Last year, Deftones fans were forced to contend with guitarist Stephen Carpenter's wild conspiracies — including his anti-vax position and belief that the Earth is flat. Now, bandleader Chino Moreno has responded to Carpenter's outlandish claims, chalking them up to a heavy dose of cannabis-induced paranoia.
"I will say that the weed probably has a 'lil bit to do with his conspiracies," the frontman told Dewey Halpus of the Peer Pleasure Podcast [via Loudwire]. "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."
Moreno explained further: "It's weird though, when we're together it's like we don't even talk about any of that stuff. We play music, we laugh, we have a blast playing music. [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 artist added: "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."
Moreno went on to joke about how he expected Carpenter to be the subject of more memes for his beliefs, but conceded that he doesn't think "anything that he says is coming from a negative place either. Because he's like really worried about society ... And I think it's a little bit of paranoia."
Moreno's response comes nearly a year after Carpenter told the Tin Foil Hat podcast that "If you think you live on a spinning, flying space ball, you're in a cult."
Carpenter also claimed that "[there's] never been one single vaccine that's ever worked ever," and if you get vaccinated, "it's stuck in you forever and you just suffer with whatever it becomes." Throughout the interview, Carpenter also shared his belief that nuclear weapons do not exist, discusses simulation theory and more.
Hear Moreno's interview below.
"I will say that the weed probably has a 'lil bit to do with his conspiracies," the frontman told Dewey Halpus of the Peer Pleasure Podcast [via Loudwire]. "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."
Moreno explained further: "It's weird though, when we're together it's like we don't even talk about any of that stuff. We play music, we laugh, we have a blast playing music. [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 artist added: "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."
Moreno went on to joke about how he expected Carpenter to be the subject of more memes for his beliefs, but conceded that he doesn't think "anything that he says is coming from a negative place either. Because he's like really worried about society ... And I think it's a little bit of paranoia."
Moreno's response comes nearly a year after Carpenter told the Tin Foil Hat podcast that "If you think you live on a spinning, flying space ball, you're in a cult."
Carpenter also claimed that "[there's] never been one single vaccine that's ever worked ever," and if you get vaccinated, "it's stuck in you forever and you just suffer with whatever it becomes." Throughout the interview, Carpenter also shared his belief that nuclear weapons do not exist, discusses simulation theory and more.
Hear Moreno's interview below.