According to Chino Moreno, Stephen Carpenter’s conspiracy talk may be due to “weed” and “paranoia”

Many fans of the metal band Deftones squinted their eyes last year when the band’s guitarist Stephen Carpenter spoke publicly about his belief in the so-called flat earth theory, according to which the Earth is not really a sphere but flat. Although Carpenter himself is not sure whether our planet is flat, he does not believe it is spherical. In addition, Carpenter shared his anti-vaccine views and the idea that space is just a human imagination.

Now Carpenter’s bandmate, Deftones singer Chino Moreno, has shared his own views on Carpenter’s statements in a recent interview with The Peer Pleasure Podcast. Moreno reflects that Carpenter’s statements are certainly influenced by his smoking of cannabis and his paranoia.

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.”

However, Moreno says that despite everything, he and Carpenter are still close, and that the duo enjoy playing music together as they always have.

“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.”

Moreno also recognises that behind Carpenter’s comments there is certainly a concern for the world:

“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… And I think it’s a little bit of paranoia. I don’t want to speak for him, but I do feel like a little bit of it, and like I said earlier maybe the weed doesn’t help with that, but he’s paranoid.”