Deftones’ original bassist Dominic Garcia recently opened up about his departure from the band. He shared details about what really happened that led to his exit in an interview with Louder Sound.
Garcia explained the circumstances surrounding his time with the band. He also discussed how his role evolved during the early 1990s.
“Around 1991 or 1992, Abe actually left The Deftones to join another local band called Phallucy, who were really hot at the time,” Garcia said. “I took over on drums and that’s when [bassist] Chi Cheng joined the group. I loved Chi, he was really cool – he was into poetry and all this stuff. Just a wonderful, kind-hearted person.”
The musician clarified that his departure wasn’t entirely his choice. He revealed how he discovered he had been replaced.
“I never actually left The Deftones,” he continued. “Phallucy’s bassist left, so I figured it’d be super-cool to play two different instruments in two different bands. I found out from a third party that Stephen had got a guy named John Taylor to play drums in The Deftones. I was a little bit heartbroken because I’d started the band, but we were still friends. I used to give Stephen a load of shit because he wasn’t a shredding guitar player like Eddie Van Halen. I was just being a snob, a cocky kid, but maybe it was low-key bullying.”
Garcia also discussed how his musical interests evolved after leaving the band.
“Phallucy wound up breaking up because of management stuff, but I was kind of moving away from rock music at that point,” he said. “I took a world music class at Sacramento City College and started getting into ethnological music – that touched my soul. I started digging into the roots of Latin music and that’s been my passion ever since. I recently got a grant to learn how to carve sacred Bata drums, which are used in spiritual Yoruba ceremonies.”
Despite the circumstances of his departure, Garcia maintains no hard feelings about his time with the band.
“I don’t have any regrets about leaving the band,” he concluded. “I went to see them the last time they played in Sacramento. I took my daughter. I enjoyed the show a little bit too much – I wound up getting kicked out of the show ‘cos I was being too aggressive in the pit. I got escorted out! It was funny – I was like, ‘I used to be in this band!'”
Garcia’s revelations provide rare insight into Deftones’ formative years. They also shed light on the crucial lineup changes that shaped the band’s trajectory.
DeftonesWorld reported that Garcia was Deftones’ first bass player and Abe Cunningham’s schoolmate who was invited to jam with the band during their earliest incarnation. The Sacramento-based group formed around the late 1980s with the core lineup of Chino Moreno on vocals, Stephen Carpenter on guitar, Abe Cunningham on drums, and initially Garcia on bass. All members came together through school connections and local jamming sessions.
The early lineup experienced significant flux as members explored different musical opportunities. The PRP noted that Garcia initially played bass before transitioning to drums when Cunningham temporarily left to join local band Phallucy. Garcia departed after just a few weeks in this new role. This brief period of instability ultimately led to one of the most significant additions to the band’s history.
Chi Cheng’s entry into Deftones following Garcia’s departure proved to be a defining moment for the band. The Mosh documented that Cheng became Deftones’ bassist after Garcia’s exit. He anchored the lineup for decades until a tragic 2008 car accident left him in a coma until his death in 2013. Garcia’s fond memories of Cheng highlight the bassist’s pivotal role in the band’s evolution and the personal connections that existed within the group’s early community.
The story of Garcia’s time with Deftones illustrates the organic, sometimes chaotic nature of band formation in the late 1980s Sacramento music scene. His brief but significant contribution to the band’s foundation, followed by his graceful acceptance of the changes that led to Deftones’ eventual success, demonstrates the complex relationships and decisions that often shape a band’s destiny in their earliest days.
