Tool: Why MTV Banned The Video For 'Prison Sex'

Why MTV banned Tool's music video for 'Prison Sex'

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I’ve covered a lot of artists whose videos MTV banned including Soundgarden, Neil Young, and Danzig. In pretty much all of these instances their videos either criticized the network, broke their policies or had imagery that was too provocative, but it’s rare that video has no violence, no nudity or criticizes the network and still gets banned. Well that’s what happened to TOOL. Let’s discuss in today’s video.
Formed in Los Angeles in the early 90’s by frontman Maynard James Kennan, guitarist Adam Jones, drummer Danny Carey and original bassist Paul D’Amour Tool would shock everyone with the one two punch of their debut EP 1992’s Opiate and 1993’s Undertow. For the members of the Tool it was important first and foremost to have creative control with guitarist Adam Jones telling Revolver Magazine “When we got signed [by Zoo Records in 1992], the most important thing for us was to have creative control,”
And that creative control extended not just to their music, but to their music videos. In fact before starting the band Tool both Maynard James Keenan and guitarist Adam Jones worked on film productions doing visual effects for several big hollywood films including Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park. In the same interview with Revolver Jones would add “We went, ‘OK, if we take less money can we have control of the music?’ And the label went, ‘Yeah, no problem!’ And we said, ‘If we take even less money can we have final say over the videos.’ And they went, ‘Sure.’”
Of course in theory all this is great, but Tool would soon butt heads with their record label. The second single from Undertow Sober would feature a stop motion video as did the video for their third single Prison Sex. For record labels you don’t just sell the music, but you sell the image of the band and Jones would tell Metal Hammer. “There was a lot of banging heads with the record company, because they still wanted to do things in the traditional way,. “They’d go, ‘Well, if you’re not gonna be in your video, we’re not gonna pay for it.’ And we’d say, ‘What do you mean? We’re supposed to have creative control.’ It was typical, slimy shit, but in the end they gave in.”
Even during the filming of the video the band ran into some serious issues. As filming began with Sober director Fred Stuhr in January of 1994 in Los Angeles the city would be rocked by a 6.7 magnitude earthquake that killed dozens and injured nearly 10,000 people. Jones would tell Loudersound
“We were still there at three in the morning when the ’94 earthquake hit Los Angeles,” “We were on the second floor of this old brick building that used to be owned by [American filmmaker] Cecil B. DeMille, and it wasn’t too sturdy. The rooms started shaking, and before I even know what was going on, Fred ran over to stand in the doorway, because that’s what you’re supposed to do in an earthquake. But the other five of us who were there just ran out and ploughed him over and left him lying on the ground. It was the worst thing that’s ever happened to me, and the best thing. When I looked out I could see downtown Hollywood, and all the transformers were blowing. They were popping, so there were these lightning strikes everywhere and it looked like the city was being bombed. It was just so beautiful.”

The subject matter of Prison sex dealt with childhood trauma , something the video depicted metaphorically. The message of the song is that those who suffere trauma early on in their life are capable of inflicting the same trauma as they get older. It’s been speculated the song was written about Maynard James Keenan’s step father, whom the frontman has repeatedly expressed his distaste for.
The message of the song wasn’t lost on both muchmusic in canada and mtv banned the video after a few plays. Despite this move the video still snagged a nomination for best visual effects. The reason for banning the video was that MTV complained the video was too unsettling. Despite the controversy over the lyrical content the song got airplay in the states peaking at number 32 on the mainstream rock char