By Dave Everley, Louder Sound | What’s it like to be in a massive band at the very beginning of their career – only to leave before things take off? It’s a question posed in the new issue of Metal Hammer magazine, which interviews a bunch of ex-members of some of the biggest metal bands around, including Trivium, Papa Roach and Faith No More.
One interviewee is Dominic Garcia, the original bassist for Californian alt metal titans Deftones. In 2026, they’re bigger than ever, a post-pandemic boom seeing them draw in a new generation of fans, release some of their most critically acclaimed work and headline the biggest venues of their career. But once upon a time, they were just another new band on the scene, trying to scrape some momentum together. Dominic gives us his memories of those forgotten early days – and explains why, in his opinion, he technically never quit the band in the first place.
“I’ve read on the internet that I was invited to play with the band as the first bass player. That’s not true – I’m a founding member. Abe [Cunningham, drummer] and I met in high school together. We were in the marching band, and every day we would go to his house after school and jam.
“Stephen [Carpenter, guitarist] lived in the neighborhood – he was 18, a couple of years older than us. He’d ride around on his bike, and one day we were jamming out and Stephen must have heard us ’cos he poked his nose through the window and invited us to come jam with him at his house.
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Read this sad story of what happens to the “ex-rock star”:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/i-was-kicked-out-of-deftones-show-for-being-aggressive-i-was-like-i-used-to-be-in-this-band/
Read more interviews with forgotten members of some of metal’s biggest bands in the new issue of Metal Hammer, out now. Grab yours online
https://www.magazinesdirect.com/uk/metal-hammer-411-single-issue/dp/5e8c14e2