Tool fans spewing rage at JoJo Siwa over potential new merchandise
By Lee Vowell
![JoJo Siwa at 2024 LA Pride In The Park JoJo Siwa at 2024 LA Pride In The Park](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_3624,h_2038,x_0,y_0/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/GettyImages/mmsport/344/01j2hjm6w2stmjyvr6g6.jpg)
Tool likes to protect their brand. They should. What a band created, including the name and image, is important. Without that, a band starts to lose its originality. Plus, JoJo Siwa is not worthy of allegedly taking an iconic image related to Tool.
The issue is that the band has used an artwork of a phallic wrench with two bolts at the bottom of the wrench that resembles, well...you get the idea. The art was created by Cam DeLeon specifically for Tool and has been a part of the band's brand for years. The band's merchandise has sold so well with the wrench image that DeLeon even sued the band because maybe he felt he wasn't paid enough for the work initially.
This last part could potentially be important because Siwa has floated some merch on social media, without adding it to her online store, with a wrench that looks a lot like the Tool image; so much so that one might wonder why DeLeon wasn't suing Siwa.
JoJo Siwa has poked the bear that is Tool army
This would not be the first time that Siwa, a dancer and singer, "borrowed" an iconic image from a heavy rock band. She was previously accused of stealing a demon look from the band Kiss. Her look did resemble Gene Simmons' concert appearance quite a bit. The look was not exact, but close enough for one to wonder, "Is Siwa doing a cover of Kiss?"
Based on the merch Siwa posted on social media that seems to be a clear rip-off of Tool's image, one can either think the performer is vindictive towards fans of hard rock and chose to take from another band of the subgenre after the Kiss situation, or one can assume that Siwa doesn't have that much originality and needs to borrow from others. There might be no way of knowing which is right and which is wrong.
Five rock bands that never made a bad album. dark. Next. Five rock bands that never made a bad album
Tool fans, however, have responded to Siwa's potential merch drop by lambasting the performer on various social media outlets. One fan on Reddit wrote, "My wife said (Siwa) was a child star now she’s just an influencer. Maynard (James Keenan) call the lawyers please." Another wrote, "I find it annoying that I actually know who (Siwa) is. Attention starved idiot."
A fan on X/Twitter wrote, "Everything I know about her, I know against my will." Funny.
Again, the merch that JoJo Siwa put on her social media accounts is not currently for sale. If she does make the wrench image for sale, there might be issues. She might be aware of that and this is why the image remains a stolen idea only at this point.
More music news and analysis:
manual