The Rolling Stones have been around forever. Key members have died young (Brian Jones) and in their old age (Charlie Watts), yet Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood seem indestructible. Jagger, in particular, is an especially spry and healthy octogenarian; he turns 83 next month, and you wouldn’t know it by the way he moves. So I guess it makes sense that as part of the rollout for his band’s new album, he talked to GQ‘s wellness vertical. It’s a bit surprising, though, that Geese came up.
Astral Alchemy’s new release, Weaving Chilling Magical Dreamworlds, is out now and available to listen to and order through the project’s official channels. The album invites listeners into a dark, atmospheric and mystical universe shaped by alchemical visions, cosmic destruction and the possibility of rebirth through annihilation. Built around themes of disdain for the corporeal […]
LA singer-songwriter Ryan Beatty makes smooth, heavily orchestrated tracks that recall the most regal ’70s pop, as well as the whispery bedroom-pop of today. Beatty came up alongside Brockhampton, and he has tons of collaborations on his belt. Today, he releases his new solo album Sweet Fortune, and he got some help from people who are more or less from the indie world. That includes Beatty’s buddy Clairo, who sings on multiple songs and who says that she had to “belt on a song for the first time.”
Following the massive digital breach that exposed Deftones‘ highly classified, long-shelved Eros studio sessions to the public internet earlier this week, guitarist Stephen Carpenter has officially broken the band’s silence. Marking the first public commentary from any member of the alternative metal outfit since the vault was cracked open, Carpenter delivered a stunningly relaxed, no-nonsense take on the situation, waving off the cyber security crisis with a simple realization: in the modern digital age, it happens.
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STATEMENT RECAP: CARPENTER ON THE DR. GREENTHUMB SHOW
Breaking the Band’s Silence: “It Happens”
While fans of the group were jumping on the Deftones Eros download, the band’s internal management team and parent record label moved with lightning mechanical speed behind the scenes to issue aggressive copyright take-down notices. The actual musicians in the camp have also remained completely tight-lipped—until now. Breaking the radio silence on June 24, 2026, guitarist Stephen Carpenter sat down for an appearance on The Dr. Greenthumb Show, hosted by Cypress Hill vocalist B-Real, where he was put directly on the hot seat regarding the 11 unfinished tracks circulating the web.
When asked point-blank if it was true that the mythical Eros sessions had leaked and subsequently been completely scraped and wiped from the internet by security teams, Carpenter took a highly pragmatic, unbothered view of the modern cyber breach: “I don’t know if it’s been scraped from the internet or not, and I don’t know to what extent it’s leaked, but every record of ours since White Pony has leaked. It happens.”
Inside the Chain: The Reality of Modern Studio Leak Culture
The conversation quickly shifted to the internal operational mechanics of how a closely guarded, high-security rock vault gets compromised in the first place. Show host B-Real expanded on the long, frustrating history of record leaks inside the entertainment industry, pointing out that an individual employed directly at the record label, a distribution partner, or the tracking studio itself is generally the party responsible for dumping files onto public servers.
Carpenter offered no resistance to the industry veteran’s logic, validating that the point of failure always resides somewhere within the creative line of custody before pointing out the sheer impossibility of digital containment once a file leaves an internal hard drive:
“Yeah, [the leaker is] somewhere in the chain. But I mean the reality is now people have the internet available and you can share stuff instantly. So once it gets on the web, yeah, it’s gone.”
A Surprising Admission: How Stephen Streams His Own Archive
The absolute highlight of the interview segment arrived when the studio crew noted that multiple unfinished demo cuts meant for the Eros tracking layout had newly flooded onto public video platforms. Carpenter caught the room completely off guard by revealing that underground fan-circulated leaks aren’t just something he’s aware of—they are actively part of his own personal listening habits.
“They’ve been on YouTube though for a long time, that’s how I listen to them,” Carpenter openly confessed.
While past instances of Eros material emerging—such as Chino Moreno temporarily posting the track “Smile” on the first anniversary of late bassist Chi Cheng’s passing in 2014—were met with swift corporate censorship, Carpenter’s candid commentary highlights a massive philosophical divide between active musicians and corporate legal departments. To the label, the leak is a massive breach of intellectual property; to the founding guitarist, it is simply the natural, uncontrollable state of making art in the digital age.
What was Stephen Carpenter’s reaction to the Eros album leak? Carpenter downplayed the severity of the cyber breach, stating that every single Deftones album produced since 2000’s White Pony has leaked and that digital containment on the modern web is practically impossible.
Where did the Deftones guitarist make these comments? He broke the band’s official silence during a guest appearance on The Dr. Greenthumb Show, an online broadcast hosted by Cypress Hill frontman B-Real.
Did Stephen Carpenter condemn fans for listening to the leaked tracks? No. Carpenter took a completely neutral, pragmatic approach, even casually admitting that he uses long-standing YouTube uploads to listen to the unreleased material himself.
The First Comment: Guitarist Stephen Carpenter has delivered the first official reaction from a Deftones member regarding the recent massive archive leak.
The Platform: Carpenter addressed the situation on B-Real’s The Dr. Greenthumb Show on June 24, 2026.
The Reaction: He remained completely unbothered, stating that Eros is just the latest in a line of leaks that has hit every Deftones album since White Pony.
The Insider Reality: Carpenter agreed with B-Real that leakers always reside “somewhere in the chain” of the studio or label network but noted that once it hits the web, “it’s gone.”
The band’s silence has officially been broken, and Stephen Carpenter has made it perfectly clear that he isn’t losing a single second of sleep over the internet’s obsession with their vaulted history.
What is your honest take on Stephen’s blunt reaction to the Eros breach? Do you respect his incredibly relaxed, realistic approach to modern internet culture, or were you expecting a more protective, emotionally charged response given the deep connection to late bassist Chi Cheng? Sound off with your tracking thoughts, interview reviews, and commentary below!
Australian gothic metal act Victoria K return with their new single “Take It All”, out June 26, 2026 taken from the band’s forthcoming third studio album, “The Pleasure of Sorrow“. Following the release of “Oh So Weary”, the new track opens a darker and more vulnerable chapter in the world of “The Pleasure of Sorrow“. Seductively melancholic and deeply […]
In 2004, former Guns N’ RosesbandmatesSlash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum were all out of their old group, presumably never to return. But with wayward Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland onboard, they launched the supergroup Velvet Revolver –even if, as Slash told Classic Rock at the time, their future was as unpredictable as their past.
Slash is talking in his familiar, woozy SoCal drawl. “Hey,” he says, “it’s the second day of this fucking two-day picture shoot, man. You can always tell when you got a record coming out, because all this bullshit starts up again…”
As laid-back and straight as he might be these days, the guitarist can’t keep the excitement out of his voice when he talks about this particular new record of his, though. Because for all of the knockabout rock’n’roll kicks of his band Snakepit and the many other GN’R spin-offs and side projects he’s been involved in, Velvet Revolver represents a return to the big-time for assorted members of two of the last decade’s biggest bands: Guns N’ Roses and Stone Temple Pilots.
Slash and ex-GN’R bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum began jamming around again in 2001. As their writing gathered momentum and the good vibes returned, in his head Slash began hearing one particular voice singing their material: that of Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland. Slash sent the STP singer a CD of some of their songs, and word came back that Weiland liked them very much.
It was never going to be that easy, though. It took Weiland a year to disentangle himself from the mess that STP had become. The GN’R three had by then become four with the addition of guitarist Dave Kushner, a friend of Slash’s since junior high school.
“Eventually,” Slash says, “after we’d been through this tortuous process of trying to find a singer, doing however many fucking auditions, we got this offer to do a couple of movie soundtracks. So I said to Scott, ‘Let’s just hang out and make music. But right from the start it was this great thing – that doesn’t usually happen twice. It was very organic and natural. We hooked up in April last year and we wrote over the summer. We did one gig just for the fuck of it, and that really cemented it. You can sometimes get away with shit in the studio, but there’s nowhere to hide up on stage. It was just that chemistry right away. Why we all work together, I don’t know.”
(Image credit: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)
The gig was at a small theatre, the El Rey in Los Angeles, and it was the first time that Slash had everseen Weiland sing live; the singer’s skill and passion enthralled him. With the deal sealed, the band recorded their forthcoming debut album, Contraband, in the last three months of 2003, co-producing with Josh Abraham. They boiled down the final running order from some 50 original songs.
“I’m telling you, every fucking track of these twelve is something different,” Slash says of the results. “It’s like a journey. There are no fillers. Every song has its own vibe. It’s a really fucking killer record.”
The stand-out tunes are Slither, a song that Weiland describes as having “that STP vibe”, and Falling To Pieces, a show-stopping ballad in the manner of GN’R’s November Rain. There’s even “an older punk track”, Illegal Eye.
Weiland, too, has been seduced by the combination of sounds: “It’s a true representation of STP’s music and also the best of Guns N’ Roses’ music when they were at their best – vicious, streamlined, living off strippers.”
Just one dark cloud has blighted this idyllic horizon: as the band worked on the album, Weiland had to go back into rehab, falling victim once again to his well-known junk habit. It meant that Slash and co were once more working with a singer whose behaviour was affecting the course of their professional lives. How come?
“In reality Scott’s dealing with stuff,” Slash replies. “He’s such an amazing talent.”
Clean again, Weiland is back taking a full part in the build-up to the album’s release. However, the true test will come when the band hit the road. Plans include some low-key English and European dates around the release of the album, followed by some extensive work in America.
“I would like to think that being in the band has helped Scott,” Slash says. “But you would have to ask him. I hope that working with us has made it a little easier, man. I mean, shit, we’ve all had our problems in the past.”
Velvet Revolver are attempting to absorb those lessons and learn from them, in both a personal and business sense.
“As naïve as it sounds, we didn’t want any of this bullshit about X amount of dollars for this or whatever; all the obvious things,” says Slash. “My whole thing was just to have a fucking amazing rock’n’roll band. Scott was the only guy who had that voice, what we thought was a genuine rock’n’roll voice. For most artists today it’s not about rock’n’roll any more, but it is for us. I don’t care about baggage or any of that shit. It’s not my big concern what everyone is going to think. I don’t have time to sort them all out. I just want the record to come out and to go on the road. I don’t care what size theatres or arenas or whatever, just fucking play, man. That’s what it’s about, after all.
“We lost sight of that in Guns. Once we’d played a stadium, Axl would never go back, it was stadiums or nothing. But to me it’s about being close to the crowd, too. I thought I’d got it out of my system with Snakepit, which was a kind of haphazard, thrown together thing, but it never really goes.”
To that end, Velvet Revolver are expected to play in the UK later in 2004.
“Hey, you gotta remember I was born there, man,” Slash says. “Stoke-on-Trent. And we just have very warm feelings about it there, from that first time with Guns. I just feel partial to the place. It seems like people take you at face value there.”
And with that, Slash is off to face the cameras and kick the big machine into action.
From Bordeaux, France, Quintana Dead Blues eXperience return with Ashes, a raw and unrelenting new album landing June 26, 2026. Rooted in blues-rock-stoner-alternative, grunge, and stripped-down rock’n’roll, the project of lifer Piero Quintana pulls from both sides of the Atlantic, somewhere between the weight of Sabbath, the abrasion of Nirvana, and the French lineage of […]
AVULSED unveils the first advance track from its upcoming covers album “Nordic Embryogenesis” with a crushing reinterpretation of “Expunging Mortalities“, a dark hidden gem taken from the 1990 second demo of Finnish Death Metal cult act FUNEBRE. You can listen to the song here:Youtube: https://youtu.be/wE5ugmySIGQDigital Platforms: https://music.imusician.pro/a/CwQMRS4b Dave Rotten himself comments the following about this song: “One of the […]
Today marks the release of vinyl pressing of Locust Cathedral,the latest studio album from Polish death metallers ICON OF EVIL. Limited color variants are available via Selfmadegod Records. Locust Cathedral delivers seven brand-new tracks of brutal, uncompromising death metal, along with a cover of Amebix’s Chain Reaction. This album is a must-have for fans of BOLT THROWER, ASPHYX, HELLBASTARD, and HAIL […]
King Parrot are celebrating the 14th anniversary of their debut album, Bite Your Head Off, with a limited edition repressing on Housecore Records. Available for pre-order on exclusively album-themed variants inspired by two featured songs: Epileptic Butcher Splatter and Shit on the Liver Swirl. This is a limited pressing of 500 records. The album is […]
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From Bordeaux, France, Quintana Dead Blues eXperience return with Ashes, a raw and unrelenting new album landing June 26, 2026. Rooted in blues-rock-stoner-alternative, grunge, and stripped-down rock’n’roll, the project of lifer Piero Quintana pulls from both sides of the Atlantic, somewhere between the weight of Sabbath, the abrasion of Nirvana, and the French lineage of […]
King Parrot are celebrating the 14th anniversary of their debut album, Bite Your Head Off, with a limited edition repressing on Housecore Records. Available for pre-order on exclusively album-themed variants inspired by two featured songs: Epileptic Butcher Splatter and Shit on the Liver Swirl. This is a limited pressing of 500 records. The album is […]