Deftones frontman Chino Moreno has shared the personal moment that led him to get sober, a journey he began three years ago. In an exclusive interview for the latest edition of Metal Hammer magazine, Moreno was candid about the experience, saying that his decision was a quiet, personal one at first, but a significant turning point came when he reached for alcohol on a difficult day.
“I’ll be pretty candid here,” he began. “I’d already quit drinking for a few weeks – I didn’t tell anybody, it was just something I was doing for myself – and I was having a bad day.” He described going to the garage, where he had a fridge full of beer, and opening one. At that moment, his wife walked in and asked what he was doing. “And I was like, ‘I can’t handle this, whatever,'” he recalled. “So what am I doing? I’m opening a beer because I can’t handle this. So I was like, ‘Oh, well, that’s pretty telling right there, right?’ So, the very next day, I was like, ‘Alright. I’m going to try to make a change.'”
Moreno admitted that even then, he wasn’t fully committed to sobriety, but the positive effects were quickly noticeable. “I was just like, ‘I’m just going to try it,'” he said. “But then once I got a month into sobriety, I was like, ‘Wow.'”
The singer, whose band recently released their new album private music, said that his sobriety is a continuous process. “I’m still a work in progress, obviously,” he said. “I don’t want to sit here and say, ‘Everything’s rainbows every day,’ but it’s definitely a way better place to be.”
In a separate interview with Kerrang! magazine, Moreno said that being sober has helped him be more focused and present in his music, both on stage and in the studio. He explained that he used to drink before shows to deal with anxiety, but it often made his performance sloppy. “Yes, it does help ease that anxiety, but at the same time, it also makes you too loose sometimes, where you’re not really in control of your voice,” he said. “You can get sloppy really easily.”
Moreno said he is now able to fully recall his performances and is proud of his work, adding, “It feels great to get to the end of a set now and not feel like I’m gonna fall over.” The band’s drummer, Abe Cunningham, agreed, telling that Moreno is “extremely focused right now – the most he’s been, ever,” and that he “absolutely killed it on this record.”
