Mike Patton seems to have confirmed Faith No More have split for good.
The group last performed together in 2016 with original frontman Chuck Mosely in the lineup, while Mike hasn’t played with them since the end of the Sol Invictus Tour in 2015, and subsequent reunion plans in 2020 and 2021 were scrapped due to the pandemic and the singer’s mental health struggles respectively.
Appearing on Consequence of Sound’s Kyle Meredith With, Mike was asked if he feels a “sense of closure” for the last tour, given there has been no activity since.
He said: “I didn’t really think so at the time, but, yeah, maybe. And I think that we all kind of felt it, but it was unspoken.
“And it’s funny: when you’ve been in a band or a musical situation for a period of time, you always, in the back of your head, you’re kind of thinking, ‘Well, maybe this is it.’
“And I don’t mind that feeling. I don’t see it as a sad thing. I see it as being present and being able to really appreciate it while it’s happening.”
The group has released seven studio albums to date, but only Sol Invictus came in the last 25 years.
Meanwhile, Mike also shrugged off the idea that Faith No More was his “main” bands, with others – like Tomahawk, Mr Bungle and others – are simply “side projects”.
He argued: “[Something] I’ve never really understood, and I had to figure this out very early on, was the concept of a side project, that’s assuming that there’s a main one. For me, I really never had one.
“There were projects like Faith No More where I spent more time on, in terms of touring and promoting, but everything that I’ve done was of equal importance to me.
“They just weren’t viewed that way. The public, for whatever reason, needs to have a hierarchy built in there just to make themselves feel better about it, I guess. I don’t know.”
His comments about Faith No More’s future follow uncertainty from other band members.
Last year, guitarist Roddy Bottum admitted the band were in “a really weird spot”.
He added to Chile’s Radio Futuro: 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.”
And drummer Mike Bordin explained that the band knew they had to “support our guy” with Mike needed to step away in 2021, but seeing Mr Bungle go on tour made him take stock of Faith No More’s position.
He told the Let There Be Talk podcast: “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.”