Deftones began a North American tour supporting the album Private Music, with founding guitarist Stephen Carpenter present at the Vancouver kickoff. Carpenter will perform U.S. and Canadian dates but will continue to skip overseas shows. Carpenter described flight anxiety and stress in a 2024 interview and previously expressed anti-vaccine beliefs during the COVID pandemic, leading him to miss the band's 2022 European tour when international travel without vaccination was difficult. Frontman Chino Moreno said the band supports Carpenter and prioritizes his physical and mental health, using a fill-in guitarist for shows Carpenter cannot attend. The tour continues through mid-September with festival appearances including Shaky Knees and Louder Than Life.
"I don't want to speak for him," Moreno told Metal Hammer. "And even if I could, I still don't have an answer. Really I don't. It's still something that I think he is figuring out. And if he does have an answer, I think it'd be great if one day he would share it. But yeah, we support him. We have to. He's our friend. And his health, be it physically or mentally, always takes the forefront of anything."
"It's sad, I want him onstage with us at every show. If you ask me what I prefer, I want him there every day, every time we do anything, with the band. But it literally comes down to: there's two ways to deal with it. We accept what he can and will do, or we just don't play. And we want to play."
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