The Real Reason Deftones Wouldn’t Tour with Korn

By Scott Munro

May 4, 2017

Deftones vocalist Chino Moreno has explained why he and the band kept turning down the opportunity to tour with Korn in their early days.

Speaking exclusively in the new issue of Metal Hammer, the band reflected on creating their 1997 album, Around The Fur, to mark its 20th anniversary.

But while the nu metal scene was starting to take off around that time, Moreno and guitarist Stef Carpenter said they weren’t conscious of the movement and just wanted to make their second record the best it could be.

Carpenter said: “We didn’t really pay much attention to that. I remember when these subgenre names didn’t exist. It was just metal.

“So I don’t think we made a decision to step away from it – we’ve never paid attention to what anyone else was doing. We just did what we thought was right, and tried to make a killer album.”

Moreno reported they made a conscious decision of what bands they would play shows with – but Korn weren’t top of the list.

He continued: “It was hard to be this young band and having to turn down tours. I can’t remember how many times I turned down Korn! And they got pissed at us.

“Jonathan Davis would say, ‘Why do you hate us?’ and I didn’t know what to say. I’d tell him, ‘Dude, I don’t hate you. I love you guys, you’re my friends – but I don’t want to tour with you. I don’t want to be on the Family Values with you and Limp Bizkit.’

“The name of the genre was nu metal, so anything that is new is one day going to be old. And I didn’t want to be old with it.”