Now Excuse Me While I Spend the Rest of the Day Listening to Mike Patton
Before we go any further, let’s settle something that usually starts arguments among musicians, vocal coaches, and people who spend entirely too much time ranking singers on the internet.
Mike Patton might be the most gifted vocalist and songwriter of our generation.
Actually…
I’ll go one step further.
He might be one of the most talented singers… ever.
Yes, ever.
Cue the comment section.
Here’s my reasoning. The man can effortlessly perform in five different languages, jump between metal, funk, jazz, experimental rock, hardcore, film scores, avant-garde projects, and music that honestly sounds like it was recorded inside an abandoned spaceship. His vocal range reportedly spans nearly six octaves, and somehow he makes impossible things sound routine.
Most people know him as the frontman of Faith No More, and that’s understandable. But long before MTV was introducing millions of people to Epic and that unforgettable fish flopping around on the pavement… see what I did there?… I knew Patton from Mr. Bungle, a band so gloriously strange that trying to describe them to someone who’s never listened is almost impossible. Imagine if jazz, circus music, death metal, surf rock, ska, carnival nightmares, and pure chaos all decided to form a garage band.
Then Patton somehow found time to front Tomahawk, record with Fantômas, collaborate with The Dillinger Escape Plan, perform alongside The X-Ecutioners, create film scores, voice video game characters, and contribute to more side projects than most musicians could name without Googling themselves.
In other words…
The guy is ridiculously talented.
And there’s a decent chance half the people walking past him on the street wouldn’t recognize him.
Rock history is weird like that.
That’s why today’s news feels like such a big deal.
After nearly a decade away from the concert stage as Faith No More, the band has officially announced its return. Mike Patton, Billy Gould, Mike Bordin, Roddy Bottum, and Jon Hudson are heading to Australia and New Zealand early next year for four massive co-headlining stadium shows alongside System of a Down.
If you’ve followed the band’s story over the last several years, you’ll know this reunion has been anything but guaranteed.
Faith No More originally planned a return in 2020 before the pandemic shut the world down. Those shows were rescheduled, only to be canceled again when Patton courageously stepped away to address serious mental health struggles, later revealing his battle with agoraphobia and alcoholism. Rather than pushing through simply because fans expected it, he chose recovery over touring. In an industry that often rewards pretending everything is fine, that took real strength.
During the hiatus, Patton hardly disappeared. He reunited Mr. Bungle, brought Tomahawk back to the stage, worked with Dead Cross, contributed music to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game universe, and continued proving that sitting still simply isn’t part of his DNA.
Meanwhile, the rest of Faith No More weren’t exactly optimistic about the band’s future. Bassist Billy Gould, drummer Mike Bordin, and keyboardist Roddy Bottum all gave interviews over the past couple of years suggesting the group’s future was uncertain, with Bottum even describing Faith No More as being in a “semi-permanent hiatus.”
Thankfully…
Rock bands have a funny habit of refusing to stay retired.
Now, the group is officially back, and sharing the stage with another legendary heavyweight in System of a Down feels like exactly the kind of pairing that could leave stadium foundations questioning their structural integrity.
Faith No More’s legacy has long been secure, but it’s worth remembering just how influential they’ve been. The band earned a Grammy Award nomination for “Epic,” scored international hits with songs like “Epic,” “Falling to Pieces,” “Midlife Crisis,” “Easy,” and “Ashes to Ashes,” and helped redefine alternative rock by blending heavy metal, funk, hip-hop, punk, and progressive music years before genre-hopping became fashionable. Their landmark album The Real Thing achieved platinum success, while Angel Dust has become one of the most celebrated alternative metal albums ever recorded, regularly appearing on “greatest albums” lists around the world.
The funny thing about Faith No More is that they never really fit anywhere.
Too weird for mainstream rock.
Too melodic for extreme metal.
Too heavy for alternative radio.
Too funky for almost everyone else.
Which is exactly why they became legends.
Sometimes the bands that refuse to fit inside neat little boxes end up building entirely new ones.
So today, let’s all take a moment to tip our hats to Mike Patton and the rest of Faith No More.
Then crank the volume to eleven.
Throw on Epic, Midlife Crisis, Everything’s Ruined, Ashes to Ashes, or if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, disappear down the wonderfully bizarre rabbit hole that is Mr. Bungle.
Your neighbors may not appreciate it.
That’s their problem.
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