The story spread around social media, and Tuesday night, Keenan took to Twitter to respond.

User @nathan_felts tweeted, "hilarious that you can flat out insult your core fanbase then shit in a ziplock and they'd still buy it. now THATS talent" [sic]. Keenan responded, "Our core fanbase aren't fanatics. They're music lovers & artists & good people. Its the fanatics that are insufferable."

User @snuggleButters tweeted "Maynard James Keenan wants nothing to do with Tool, or their fans ... I'd hope this wasn't true."

Keenan replied, "Not True."

Another user simply asked Keenan if he stood by the "headlines floating around claiming you denounce all @Tool fans as 'retards' you want nothing to do with?"

"Context," Keenan tweeted.

He ended the Twitter session in his typical irreverent fashion. He retweeted a fan who said, "@mjkeenan Tool fans are way too serious? I can't go a day without drawing a dick on something."

UPDATE: 10/28/2015, 11 a.m.: Keenan has retweeted a few more people:

UPDATE: 10/29/2015, 12 p.m.: Keenan has given a statement to Billboard magazine: "It is unfortunate that during an interview about Puscifer's Friday release of Money Shot, a comment I made, in the context of a much lengthier discussion about obsessive fanatics, was taken out of context by a few “news” outlets so they could drive up their own readership. It's called clickbait and it's boring. Our core fanbase aren't fanatics. They're music lovers, artists and good people. It's the fanatics that are insufferable."