One of the most influential bands from the last decades, Faith No More sold an estimated amount of more than 20 million records worldwide and were always known for their incredible live performances. The band was first active from 1979 to 1998 and then reunited in 2009. Since then the band toured until 2012, released the album “Sol Invictus” in 2015 and toured to promote that record.
Their most recent concert happened in 2016 but the band even announced their return to the road in 2019 and had many concerts scheduled for 2020. But the Covid-19 Pandemic forced them to postpone all the dates. But in 2021 when they would finally return, their shows were again canceled. Why the band is not touring?
Why Faith No More is not touring
Faith No More was not touring because of Mike Patton‘s mental health. The vocalist was diagnosed with Agoraphobia, which is the fear of being in crowded places or leaving home. The musician said that in an interview with Rolling Stone in 2022 that it was better to cancel the upcoming dates than having a nervous breakdown on the road with the group. However, in an interview with “Let There Be Talk” in 2025, the band’s drummer Mike Bordin, said that it seems the vocalist doesn’t really want to tour with them, since he has been on the road with the supergroup Mr. Bungle a couple of times over the past years.
“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 (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.”
Mike Bordin continued:
“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.”
He continued:
“(I’m) 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. 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). I’m grateful for the time we have with Chuck (Mosley). 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,” Mike Bordin said.
What Mike Patton previously said about his mental health issues
In the conversation with Rolling Stone he talked about the issue, saying: “It’s easy to blame it on the pandemic. But I’ll be honest, man: At the beginning of the pandemic, I was like, ‘This is fucking great. I can stay home and record.’ I’ve got a home studio. So I was like, ‘Yeah, what’s the big deal?’ Then something clicked. I became completely isolated and almost antisocial [and] afraid of people.”
He continued:
“That sort of anxiety, or whatever you want to call it, led to other issues, which I choose not to discuss. But I got some professionals helping me. Now I’m feeling better and getting closer to diving back in.” That’s what Mike Patton said about touring with Mr. Bungle again at the time.
Until now there is no information about a possible return of Faith No More. But Mr Bungle has many scheduled tour dates in 2024, so Patton might be feeling better. So that could maybe open the door for a reunion in the following years.
Besides the singer, the band’s current line-up has: Mike Bordin (Drums), Billy Gould (Bass), Roddy Bottum (Keyboards) and Jon Hudson (Guitar).
