A group of students from the O’Keefe Music Foundation in Nashville covered the classic song ’46 & 2′ by Tool.
The O’Keefe Foundation helps young musicians by recording their music and letting them record and network with other young artists. They have over 900 students and have produced covers of music in all genres.
These kids get to practice and learn and get the full rockstar experience all for free. The foundation operates off donations. All of the kids’ recordings can be found for free here at BandCamp.
One time they even performed live at The Blue Note Bistro in Nashville debuting covers of Danzing among others, and a group of the kids got to go backstage at the festival Rock on the Range another year.
One of their covers, which shows an 8-year-old singer nailing Slipknot’s “Devil in I” was shared in Loudwire magazine and got over one million views in one month.
This particular cover of the Tool song was played on the radio when it came out and it has gotten over 21 million views in six years. Some people even claimed these kids’ cover was better than the original.
Tool formed in the late 1980s along with other grunge band Rage Against the Machine. It is all detailed in Maynard James Keenan’s biography. Maynard James Keenan was actually in the running to be the lead singer of Rage Against the machine. But, Rage eventually picked Zach De La Rocha instead.
The song “46 & 2” by Tool was released in 1996 on the album Aenima and had some radio airplay. It has to do with chromosomes and Jungian theory. The title comes from the idea that if humans developed two more chromosomes, we would ascend to a new level of consciousness.
The lyrics speak to an idea of a person growing and changing for the better. It came out around the time the lead singer Maynard James Keenan’s son was born, and Keenan was trying to get sober from addiction.
All images: YouTube.
