After being with the group since 2009, bassist Sergio Vega of Deftones, has since confirmed his exit from the group following photos emerging online of the band without him. Vega took to Instagram stories to discuss the issue at hand.

“On a creative level, they were always super open and super cool,” Sergio said according to blabbermouth.net. “And really, when we talk about the other end, the financial end, which is something that I get, you’re Chino and you have dependents, you have a lot of family, and [if] things go [to] a five-way split [from] a four-way split, it changes things and that’s something that impacts your life. So the financial shift and the financial swing becomes something that’s hard to reckon with. But for me, even in my position and my asks or negotiations were never speaking to that. Not that it was even possible. Being on half of the band’s catalog, you’re not ever going to see money from things you’re not a part of. But it was never even about money. Because even the publishing was there; that’s fine. It’s purely about belonging; it’s purely about just wanting to [feel] like you’re in it.”

Originally, Vega joined Deftones to replace their late bassist Chi Cheng with Sergio mentioning he “[wanted] to help”

“At the beginning, I was up for anything. I was just, like, ‘My friends are in trouble, and I just wanna help.’ My thing was, ‘Whatever you need I got.’ If it was to be, ‘Hey, play these bass lines. We got this thing.’ I’m, like, ‘Yeah. Cool.’ Being a hired gun, there’s no room for creative input — that’s fine. That would have been a thing, and you wrap your head around that. Initially, my only goal was to put my best foot forward and be a help to people in need and people that I cared about. And it was only because of the way that it was presented to me as, ‘This is how it’s gonna go down,’ where something that I started to go, ‘Hey…'”

Vega was sure to reaffirm this decision was not one made out of financial motivations, the full video can be found below.

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat