Metal Anarchy

During a rig rundown segment for Premier Guitar, Deftones guitarist Stephen Carpenter opened up about his battle with type 2 diabetes. He also revealed that the condition limited his involvement in the band’s latest album “private music.”

Carpenter brought up his health issues while discussing his love for Bilmuri:

“I love Bilmuri. Bilmuri is amazing. All bangers, as stated. I’ma tell ya, the latest record [‘AMERICAN MOTOR SPORTS‘], I never turned it off for maybe two or three months. I’ve been going through some health struggles over the past couple years — basically I’m type 2 diabetic, that’s what I’m dealing with — and you know, I’m 55, I’m getting old right?

So there was a time when that record came out and I listened to it so much, that the songs were just so, so catchy. Like, I’d wake up in the middle of the night and go use the bathroom or whatever, but I couldn’t get to sleep because the song would keep going.

I’d have to put something on that made me hear something else in my head. I stopped listening to it for awhile, because it was too much. But now I can listen to it without it disrupting my sleep.”

He went on to say that frontman Chino Moreno contributed more guitar work to “private music”:

“On this record, Chino really came and showed up with the riffs. There’s a lot of riffs on this record that are ones that he came up with. Good on him, man. I’m stoked and proud, and he inspires me right now. Because, again, like I said, I’ve been going through these health things now, for the last couple years.

I’ve been diabetic, probably longer than I than I knew, and deteriorating because of it. And it was only this year that I finally accepted it and have engaged in actively handling it, because otherwise I’m going to die from it. I don’t want to die from it.

And I got compassion for every person out there that that is experiencing this kind of stuff, and I will speak for those people. Our food supply is toxic. I mean, we are all just sugar-poisoned. And if you’re a person of color, you’re at an elevated risk for diabetes. But every one of us is getting affected by the substance in just different ways. Whatever your DNA is, your problems are still sourced to the same problems as mine. It’s just this is what’s got me.

And going through this record, like I said, back to [what] you asked me, what did I contribute? You know, I struggled going through this record. I’m very grateful that when it was time for me to track my guitars, that I was physically able to do it, because up until that point in time, there were songs I hadn’t even engaged in yet.

Like the song, ‘I think about you every day‘, right? I didn’t even play one thing on that song, literally, until it was time for me to record. I literally wrote, and I say, wrote, I recorded my part, literally, in the moment of recording that song. Effects, everything. It all happened when it was time. Otherwise I didn’t have anything.”

He then further commented on the sessions:

“Everybody was pumped. I was having a good time. I was engaged as I could be. But like I said, I’ve been going… I still have my [health] struggles, but I was going through a lot then. And last year was when I hit the bottom — or the bottom as I wanted to hit it.

And so I’ve been getting my medical help, and seeking information, just dealing… just being accountable for my own personal situation. Otherwise, I’ve just been like everyone else out there, ignoring it, acting like it’s nothing, self-medicating and failing.”

[via The PRP]