See Deftones Play Fun, Heartfelt Cover of Weezer's "Say It Ain't So" in 2001 | Page 2 | Revolver

See Deftones Play Fun, Heartfelt Cover of Weezer's "Say It Ain't So" in 2001

Chino Moreno and Co. broke out Blue Album staple at Brazil's Rock in Rio

It might not be immediately apparent listening to their music, but Deftones love Weezer. Especially 1994's the Blue Album. "Weezer's first record was such a big record for us," singer Chino Moreno told Kerrang! in 2019. "Although musically we were in completely different genres, I think that those songs are so good and they're so fun to listen to. So that record was on all the time, in our dressing room or wherever."

Listening to the songs on repeat, the Deftones band members "gradually started learning them, and maybe playing them at soundcheck for fun." Then they started playing Blue Album standout "Say It Ain't So" live onstage. One such performance took place at 2001's Rock in Rio festival in Brazil, in front of a massive crowd that seemed alternately thrilled and confused by the song choice. For his part, Moreno was clearly having a blast, as can be seen in the video above.

According to the Deftones frontman, the cover was just about having a good time, playing a song they love. "We never actually recorded any Weezer covers," he said in the same interview. "but I think we pretty much learned every song off that record and every now and then we would pop one of them into the middle of our show. People would trip out, because Weezer is hard to dislike — especially that first record. People would get excited to hear it, 'Why are they playing this?' It didn't fit with what we were doing, but we enjoyed it. We were having fun."