program]], and continued to play violin through his freshman year in high school. As a child, he had an interest in animation, turning his ideas into three-dimensional sculptures, which explains why [[Tool (band)|Tool]]'s music videos often had 3D clay effects.  He later began to play the [[double bass]] in an orchestra.<ref name="tdn">{{cite web
| url=http://toolshed.down.net/bio/
| title = The Tool Page: Adam Jones Biography
| first = Joel | last=Mahaffey
| work= The Tool Page (t.d.n)
| date = August 6, 2001
}}</ref>

In addition to playing [[classical music]], Jones played [[bass guitar]] in the band Electric Sheep, with future [[Rage Against the Machine]] member [[Tom Morello]] playing guitar, until Jones moved to California (Morello soon followed). According to both of them, the band was quite unpopular at the time. Jones never received traditional guitar lessons, but he and Morello learned from each other.<ref name="tdn"/>

On July 6, 2013, Jones married painter Korin Faught. They have two sons and a daughter.

==Career==
===Film work===
Jones was offered a film scholarship but declined and chose to move to Los Angeles to study art and sculpture. His interest shifted to film, and he began to work as a sculptor and special effects designer, where he learned the [[stop motion]] camera techniques he would later apply in [[Tool (band)|Tool]]'s music videos, such as "[[Sober (Tool song)|Sober]]", "[[Prison Sex]]", "[[Stinkfist]]", "[[Ænema]]", "[[Schism (song)|Schism]]", "[[Parabola (song)|Parabola]]", and "[[Vicarious (song)|Vicarious]]". He graduated in 1987.

After graduation, he went to work at Rick Lazzarini's Character Shop. During the next two years, he worked on the TV show ''[[Monsters (American TV series)|Monsters]]''. He designed and fabricated a [[Grim Reaper]] makeup and a zombie head on a spike (later used in ''[[Ghostbusters II]]'') among others. After that, he went to [[Stan Winston]]'s special effects workshop, where he worked on ''[[Predator 2]]'', sculpting a unique-looking skull for the Predator's spaceship interior.<ref name="tdn"/>

Jones worked on several other films in Hollywood doing makeup and set design, including ''[[Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park]]'', ''[[Batman Returns]]'', ''[[Terminator 2: Judgment Day]]'', ''[[Dances with Wolves]]'', and ''[[Ghostbusters II]]''.
He did the "[[Freddy Krueger]] in the womb" makeup for ''[[A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child]]'', as well as work for ''[[A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master]]''.

He also worked on commercials for salad dressing (never aired), Olympic Paints & Stains ([[Albert Einstein]] makeup), and [[Duracell]] (boxers and taxicabs).<ref name="tdn"/>

===Music career===
{{Main|Tool (band)}}
[[File:Big Day Out Melbourne 2011 - Tool (5406761541).jpg|right|thumb|Jones performing with Tool in 2011]]
Jones also toured with [[Jello Biafra]]/[[The Melvins]] and contributed to their albums ''[[Never Breathe What You Can't See]]'' and ''[[Sieg Howdy!]]''. Jones and Melvins guitarist/vocalist [[Buzz Osborne]] are close friends. Jones also appeared on the Melvins album ''[[Hostile Ambient Takeover]]'', the live album [[Colossus of Destiny]], the Melvins/[[Lustmord]] collaboration ''[[Pigs of the Roman Empire]]'' and the [[Isis (band)|Isis]] album ''[[Wavering Radiant]]''.

On ''[[Mr. Show with Bob and David|Mr. Show]]'', he appeared as the fictional guitarist of [[Puscifer]] along with bandmate Keenan, and can also be spotted in the audience seated at a table with Keenan in the series' first episode.

On August 14, 2011, Jones performed the [[The Star-Spangled Banner|national anthem of the United States]] at the outset of [[WWE]]'s [[SummerSlam (2011)|SummerSlam]] wrestling event in Los Angeles.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/Blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=162010 |title=Tool Guitarist Performs National Anthem at WWE Summerslam |publisher=Blabbermouth.net |access-date=2011-08-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111209064619/http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=162010 |archive-date=December 9, 2011 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

In 2025, WWE announced that Jones provided the guitar parts for [[Lucha Brothers|The Lucha Brothers]]' entrance themes.<ref>{{cite news | last=Roland | first=Tyler | title=Tool's Adam Jones cranks out another WWE walk-out theme | url=https://theneedledrop.com/news/tools-adam-jones-cranks-out-another | work=theneedledrop.com }}</ref>

====Playing style====
Adam Jones is known for not predominantly using any particular guitar playing technique, but rather combining many techniques<ref name="guitarplayer2001">{{cite web| url=http://toolshed.down.net/articles/index.php?action=view-article&id=June_2001--Guitar_Player.html| date=June 2001| title=Mysterious Ways| work=Guitar Player| access-date=2007-05-02| first=Jon| last=Wiederhorn| quote=Jones isn't a shredder, a pop guitarist, a jazz man, an avant-garde iconoclast, or a blues player, but his performances often include elements from all those genres.| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130720082406/http://toolshed.down.net/articles/index.php?action=view-article&id=June_2001--Guitar_Player.html| archive-date=July 20, 2013| df=mdy-all}}</ref>  such as "alternately utilizing [[power chords]], scratchy noise, chiming [[arpeggios]], off-beat rhythm patterns, and a quiet minimalism".<ref name="soberamgreview">{{cite web | url={{Allmusic|class=song|id=t945539|pure_url=yes}} | title=Sober Song Review |publisher=AllMusic | access-date=2007-05-02 | first=Steve | last=Huey}}</ref> On the 2019 release, ''[[Fear Inoculum]]'', Jones used [[drop D tuning]] almost exclusively. He has used other tunings outside of [[drop D tuning|drop D]] in songs like "[[Parabola (song)|Parabola]]" and "[[Prison Sex]]". In the song "[[7empest]]", Jones uses a 7/8 time signature throughout the intro of the song.<ref>{{Cite web|date=August 30, 2019|first=Graham|last=Hartmann|title=Tool's 15-Minute '7empest' is the Greatest Work of Adam Jones' Career|url=https://loudwire.com/tool-7empest-greatest-work-adam-jones/|access-date=2021-05-06|website=Loudwire|language=en}}</ref> On ''[[Lateralus]]'' and ''[[10,000 Days (Tool album)|10,000 Days]]'', he made heavy use of [[Tuplet#Explanation|triplets]]. Other techniques used to expand his band's sound repertoire require forms of instrumental experimentation and applications of non-instrumental experimentation as well, such as his use of an [[epilator]] as a plectrum on the '' [[Ænima]] '' and ''[[Lateralus]]'' albums for example; continuing in this direction on the [[Tool (band)|Tool]] song, "[[Jambi (Tool song)|Jambi]]",<ref>{{cite web|last=Forlenza |first=Jeff |title=The Making of Tool's "10,000 Days" |publisher=Mix |date=July 1, 2006 |url=http://mixonline.com/recording/projects/audio_making_tools_days/ |access-date=2007-05-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070503160812/http://mixonline.com/recording/projects/audio_making_tools_days/ |archive-date=May 3, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Jones uses a [[talk box]]. In the song "Third Eye", he makes use of a [[pick slide]] for the opening. Live, Jones can be seen with a large pedalboard of effects, including a [[DOD Electronics|DOD]] FX-40B Equalizer (EQ) pedal, [[Boss Corporation|Boss]] BF-2 Flanger, Boss DD-3 Digital Delay, a [[Dunlop Cry Baby]], and a [[MXR]] [[MXR Micro Amp|Micro Amp]], among others.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-04-14|title=Section C. The History of the Band|url=https://thetoolfaq.com/section-c-the-history-of-the-band/|access-date=2021-11-09|website=The TOOL FAQ|language=en}}</ref> In a 1994 interview, he mentioned the band [[Helmet (band)|Helmet]] as an influence.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://toolshed.down.net/articles/index.php?action=view-article&id=March_1994--Guitar_School.html|title = The Tool Page: Articles}}</ref> Jones is most often seen using his prized 1979 Custom Silverburst [[Gibson Les Paul]], which would later be sold as a signature model for Jones by [[Gibson (guitar company)|Gibson]] in 2020.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gibson.com/en-US/Guitar/CUS9HA20/Adam-Jones-1979-Les-Paul-Custom-VOS/Antique-Silverburst|title = Gibson &#124; Adam Jones 1979 les Paul Custom (VOS)}}</ref> He uses multiple amplifiers live and when recording, mainly consisting of [[Marshall Amplification|Marshall]], [[Diezel]], and [[Mesa Boogie]] amps.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://guitarfxdepot.com/rigs/adam-jones-tool-guitar-rig/|title = Adam Jones (Tool) Guitar Rig &#124; Guitar FX Depot|date = 29 July 2008}}</ref>

===Visual art===

Jones created the cover and inside liner art for many of Tool's albums and also the re-release of [[Peach (band)|Peach]]'s ''[[Giving Birth to a Stone]]'', on which Jones's fellow [[Tool (band)|Tool]] bandmate [[Justin Chancellor]] played bass.

He helped the band [[Green Jellÿ]] with their stage personas & clothing designs.

In 2007, he received the [[Grammy Award for Best Recording Package]] as [[art director]] for his work on ''[[10,000 Days (Tool album)|10,000 Days]]''.

Jones came up with the makeup the actors wore on the videos for "[[Schism (song)|Schism]]" and "Parabol/[[Parabola (song)|Parabola]]".

In his spare time, Jones shoots photography that is used for the visuals at live Tool concerts. The blending of photos and art appear on many large monitors in concert venues as well as a background for the band. The images are set in order to appear with specific songs on the set list.

Jones draws his own comics, an artistic ability he developed as a young child.  An ''[[List of 30 Days of Night comics#The X-Files/30 Days of Night|X-Files/30 Days of Night]]'' crossover in 2010 was co-written by Jones and ''[[30 Days of Night|30 Days]]'' creator [[Steve Niles]] with artwork by [[Tom Mandrake]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/04/19/x-files-30-days-of-night-comic-book-crossover/ |title='X-Files/30 Days of Night' Comic Book Crossover |first=Laura |last=Hudson |date=April 19, 2010 |publisher=[[ComicsAlliance]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130430195136/http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/04/19/x-files-30-days-of-night-comic-book-crossover/ |archive-date=April 30, 2013 |url-status=dead |access-date=March 11, 2012 |df=mdy }}</ref>

Jones did the artwork for the albums ''Ramagehead'' (2019) and ''Screamnasium'' (2022) of the international band [[O.R.k.|O.R.k]].<ref>{{cite web | language =  |url= https://www.velvetthunder.co.uk/o-r-k-screamnasium-kscope-records/ | title=O.R.K. - Screamnasium | author = Richard Proctor | date = 22 September 2022 | website = velvetthunder.co.uk | access-date = 9 December 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | language =  |url= https://metalreport.co.uk/o-r-k-announce-details-of-new-album-ramagehead/ | title=O.R.K. - Ramagehead| author = Lynds | date = 22 February 2019 | website = metalreport.co.uk | access-date = 9 December 2023}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{discogs artist}}
* {{IMDb name|0427417|Adam Jones}}
* {{Instagram|adamjones_tv}}
* [https://myspace.com/adamjonestv Adam Jones] on [[Myspace]]

{{Tool (band)}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Adam}}
[[Category:1965 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Alternative metal musicians]]
[[Category:American heavy metal guitarists]]
[[Category:American music video directors]]
[[Category:Grammy Award winners]]
[[Category:Guitarists from Illinois]]
[[Category:Artists from Park Ridge, Illinois]]
[[Category:People from Libertyville, Illinois]]
[[Category:American lead guitarists]]
[[Category:American progressive rock guitarists]]
[[Category:Progressive metal guitarists]]
[[Category:Tool (band) members]]
[[Category:American animators]]
[[Category:American sitar players]]
[[Category:American special effects people]]
[[Category:Alternative metal guitarists]]
[[Category:American male guitarists]]
[[Category:20th-century American guitarists]]
[[Category:Sculptors from Illinois]]

{{Wikipedia attribution|original_title=Adam Jones (musician)|access_date=2026-02-24}}