Faith No More’s Mike Patton has revealed he battled alcoholism during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 54-year-old Faith No More frontman was speaking about his role in hardcore band Dead Cross and their upcoming album when he revealed the difficulties he and his bandmates faced during the pandemic.
He told The Guardian newspaper: “This record was forged through COVID, cancer [guitarist Mike Crain’s battle with squamous cell carcinoma] and alcoholism.
“He’s the strongest fucking guy. He’s not the guy you’d think would come down with cancer. But he did, and a lot of that went into the Dead Cross record: a lot of weird pain and fear. It’s hard to explain, but it made the record better.”
Although Patton originally welcomed lockdown for the break it gave him, things quickly turned quite dark and he was diagnosed with agoraphobia.
He said: “My initial response to the pandemic was: ‘I love this s***!’ It allowed me to be an antisocial motherfucker! I had maybe three months of that: ‘This is f****** awesome!’ Then something changed – and not for the better.
“Because I was isolated so much, going outside was a hard thing to do and that’s a horrible thing. And 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 added that he has now been sober “for a while” and is “doing pretty good”.