A Perfect Circle's Keenan Says Metallica...Good!

06/09/2000 1:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(6/9/00, 1 p.m. ET) - A Perfect Circle's Maynard Keenan has weighed in on the side of Metallica in its highly contentious legal battle over intellectual property rights against digital music distribution company Napster. Keenan calls what fans are doing via Napster "stealing," and tells LAUNCH that he backs Metallica's efforts, even if he questions the band's actual motivation.

"Yeah, absolutely, because people like Ween and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and, you know, smaller bands, or middle bands, don't have the kind of money to do that," he says. "I don't think that that's Metallica's motivation, they'll probably tell you that's their motivation, just to help the little guy, but in essence they are helping the little guy."

Keenan explains the entire Napster process this way: "It's pretty easy to sum up, really. If you were to walk into Tower Records and grab a CD off the shelf and walk out the door, you would be arrested."

-- Neal Weiss, Los Angeles

Got news tips, comments, or questions? Send them to newstips@launch.com.