Chino Moreno of Deftones has shared his thoughts on fellow bandmate Stephen Carpenter’s controversial theories while sitting in on The Peer Pleasure Podcast with Dewey Halpus. Carpenter has been extremely vocal on his thoughts regarding particular conspiracy theories. Since late 2020, Carpenter has been openly discussing is his anti-vax beliefs, flat earth beliefs and more.

Moreno has responded to his theory beliefs by stating, “I’m surprised he’s not more of a meme… I think there may be a couple. But, it was actually tough for a minute, because obviously I’ve been friends with him since I was 10-years-old. And you know he wasn’t always this way. I will say that the weed probably has a ‘lil bit to do with his conspiracies and this and that and whatever, because he just, you know… And then probably sitting at home, just looking on whatever sites he looks at. [It] probably doesn’t help being smoked out and all that stuff and whatever.”

He went on to elaborate on how Carpenter’s beliefs have not affected the band when it comes to creating new music. According to Moreno, they play music and have a blast while doing it. “[We’re] still friends the way we were when we were kids. But it’s not like I haven’t heard him go on his tangents before and it’s just like I’ll listen for two minutes and then I just can’t, you know what I mean? ‘Cause he’ll just go off into no man’s land.”

The Deftones vocalist also mentioned how he understands that people are entitled to their own opinions but that they should be aware of the consequences that may come with vocally expressing those opinions.

During Moreno’s time on The Peer Pleasure Podcast, he took the time to discuss the band’s shelved album Eros. The album was first written and recorded back in 2008. However, Deftones’ bassist and vocalist Chi Cheng had been involved in a major car accident, which caused the album to be put aside and never released. The accident put Cheng into a coma that eventually led to his death a few years later.

“There’s maybe like an EP’s worth of music that has vocals on it. The rest of it is like—there’s probably vocals on it—but it’s definitely not finished. It’s probably more like what I was saying earlier, it has melodies and ideas, but no words yet. I was still working on it when Chi had his accident, and we kinda just halted everything. So it’s not finished.”

Photo credit: Raymond Flotat