The highly influential Faith No More haven’t hit the stage since August 2016, and according to drummer Mike Bordin, a comeback doesn’t seem to be on the horizon. In a recent interview, Bordin revealed that frontman Mike Patton has moved “from being unable to do the shows to clearly being unwilling to do shows with us.”
The band had been set to return in 2021, but Patton pulled out of all planned performances, citing mental health challenges. While Patton has since resumed performing live with Mr. Bungle, Faith No More have not announced any new tour dates.
In a 2022 interview with The Guardian, Patton opened up about the toll the pandemic took on his well-being, explaining that he began drinking heavily during that time. “The idea of doing more Faith No More shows — it was stressful. It affected me mentally. I don’t know why, but the drinking just … happened,” he shared. Though he described the band as “rock solid,” he hinted at lingering issues, saying, “There are a few issues going on,” without offering specifics.
Keyboardist and guitarist Roddy Bottum referred to the band’s situation as a “semi-permanent hiatus” in an interview last year, and now Bordin has offered further insight on the Let There Be Talk podcast (transcription via Blabbermouth).
“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 [those 2021] dates. 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 [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, 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. … 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.”
Bordin did add that he is “grateful for what [Patton has] given to us. 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.”
The drummer concluded, “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.”
