This past weekend, most were surprised to see Tool guitarist Adam Jones performing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the WWE’s SummerSlam PPV event. Nothing against the WWE and its fine programming (though we’re more fans of the 80s/90s era of wrestling. Ooohh yeah), but we never took someone like Jones as a wrestling fan. Apparently, though, he is.

Our friends at Metal Injection uncovered a statement from Jones recapping the night and how exactly his performance came to be. This is what the Tool guitarist had to say:

“Wow! What a blast.

Triple H and his wife Stephanie [McMahon] are big tool fans and asked me to open the show on live international television. Pretty FN crazy. Vince McMahon ask for a demo so I emailed him one. How cool is that?

All the Wrestlers I met that night were so encouraging and supportive (thanx!).
John Cena joked ‘just dont pull a Christina Aguilera…’ And with that said, I apologize about the flub up in the first verse. Some of the camera guys ran by me so close that I thought something was wrong. Totally broke my concentration.

But to me the rest was a Home Run! The crowd was great. And I will now demand that at the end of any future solo I do there are epic FIREWORKS.

~big xx to Terry”

As much of a surprise as it still might be, it’s pretty cool that Jones got to do something fun. It’s also cool that the WWE actually got a member of Tool to play “The Star-Spangled Banner” instead of some younger hard rock guitarist with a new album to promote. Plus, Jones’ rendition was awesome.