HOW TOOL’S ADAM JONES CHANNELS HIS PASSION FOR VISUAL ART INTO THE ADAM JONES LES PAUL CUSTOM ART COLLECTION
By Richard Bienstock
WITH ITS STRIKING silver-to-black (and, due to aging, sometimes green-hued) finish, the Les Paul Silverburst is one of the most distinctive-looking guitars in modern six-string history. But over the course of the past year, the eye-catching model has become even more unique — seven times over, in fact. The reason? A one-of-a-kind collaboration between Epiphone and Tool six-string sonic adventurist Adam Jones, which has resulted in the Adam Jones Art Collection of electric guitars.
Jones, of course, is the most visible and impassioned proponent of the Silverburst, and in 2020 he teamed up with Gibson on a limited-edition, note-perfect recreation of his Number 1 instrument, a 1979 Les Paul Custom with the distinguishing finish. This was followed by a U.S. production-line Standard version of the guitar and, soon after, rumors — as well as appetite-whetting online teases — about a coming Epiphone iteration. When that guitar was finally unveiled in 2022, it was with a host of premium specs that has led many to call it the best Les Paul ever produced under the Epiphone brand name. But there was another attraction: each release in the Adam Jones Les Paul Custom Art Collection, limited to just 800 examples, featured a unique piece of artwork personally selected by the Tool guitarist, a visual artist who worked on films like Jurassic Park, Batman Returns and Terminator 2: Judgment Day prior to becoming a prog-metal giant.
“The push was, how can we do something that really reflects me?” Jones tells Guitar World. “So I suggested, ‘Why don’t we do art on the back and make something really special?’ And then Cesar [Gueikian, Gibson CEO] said, ‘How about we make a whole line of them?’ I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’d be great,’ and I started making a list of my top choices. And you know, just like with music, I have really eclectic tastes when it comes to art.”
Indeed he does. The Adam Jones Les Paul Custom Art Collection launched with “The Veil of Bees” by acclaimed pop-surrealist Mark Ryden. “He just rips his guts out when he paints,” Jones says, “and his thought process and his journey from an idea to the execution is so involved. It was amazing to have him do the first one.”
From there, the Collection, true to Jones’ eclecticism, spotlighted a wide array of
