Abe Cunningham grew up playing guitar and drums. His father, who was a musician and stepfather, who was a drummer, were early influences on him as were Mitch Mitchell, Ginger Baker and Stewart Copeland. Abe started playing drums as a teenager for the band Sacramento, CA based band, Phallucy in the early 90’s and recorded their record, “Valium”. During his time with Phallucy, Abe would have jam sessions with two childhood friends, Stephen Carpenter and Chino Moreno and the Deftones were born. Within two years and playing several live shows in Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles, the band was signed to Maverick Records.

1995 saw the release of their debut record, “Adrenaline”. Through haunting melodies and pounding music, Abe and his band mates built up a dedicated fan base through lots of touring behind the singles, “7 Words” and “Bored”, and the album eventually went on to sell over a million copies. The next year, the band contributed a song, “Teething” to the movie, “The Crow: City of Angels” and even appeared in the film playing the track.

The Deftones highly anticipated 2nd CD, “Around The Fur” was released in 1997 and gave the band its first radio and MTV airplay for the singles, “My Own Summer(Shove It) and “Be Quiet and Drive(Far Away)”. The band hit the road and appeared at many festivals including, The Warped Tour, Ozzfest, Pinkpop and Roskilde. “Around the Fur” has sold over a million copies since its release. Next up was a live EP simply titled, “Live” and was released in 1999.

Their 3rd record, “White Pony” debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200 in 2000 after the band spent four months in the studio writing and recording the effort. “Change(In The House of Flies)” was the lead single off the record and is their most successful single to date. The record went on to sell over 1.3 million copies and the band won its first Grammy for the Best Metal Performance for the song “Elite”.

Abe and the Deftones released their self titled, gold selling, fourth album in 2003. The record peaked at number 2 on the Billboard 200 behind the singles, “Minerva”, “Hexagram” and “Bloody Cape”.

“B Sides and Rarities” was released in 2005 as a CD/DVD that featured acoustic versions of some of their songs as well as some cover songs. The DVD featured all their videos to date.

“Hole In The Earth” was the lead single for their 2006 album, “Saturday Night Wrist”, and the single was also featured as a downloadable song for Guitar Hero 3. The band spent more time on the road touring the world playing festivals such as Taste of Chaos, Family Values Tour and Soundwave in Australia.