Deftones’ Chino Moreno Reacts to Stephen Carpenter’s Flat Earth + Vaccine Theories
Late last year, Deftones guitarist Stephen Carpenter made headlines, sharing his belief in a "flat Earth" view and questioning the effectiveness of vaccines during an appearance on the Tin Foil Hat With Sam Tripoli podccast. Carpenter later followed by stating that it his opinions were not meant to "upset or offend in any way," but the commentary definitely elicited plenty of reaction. Now, while appearing on The Peer Pleasure Podcast with host Dewey Halpus (as heard below), Carpenter's bandmate Chino Moreno has shared his thoughts on his bandmate's comments.
Moreno reiterated that he didn't feel Carpenter was sharing his views coming from a negative place, but admits it was a little weird initially seeing the guitarist's theories becoming headlines.
“I’m surprised he’s not more of a meme… I think there may be a couple," Moreno stated (as transcribed by ThePrp.com) 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 continued.
Moreno explained, "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 singer says while he wants to support Carpenter and feels like everyone should have their own opinions on certain things, he has his own beliefs on Carpenter's theories. "I think it’s a little outlandish, some of his views on the world, the planet itself… But I mean you know I fucking love him, man," says the singer. "He’s really, really sincere… And he’s smart—which is crazy—he’s very loving. He’s probably one of the most generous people that I’ve ever known in my whole life.”
Moreno also spoke about the backlash the guitarist faced after his theories made headlines. “You can have your opinion but you gotta know the consequence once you say it. And the consequence is probably gonna be a lot of people talking shit," says the singer. "Sometimes it’s like just keep it to yourself, you can believe in whatever—I’m saying for his own good. I’m not saying that he has to keep it to himself because we don’t want to hear it. I’m just saying if you don’t want to get ridiculed sometimes just don’t say some outlandish shit."
"But I will say that I don’t think anything that he says is coming from a negative place either. Because he’s like really worried about society," concludes Moreno.
Within the wide-ranging chat, Moreno also spoke about Carpenter and a band assistant being at the Eagles of Death Metal Le Bataclan show but leaving just shortly before the terrorist attack occurred, the status of the long shelved Eros album and more. Check out the interview below.