TOOL
Biography
William Melvin "Bill" Hicks (December 16, 1961 ? February 26, 1994) was an American stand-up comedian and social critic. His humor challenged mainstream beliefs, aiming to "enlighten people to think for themselves." Hicks used a ribald approach to express his material, describing himself as "Chomsky with dick jokes." His jokes included general discussions about society, religion, politics, philosophy and personal issues. Hicks' material was often deliberately controversial and steeped in dark comedy. In both his stand-up performances, and during interviews, he often criticized consumerism, superficiality, mediocrity and banality within the media and popular culture, describing them as oppressive tools of the ruling class, meant to "keep people stupid and apathetic."
Hicks died of pancreatic cancer in 1994 at the age of 32. In the years after his death, his work and legacy achieved significant admiration and acclaim, of numerous comedians, writers and musicians alike. He was listed as the 19th greatest stand-up comedian of all time by Comedy Central in 2004 and the 6th greatest by the British Channel 4 in 2007.
The progressive metal band Tool invited Hicks to open a number of concerts for them on their 1993 Lollapalooza appearances, where Hicks once famously asked the audience to look for a contact lens he'd lost. Thousands of people complied. Tool singer Maynard James Keenan so enjoyed this joke that he repeated it on a number of occasions. Keenan, who worked as a comedian in Los Angeles prior to Tool, met and befriended Hicks through mutual friends and performing at the same venues.
Tool dedicated their triple-platinum album ?ima (1996) to Bill Hicks. The band intended to raise awareness about Hicks's material and ideas, because they felt that Tool and Hicks "were resonating similar concepts". In particular, ?ima's final track Third Eye is preceded by a clip of Hicks' performances, and both the lenticular casing of the ?ima album packaging as well as the chorus of the title track "?ema" make reference to a sketch from Hicks' Arizona Bay philosophy, in which he contemplates the idea of Los Angeles falling into the Pacific Ocean. The closing track "Third Eye" contains samples from Hicks' Dangerous and Relentless , An alternate version of the ?ima artwork shows a painting of Bill Hicks and mentions of Hicks are found both in the liner notes and on record.