Faith No More drummer says Mike Patton is “clearly unwilling to do shows with us”

Faith No More drummer Mike Bordin has said frontman Mike Patton is “clearly unwilling to do shows with us”. 

• READ MORE: Faith No More are back. Here’s why you should care about the wild and witty progenitors of alt-metal 

The veteran Bay Area band have been largely inactive for the last decade since the release of their comeback album ‘Sol Invictus’ in 2015, although they were due to play a number of shows in 2020, only for them to be scrapped due to COVID-19. 

Further plans for live shows were announced in 2021, but those were subsequently cancelled, with Patton citing mental health reasons. He later revealed he had been diagnosed with agoraphobia during the pandemic. 

In the time since, the singer has been out on the road again with his other band Mr Bungle, however, and now in a new interview on the Let There Be Talk podcast, founding Faith No More percussionist Bordin has given an unencouraging update on the future of the group. 

Bordin reflected on having to cancel the 2021 shows, saying 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’,” he added (via Blabbermouth). “It’s gonna be a shitstorm cancelling 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.” 

When he saw the Mr Bungle shows go ahead, though, he realised the status of Faith No More may be clear.  

“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,” he said. “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. 

Earlier this year, guitarist Roddy Bottum also spoke about the future of Faith No More, saying they were in a “really weird spot” right now. 

“You don’t have to believe me, but there’s nothing [to say],” he added. “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.” 

Bordin, meanwhile, will be playing as part of the gargantuan line-up for the Black Sabbath farewell show at Birmingham’s Villa Park on July 5. 

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