Faith No More‘s current status remains uncertain, as drummer Mike Bordin recently shed light on the situation during an appearance on the “Let There Be Talk” podcast with Dean Delray. His candid discussion comes three and a half years after the band scrapped their planned fall 2021 performances, citing singer Mike Patton‘s mental health struggles, which were reportedly exacerbated by the pandemic.
Bordin recounted the events leading up to the cancellations, stating, “All I can say is, and I think I do want this to be on the record, actually — because we don’t promote ourselves, we don’t talk about ourselves, and that’s, that’s really been to our detriment. But we’d been rehearsing for six months for these dates (in September/October 2021). We’d been rehearsing instrumentally and we incredibly sounded phenomenal. I mean, the bass player said, ‘I’ve never heard us sound this good. This is how these songs sounded in my mind.’ And we’ve never gotten that on album, on live, whatever. I mean, we were ready, we were prepared.”
However, just 36 hours before their Chicago show, Patton was absent from the final rehearsal. Bordin explained the band’s reaction: “And it came to pass that when the gear was in the truck, when it was rolling to Chicago, 36 hours before we were supposed to be on stage, and our guy Mike Patton doesn’t show for the rehearsal, the one rehearsal that we’re gonna do. And we go to go see him and see what’s going on. ‘What the hell’s going on here? Our gear’s rolling already to the gig.’ And it was very clear that he was unable at that point to physically do it. We made the decision that, ‘Look, we’ve gotta support our guy.’ It’s gonna be a sh*t storm canceling f*cking 75 shows, but none of us wants to be the guy that breaks his back and forces him to do something that he’s not in the position to be able to do. It wasn’t even an argument. The only argument was, ‘How the f*ck did we logistically do this? Because we have to.’ I mean, we did support him in our way, and whether that’s perceived or not is beyond — I can’t control it. So we pull these shows and just wait to see. Hopefully things are better, and try to find out what we can around the edges.”
Adding a layer of complexity to the situation, Bordin pointed to Patton‘s subsequent activity with his other band, Mr. Bungle, noting, “But ultimately shows get started to get booked with another band,” referencing Patton‘s sporadic appearances with Mr. Bungle in the last two and a half years, “and that’s continued to this day. So it’s my take, my position, my statement on it is that he’s gone from being unable to do the shows to clearly being unwilling to do shows with us. And that’s heavy. That’s a big difference. That’s a big difference. And we haven’t really had much dialogue on it.”
Bordin admitted his feelings on the matter, saying, “It doesn’t feel great to me. It honestly kind of hurts my feelings a little bit, but that’s personal. That’s a private thing. It’s business. We were never gonna force somebody to do something that they weren’t able to do. And now, as I say, it looks like it’s more really about being willing to do it.”
While acknowledging his gratitude for Patton‘s contributions, Bordin stated, “I tell my kids a lot of times, especially when they were young, it’s, like, appreciate what you have and don’t really trip on what you don’t have,” the drummer continued. “So I’m grateful for the time we had with [former Faith No More guitarist] Jim [Martin]. I’m grateful for the time we have with former Faith No More singer Chuck. I’m grateful for the time even we had with (former Faith No More member) Courtney Love ’cause we learned from all of it. And certainly am I grateful for the time with Mike Patton? Yeah, because my life would be very different without it. But I can’t force him to do something that he, from where I’m sitting, doesn’t seem to wanna do. That’s all I can say. And I don’t wanna be controversial. I’m not looking for a f*cking headline — I’m really not. I’m just trying to tell you sort of what it looks like from here.”
Bordin‘s sentiments echo those shared by bassist Bill Gould earlier this year, who, when asked about the band’s current status, confessed to Radio Futuro, “I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. And you don’t have to believe me, but there’s nothing… Right now we’re in a really weird spot, a really strange spot, and I can’t really tell you what’s going on. I don’t know myself. I get different information from people, and I’m in the band, so…”
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