When free climber Alex Honnold scaled the Taipei 101 skyscraper for his epic Netflix special, he had a playlist of mostly Tool songs to keep him company. Now, Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan has reacted to Honnold’s wild stunt, joking that he doesn’t understand “what the heck” the climbing expert was “thinking.”
During a January 28, 2026, interview with ABC Audio, Keenan was asked about Honnold’s Tool-heavy playlist. “Not everybody and their mother texted me every three seconds telling me about it or anything,” the vocalist joked.
“What the heck were you thinking, dude?” Keenan went on to quip. “It’s impressive! It’s extremely impressive. But, I mean, I wouldn’t make it past the first floor. I would fall to my death.”
The Grammy-winning rocker shared that his reaction to hearing about Honnold’s wild climb was: “Jesus, what b***s!”
On January 25, 2026, Honnold free solo climbed the Taipei 101 tower in Taipei, Taiwan. This marked the tallest building free solo climbing in history. Honnold allowed the entire thing to be filmed for a Netflix special that has been praised by viewers worldwide.
In preparation for the climb, Honnold compiled a meticulously chosen playlist, dubbed the T101 playlist. As noted, that playlist featured a lot of Tool music, as well as some other iconic 90s and 2000s rock/metal bands.
Honnold previously spoke with Variety about his climb and offered some insight into that playlist. “It was mostly Tool,” he explained. “It’s just like a random playlist that I made, that I shared with production. I made it months ago while I was driving.”
Honnold’s T101 playlist also featured bands like Chevelle, The Offspring, and The Used
“I’ve been training to it a bunch,” Honnold added. “Basically, rock music that I’ve liked my whole life. Part of the appeal of music is that actually it helps me with pacing. Each bamboo box had been taking me about five to six and a half minutes.”
“I just know how long the songs are,” Honnold went on to say. “So it gives you a sense of if you’re going fast or slow. But in this case, it all kept cutting out anyway, and I couldn’t really hear, and I was kind of like, ‘Whatever. I’m just doing my thing.’”
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