Faith No More, etc. drummer Mike Bordin has elaborated on the uncertain status of Faith No More. After originally disbanding back in 1998, the pioneering alternative metal outfit reunited in 2009 for a run that lasted up till 2021. After, cancelling a slew of dates in late 2021, the band went dormant.
Their vocalist Mike Patton, later went on to explain how the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent quarantine negatively impacted his mental health, leaving him with crippling agoraphobia. Patton went on to undertake therapy for his condition and has since resumed touring with Mr. Bungle.
However, Faith No More have remained quiet since, with the band’s keyboardist Roddy Bottum cryptically stating last October that the band were on a “semi-permanent hiatus.” In a new conversation on the ‘Let There Be Talk‘ podcast, Bordin was less discreet, citing a breakdown of communication between the band and Patton as the reason for the band’s continued inactivity.
He stated of that [transcribed via Blabbermouth.net]:
“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. 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 shit storm canceling fucking 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 fuck 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.
But ultimately shows get started to get booked with another band [Mr. Bungle] 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.”
He continued:
“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.”
Reflecting on Patton‘s impact on the band, Bordin offered:
“I mean, we’re blessed to have been blessed by such a gigantic, enormous talent. And the future? I don’t know. Will he be willing to do stuff or not? It’s not for me to say. 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.
So I’m grateful for the time we had with Jim [Martin, ex-Faith No More guitarist]. I’m grateful for the time we have with Chuck [Mosley, late Faith No More vocalist]. I’m grateful for the time even we had with 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 fucking headline — I’m really not. I’m just trying to tell you sort of what it looks like from here.”
