MIKE BORDIN On FAITH NO MORE: "MIKE PATTON Has Gone From Being Unable To Do The Shows To Clearly Being Unwilling To Do Shows With Us"

A little background before we get into things here. Faith No More and Mr. Bungle canceled their September and October 2021 tour dates as vocalist Mike Patton dealt with ongoing mental health issues. Those cancellations bled into 2022, with Faith No More canning their plans for the entire year.

Mr. Bungle would eventually get back on stage quite a few times, but Faith No More never recovered. Patton would later address the situation with Faith No More's other members, while Faith No More keyboardist Roddy Bottom briefly addressed the band's situation as a "semi permanent hiatus" and bassist Billy Gould said he has no idea what's going on.

Now in a new interview with Let There Be Talk, Faith No More drummer Mike Bordin spoke a little more frankly about the band's situation. Bordin recounted what happened with the cancellations, before claiming that Patton clearly doesn't want to play with Faith No More considering he's tour with Mr. Bungle.

"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 [Patton started booking shows with 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."

Bordin later noted that he's grateful for Patton and everyone else who's ever been in Faith No More, but realizes he can't forcefully make something happen: "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."