Stef intervied by SPIN (May,1998)
Deftones guitarist Stephen Carpenter is the taco the town.
An interview in five parts by Nicole DeCrescenzo.
SPIN: Do you all skate? You look like Skate Culture.
It’s weird, ’cause I don’t skate like I used to.
When I was a kid I wanted to be sponsored, and, you know,
the whole nine yards and then I got hit by a car and that
pretty much brought my skateboard culture to a screeching halt,
but I eventually picked it up when I started to walk again.
SPIN: How long were you not walking?
I was walking after two weeks. I mean, I just had pins sticking
out of my leg, I had a cast for a while, I had this and that, you know,
I have, like, a rod–I don’t know if it’s steel or titanium, what it’s
made out of but it’s right in the middle of my shin bone, basically.
I mean, I skate now, I can do whatever I want, basically. It’s probably
stronger than it ever was.
SPIN: How did the accident happen?
Drunk driver.
SPIN: Did you get money?
Yeah. I blew it. I sucked. But I never felt the accident.
To this day I never felt pain–I think I had divine intervention.
No. Not divine intervention, ’cause–I think I had a special kind
of divine intervention, I’m sure. Because I should have died–I was
blessed enough not to be shredded before my time.
SPIN: At what point did you get to quit the Job?
I got fired from my last job. I’ll tell you this story.
Me and Abe used to work at this Mexican place, and we had these meetings
about how the manager thought things were supposed to work. I showed up
to this meeting late, basically. I mean I didn’t want to act like a dick
and like I didn’t care, but I just blended in as quietly as possible,
didn’t pay any attention to him because I didn’t need to, really.
I really didn’t. I swear, I really didn’t, because I knew what he was
saying. He’s said it many times before.
So we open at 11, and the meeting ends at 10:30. So we had a half hour
to do basically everything that has to be done all morning long.
So everyone is running around like crazy and we had a huge order of a
bunch of stuff to make, right? And one of his rules was to not have
–this is going to sound so stupid–
On the grill, you know, we grill the chicken, right? And I would fill
the whole grill up. I’d leave an area to cook fish and shrimp and stuff,
right, but I would cook a ton of chicken because we went through so
much chicken, it was insane. All the time, right? You know, chicken tacos,
burritos, tostadas, et cetera. I’d have a big old container so we could
keep up with the demand, right?
Well, what he wanted was a little portion on the grill with chicken, and
just enough fish for the orders that you need. So basically I’d be behind
the whole time. His way, that he wanted, would not keep up with demand.
My way kept demand kickin’. But because they were my ways and not his ways,
he wouldn’t have it. No fucking joke. And at the time, I was pissed,
because I couldn’t believe I got fired for something so sorry.
SPIN: You’d want someone else to do your phone sex?
Well, I’d love to do it, but it wouldn’t be any good. Guys aren’t
going to call me. I could be a phone-sex operator, just not a gay
phone-sex operator. That’s what I’m saying. I would hire women to do
my phone-sex line. There’s more money there.
SPIN: Would you be like a celebrity endorsement? Would it
be Stephen Carpenter’s Phone-Sex Line?
That’d be kinda fresh. Like, “These are the hottest chicks.
I’ve hand-selected them myself.”
SPIN: Would you hand-select them?
Yeah, that’d be the easiest part.
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