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Faith No More
Faith No More in 1998
Background information
Origin	San Francisco, California, U.S.
Genre(s)	Alternative rock Alternative metal Funk metal Experimental rock
Years active	1982–1998
Label(s)	Slash, London, Reprise, Mordam
Associated acts	Imperial Teen Mr. Bungle Faith No Man Brujeria Fantômas Tomahawk
Former members
Roddy Bottum Billy Gould Mike Bordin Chuck Mosely "Big" Jim Martin Mark Bowen Courtney Love Mike Patton Trey Spruance Dean Menta Jon Hudson

Faith No More was an alternative rock group that formed in San Francisco, California in 1982 and disbanded in 1998.

Their music combined elements of heavy metal, funk, hardcore punk, progressive, soul, hip hop, and jazz, among many others.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Early days 1.2 The Real Thing 1.3 Angel Dust 1.4 King for a Day ... Fool for a Lifetime 1.5 Album of the Year 1.6 Faith No More’s end 2 Post-Faith No More 3 Collaborations 4 Band members 5 Discography 5.1 Studio albums 5.2 Live albums 5.3 Compilations 5.4 Singles 5.5 Soundtrack contributions 5.6 Contributions 5.7 Tribute compilations 6 Videography 6.1 Music videos 6.2 Other music videos 6.3 VHS releases 6.4 DVD releases 7 Footnotes 8 Bibliography 9 External links

Faith No More formed in 1982 out of the ashes of Faith No Man, a band formed and headed by Mike "The Man" Morris. Roddy Bottum, Mike Bordin, and Bill Gould left Faith No Man. They chose the name "Faith No More" at the suggestion of a friend (as "The Man" was no more). After cycling through a few guitarists, the members recruited Jim Martin. A number of singers were tried, including a six-month stint by Courtney Love as confirmed by Mike Bordin in a 1997 interview Courtney was, and remains, a friend of Roddy's.^[1] An airing has since surfaced of her performing on San Francisco Public Access TV with the band during their alleged "New Romantic phase".^[2]

Chuck Mosely became the band's full time singer and appeared on their first two records. A well known song from this era is "We Care a Lot", a satire of the prevalence of charity-related rock efforts such as Live Aid and "We Are the World". The song is also notable as one of the first rock songs to seamlessly blend in hip hop music.^{[citation needed]}

During this period, the band gained a reputation for serious infighting and friction. In an interview^{[citation needed]} in 1987, Mosely claimed that Martin had hit him with a bottle, and there were frequent rumors of physical confrontations between band members. Indeed, in a short history of the band in one issue, the British music newspaper Melody Maker observed that the band's internal relationships had descended into "pathological hatred". Bordin in particular seemed to be very much the "whipping boy" of the band and the butt of numerous cruel pranks and practical jokes. It is doubtful that the band would have stayed together had they not been successful after their second album, Introduce Yourself.

Mosely was fired in 1988 and replaced with singer Mike Patton. Patton, who was singing with his high school band Mr. Bungle, was recruited at Martin's suggestion after he heard a demo of Mr. Bungle's long-over death metal days. Patton dropped out of Humboldt State University to join Faith No More and in two weeks had written all the lyrics for the songs that would make up the Grammy award nominated album The Real Thing.^[3]

The Real Thing has been described as "early Brian Eno joins Led Zeppelin and Funkadelic."^[4] The video for "Epic", which featured slow motion footage of a fish flopping out of water, received extensive airplay on MTV in the summer of 1990, despite provoking anger from animal rights activists.^[5][6] That same year, Faith No More gave memorable performances at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards (September 6) and on the 666th episode of Saturday Night Live (December 1).

Some of the songs on The Real Thing have subsequently been used commercially over the years. The lyrics to "Epic" were featured in the manga graphic novel The Dirty Pair, a Plague of Angels. The Dirty Pair are two female law enforcement officers in a future world who go to a karaoke night and sing Epic. From out of Nowhere features on the EA Sports' Games Madden NFL 2005 and NHL 2005. Additionally, "Falling to Pieces" featured prominently in Ridley Scott's 2001 war movie Black Hawk Down where it is used as background music as the soldiers prepare for their mission. According to the Mark Bowden book upon which the film is based, when the soldiers were preparing for the actual 1993 mission, Guns N' Roses' song "Welcome to the Jungle" was playing on the base's loudspeakers, and some soldiers mused whether this might be an omen; Axl Rose refused to let the song be used in the film, so "Falling to Pieces" was substituted as appropriate to the time period and similarly prophetic. Faith No More toured with Guns N' Roses in support of The Real Thing.

Faith No More displayed an even more distinctly experimental bent on their next album, Angel Dust. One critic writes that the album is "one of the more complex and simply confounding records ever released by a major label,"^[7] and another writes that "'A Small Victory', which seems to run Madame Butterfly through Metallica and Nile Rodgers … reveals a developing facility for combining unlikely elements into startlingly original concoctions."^[8]

Angel Dust featured the singles "Midlife Crisis," "A Small Victory," and a re-recording of the theme to the film Midnight Cowboy. "Midlife Crisis" has been used in the popular videogames, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, playing on fictional alternative station Radio X and in Tony Hawk's Underground 2. Later pressings of the album also included their cover of the Commodores classic "Easy", which in some parts of the world became the band's biggest hit; "Easy" was subsequently used in a commercial for Levi's in 2006. Angel Dust, though not as successful as The Real Thing in the U.S., sold 700,000 copies there, and did manage to outsell The Real Thing in many other world charts. In Germany, for example, the record was certified Gold for sales of more than 270,000 copies. Along with heavy airplay of "Easy" and "Midlife Crisis", the album became a bit of a sleeper hit in the UK, South America, Europe and Australia.

After touring to support Angel Dust in the summer of 1992, longtime guitarist Jim Martin was fired by fax before the recording of their follow-up, King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime (or KFAD/FFAL) in 1995. He was replaced by Mr. Bungle guitarist Trey Spruance, who also left soon after; just before the band was to begin their world tour. Spruance was replaced by Dean Menta, the band's guitar roadie.

King for a Day ... Fool for a Lifetime was an equally experimental album, varying in styles and moods from heavy and slow to spasmodic and jazzy. In the U.S. the album failed to get any sort of attraction or following, slipping out of the charts quickly. Sales (about 1.5 million) were below that of Angel Dust. The band accordingly decided to cut their world tour short by 4 months, canceled the singles "Gentle Art Of Making Enemies" and "Take This Bottle", and released a 7 x 7-inch box set of singles that included the B-sides and some interviews between the songs. King for a Day ... Fool for a Lifetime sold well in the UK and Germany, and even went to #1 on the album charts in Australia.

Album of the Year was released in 1997 and featured yet another new guitarist, Jon Hudson, who was a former roommate of Billy Gould. The album debuted much higher than expected in some countries, for example Germany (#2, later going gold) and Australia (#1 again, going platinum). In an additional 12 countries in Europe, it went either gold or platinum. In the U.S. the reaction was slow for the album; however, just as interest was picking up on their tours and album they called it a day. The singles "Ashes To Ashes" and "Last Cup Of Sorrow" had minimal success. The music video for "Last Cup of Sorrow" is based on the Alfred Hitchcock film Vertigo. Electro-tinged ballad "Stripsearch" was released as a single in various countries (excluding the U.S. and UK). "She Loves Me Not" was canceled as a single which was a little indicator of their imminent break-up.

In early 1998 the new flaring of break-up rumors on the Internet began. Starting with a rumor posted to the Faith No More newsgroup alt.music.faith-no-more claiming Mike Patton had quit the band in favor of side projects, this rumor, although denied at the time, proved to be at least partly true. The band canceled their planned support tour for Aerosmith and on April 19, 1998 Bill Gould began spreading the following by email and fax:

“

After 15 long and fruitful years, Faith No More have decided to put an end to speculation regarding their imminent break up... by breaking up. The decision among the members is mutual, and there will be no pointing of fingers, no naming of names, other than stating, for the record, that "Puffy started it". Furthermore, the split will now enable each member to pursue his individual project(s) unhindered. Lastly, and most importantly, the band would like to thank all of those fans and associates that have stuck with and supported the band throughout its history.

”

Faith No More played their last show in Lisbon, Portugal on April 7, 1998.^[3]

After the dissolution of Faith No More the members have gone on to numerous different projects.

Mike Patton went on to work with long time side-band Mr. Bungle (whom he had been playing with before FNM). Later he worked with producer Dan The Automator on various albums including Lovage: Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By. Other projects were with John Zorn, Björk, Rahzel, Imani Coppola. He has been active with several other groups, including Tomahawk, Fantômas, Peeping Tom, and The Dillinger Escape Plan. Mike Patton also plays the voice of The Darkness in the video game The Darkness.

Keyboardist Roddy Bottum formed Imperial Teen in 1996.

Guitarist Jim Martin went on to collaborate with Anand Bhatt. He has made guest appearances including Antipop by Primus, as well as having released a solo album entitled Milk and Blood (1996). He also appeared on Echobrain's self-titled debut album alongside former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted.

Mike Bordin regularly performs as a member of Ozzy Osbourne's band, as well as Black Sabbath and he was also a member of Korn for a tour when their drummer David Silveria had suffered a broken wrist. He played drums on Jerry Cantrell's album Degradation Trip.

Billy Gould was a member of Brujeria, as well as founder of Koolarrow Records, and has also overseen the releases of various Faith No More compilations. He also played a few songs on Fear Factory's 2005 album Transgression. In 1998, Billy Gould produced the album Vainajala (1998) by the Finnish rock band CMX. He also toured with the German noise-rock band Harmful throughout Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic and the Balkans in 2007. He produced their album 7, available through Koolarrow Records.

Faith No More's "Epic" will be featured in the upcoming video game Rock Band for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3. It is scheduled for release on November 2007.^[9] Gamers can play along with the original master recording, using guitar, microphone and drum controllers to simulate a virtual rock band in their living room.

Faith No More collaborated with the Boo-Yaa TRIBE for the song "Another Body Murdered" on the 1993 Judgment Night soundtrack. In 1998, the Sparks album Plagiarism was released featuring two collaborations with Faith No More ("This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us" and "Something for the Girl with Everything").

Band member	Instrument(s)	Dates	Albums recorded
Roddy Bottum	keyboards	1982–1998	all
Billy Gould	bass	1982–1998	all
Mike "Puffy" Bordin	drums	1982–1998	all
"Big" Jim Martin	guitar	1983–1993	We Care a Lot, Introduce Yourself, The Real Thing, Angel Dust
Chuck Mosley	vocals	1983–1988	We Care a Lot, Introduce Yourself
Mark Bowen	guitar	1983
Courtney Love	vocals	1983
Mike Patton	vocals/other	1988–1998	The Real Thing, Angel Dust, King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime, Album of the Year
Trey Spruance	guitar	1995	King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime
Dean Menta	guitar	1995–1997
Jon Hudson	guitar	1997–1998	Album of the Year

• 1985: We Care a Lot (Mordam Records: U.S.)
• 1987: Introduce Yourself (Slash Records: U.S.) U.K #88, Australia #57
• 1989: The Real Thing (Platinum) (Slash Records: U.S.) U.S #11, U.K #30, Australia #2
• 1992: Angel Dust (Gold) (Slash Records: U.S.) U.S #10, U.K #2, Australia #4
• 1995: King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime (Slash Records: U.S.) U.S #31, U.K #5, Australia #2
• 1997: Album of the Year (Slash Records: U.S.) U.S #41, U.K #7, Australia #1

• 1991: Live at the Brixton Academy (Slash Records: U.S.) U.K #20, Australia #93

• 1998: Who Cares a Lot? (Slash Records: U.S.) U.K #37, Australia #4
• 2003: This Is It: The Best of Faith No More (Rhino Records: U.S.)
• 2005: Epic And Other Hits (Flashback Records: U.S.)
• 2005: The Platinum Collection (Warner Bros. Records: U.K.)

Year	Song	US Hot 100	US Modern Rock	US Mainstream Rock	UK Singles Chart	Australia	Album
1987	"We Care a Lot"	-	-	-	#53	-	Introduce Yourself
1987	"Anne's Song"	-	-	-	-	-	Introduce Yourself
1989	"From out of Nowhere"	-	-	-	#23	#83	The Real Thing
1990	"Epic"	#9	#2	#25	#25	#1	The Real Thing
1990	"Falling to Pieces"	#92	#12	#40	#41	#26	The Real Thing
1992	"Midlife Crisis"	-	#1	#32	#10	#31	Angel Dust
1992	"A Small Victory"	-	#11	-	#29	#84	Angel Dust
1992	"Everything's Ruined"	-	-	-	#28	#63	Angel Dust
1993	"Easy" (Songs To Make Love To)	#58	-	-	#3	#1	Angel Dust
1995	"Digging the Grave"	-	-	-	#16	#12	King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime
1995	"Ricochet"	-	-	-	#27	#58	King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime
1995	"Evidence"	-	-	-	#32	#27	King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime
1997	"Ashes to Ashes"	-	-	#23	#15	#8	Album of the Year
1997	"Last Cup of Sorrow"	-	-	#14	#51	#66	Album of the Year
1998	"Stripsearch"	-	-	-	-	#83	Album of the Year
1998	"This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us"	-	-	-	#40	#69	Plagiarism
1998	"I Started a Joke"	-	-	-	#49	#58	Who Cares a Lot?

• 1991: Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey: "The Perfect Crime" (Guitarist Jim Martin also had an acting part in the movie.)
• 1990: Gremlins 2: The New Batch: "Surprise! You're Dead!"
• 1993: Judgment Night: "Another Body Murdered" (with the Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E.)
• 1997: Grosse Pointe Blank: "We Care A lot"
• 2001: Black Hawk Down: "Falling to Pieces"
• 2004: Tony Hawk Underground 2: "Midlife Crisis"
• 2004: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: "Midlife Crisis"
• 2004: Madden NFL 2005: "From Out Of Nowhere"
• 2004: "EA Sports NHL 2004": "From Out of Nowhere"
• 2007: Rock Band: "Epic"
• 2007: Burnout Paradise: "Epic"

• 1988: "New Improved Song" (released with the second edition of Sounds)

• 2002: "Tribute of the Year: A Tribute to Faith No More" (U.S.)

• "We Care a Lot" (1988)
• "Anne's Song" (1988)
• "From out of Nowhere" (two very different versions) (1989)
• "Epic" (1990)
• "Falling to Pieces" (two very different versions) (1990)
• "Surprise! You're Dead!" (1990)
• "Midlife Crisis" (two not very different versions) (1992)
• "A Small Victory" (two not very different versions) (1992)
• "Everything's Ruined" (1992)
• "Easy" (two different versions of audio) (1992)
• "Another Body Murdered" (two different versions of audio) (1993)
• "Digging the Grave"(two not very different versions) (1995)
• "Ricochet" (two not very different versions)
• "Evidence" (two very different versions) (1995)
• "Ashes to Ashes" (1997)
• "Last Cup Of Sorrow" (1997)
• "Stripsearch" (1997)
• "I Started a Joke" (1998)

• "From out of Nowhere" (live)
• "Caffeine" (live from Hanging with MTV) [There are a few more songs that were recorded from this show but only few saw the light.]
• "Everything's Ruined" (live) [Billy wears a bumble bee suit in this video. It was on a British TV show called The Word.]
• "This Guy's in Love with You" (live in Sydney)

• You Fat Bastards?: Live at Brixton Academy
• Video Croissant
• "Evidence"
• Who Cares a Lot: Greatest Videos

• Live at the Brixton Academy, London: You Fat Bastards/Who Cares a Lot?: The Greatest Videos

• The Real Thing (Tablature book, available in both guitar and bass format)
• Angel Dust (Tablature book, available in both guitar and bass format)
• The Real Story (Biography about Faith No More)
• King for a Day ... Fool for a Lifetime (Tablature book, available in both guitar and bass format)

• FNM.com – home to FAQ, band history

v • d • e Faith No More
Roddy Bottum · Billy Gould · Mike Bordin · Mike Patton · Jon Hudson Chuck Mosely · Jim Martin · Dean Menta · Trey Spruance Joe Pye · Walter · Paula Frazer · Courtney Love · Jake Crucifix · Mark Stewart · Desmond Trial · Scott Colbertson · Mark Bowen
Studio albums	We Care a Lot · Introduce Yourself · The Real Thing · Angel Dust · King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime · Album of the Year
Live albums	Live at the Brixton Academy
Compilations	Who Cares a Lot? · This Is It: The Best of Faith No More · Epic and Other Hits · The Platinum Collection
Videos	You Fat Bastards: Live at the Brixton Academy · Video Croissant · Who Cares A Lot?: Greatest Videos · You Fat Bastards/Who Cares A Lot? (DVD)
Singles	We Care a Lot · Anne's Song · From out of Nowhere · Epic · Falling to Pieces · Midlife Crisis · A Small Victory · Everything's Ruined · Easy · Another Body Murdered · Digging the Grave · Ricochet · Evidence · Ashes to Ashes · Last Cup of Sorrow · Stripsearch · I Started a Joke
Related articles	Imperial Teen · Mr. Bungle · Faith No Man · Brujeria · Peeping Tom · Tomahawk · Fantômas · Cement
Categories	Albums · Songs · Members

v • d • e Mike Patton
Solo	Adult Themes for Voice  · Pranzo Oltranzista
Mr. Bungle	Studio albums: Mr. Bungle  · Disco Volante  · California Demos: The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny  · Bowel of Chiley · Goddammit I Love America  · OU818
Faith No More	The Real Thing  · Angel Dust  · King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime  · Album of the Year EPs, lives & compilations: Live at the Brixton Academy  · Songs To Make Love To · Who Cares a Lot?  · This Is It: The Best of Faith No More  · Epic And Other Hits  · The Platinum Collection
Fantômas	Fantômas  · The Director's Cut  · Millennium Monsterwork 2000  · Delìrium Còrdia  · Suspended Animation
Tomahawk	Tomahawk  · Mit Gas  · Anonymous
Peeping Tom	Peeping Tom
Other Projects	She  · Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By  · Irony is a Dead Scene  · Romances  · General Patton vs. The X-Ecutioners  · Mondo Cane  · Medúlla
Related articles	John Zorn