Deftones’ Stephen Carpenter Opens Up About Type 2 Diabetes Struggles: “I Just Thought It Was Old-Man Life Sh*t”

Deftones guitarist Stephen Carpenter has shared new insight into his battle with Type 2 Diabetes, a condition he unknowingly endured for years before being diagnosed around 2024. The 55-year-old revealed that he had ignored early warning signs, attributing fatigue, pain, and other health issues to simply “getting older,” until his bandmates encouraged him to seek medical help.

In a conversation with Premier Guitar, Carpenter reflected on how the disease affected him during the writing and recording of Deftones’ latest album, “private music”:

“I had no clue what I was going through. I’d just been so out of it for the past four or five years—all the things that go with poor diet and poor exercise, that’s what I experienced. During the whole writing process, I was just tired, but I wasn’t connecting how I felt to what I was doing. When we went in to start tracking the music, thankfully we got all of our scratch tracks done, because shortly after that, something had got me all messed up. Every day, I was just shy of crying from pain in my right arm. I couldn’t even move it. I did what I could to take care of myself—at least as best as I understood what I was going through. And thankfully, when it was time to actually track my guitar parts, my body was feeling better, and I was able to physically do what I had to do.”

Despite the warning signs, Carpenter admits he initially dismissed his symptoms:

“I just thought it was old-man life sh*t. I was self-medicating, hoping I was doing the right thing, and always hoping things would get better so I wouldn’t have to do any of that. But unfortunately, you can only kick a can so far down the road before you run out of road.”

Since receiving proper medical care, Carpenter says he’s seen a huge improvement in his health and outlook:

“I’m very glad I got help. Type 2 diabetes was affecting me on a number of levels for a long time, and I’m grateful to have that information now and be able to deal with it. I’m also really grateful to everyone else in the band—their positive energy really carried me through that period of time, and really carried us through the making of the album.”

Carpenter also shared a humorous anecdote about his medical journey:

“I’ve had two MRIs in the last year, and each time, I found myself thinking, ‘Man, how can I bring a recorder in here and record it?’ The sounds those machines make are so wild. The techs were like, ‘You can listen to music while we’re doing it.’ And I’m like, ‘No—I want to listen to the machine!’”

He also revealed that 2012’s Koi No Yokan remains his favorite album to perform live from the Deftones catalog:

“‘Koi‘ is our record that I enjoy playing the most; I have the most fun playing those songs, physically speaking.”

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