Deftones frontman Chino Moreno recently opened up about his journey to sobriety. He shared the pivotal moment that led him to make a significant life change, as reported by Louder Sound.
The musician candidly discussed the specific incident that made him realize he needed to address his relationship with alcohol.
“I’ll be pretty candid here. 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,” Moreno said. “So I went down into the garage, and I have a little fridge in there with beers in it, and I cracked a beer, and I sat on an ice chest, and my wife walked in.”
The encounter with his wife became a turning point for the vocalist.
“She’s like, ‘What are you doing?’ And I was like, ‘I can’t handle this, whatever.’ 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,'” he continued.
Moreno also reflected on his gradual commitment to sobriety and the positive changes he’s experienced.
“Even still then, I wasn’t 100% committed. I was just like, ‘I’m just going to try it.’ But then once I got a month into sobriety, I was like, ‘Wow.’ I’m still a work in progress, obviously. I don’t want to sit here and say, ‘Everything’s rainbows every day’, but it’s definitely a way better place to be,” he said.
This revelation comes as Moreno approaches nearly three years of sobriety. This marks a significant transformation in both his personal life and professional performance.
Recycled Records reported that Moreno has experienced notable improvements in his voice, focus, and stage performance since quitting alcohol. Previously, he would drink before shows to ease pre-performance anxiety. He found it often made him lose control of his voice and become sloppy during performances.
The singer acknowledged how alcohol affected his ability to accurately assess his own performances. “I’d get offstage and what I remembered of the show would be like, ‘Oh, yeah, it was cool.’ But then I’d hear back takes sometimes like, ‘Oh, that wasn’t as good as I remembered it,'” he admitted, reflecting on past concerts where alcohol clouded his judgment.
Moreno credited Alice in Chains bassist Mike Inez with helping him through the process of quitting. “Mike was the first person I reached out to and he helped me kick it. It’s been steady in my life since I was a teenager, but you see people around you whose lives get better [without alcohol] and you’re like, ‘Why haven’t I tried this and see if I feel better?'” he shared.
The transformation became clear to Moreno after just one month of sobriety. “After a month of not drinking, I was like, ‘Wow, this feels pretty good, why don’t you keep going?’ That’s what I’ve done since and now it’s almost three years,” he explained, highlighting the gradual but profound impact of his decision to get sober.
