Mike Patton is best known for being part of the band Faith No More, which is responsible for hits including ‘Epic’ and ‘Midlife Crisis’.
Mike Patton is not believed to have any tattoos, with no tattoos visible in the magazine photoshoots he has partaken in. He has, however, experimented with fake tattoos during performances.
Find out more about Mike Patton by reading on.
Early Life
Mike Patton was born in Eureka, California in 1968.
As an adult, he suggested that the city was a fairly boring setting to grow up in. “In Eureka, we drink a lot of coffee if we think there’s something worth staying up for,” he joked.
As a child, he was a fan of the musician Carl Stalling who worked on the ‘Looney Tunes’ shorts. Already interested in music, cartoons were about more than simple entertainment for the young Patton.
“Oddly enough,” he says, “That was a musical memory for me. It wasn’t like entertainment – I was actually listening to stuff.”
As a teen, he became part of the band Mr. Bungle with some friends. Described by Patton as “A Laurel and Hardy death-metal band,” the group achieved relative success.
Faith No More
Mr. Bungle shared recordings of their music with the band Faith No More. At the time, Faith No More already had a lead singer, Chuck Mosley, though there was unrest within the band about his behavior.
On one occasion, Mosley fell asleep during a performance. “With Chuck in the band we weren’t getting anywhere,” says Mike Bordin, the band’s drummer.
When the band discovered Patton, only a teenager at the time, they invited him to be their new singer. Patton didn’t make an immediate decision to join Faith No More, as he was already enjoying his time with Mr. Bungle and was still in the midst of a college career.
He ultimately joined Faith No More in 1988. The following year, the band released the album ‘The Real Thing’. The album was well-received, winning the band a Grammy nomination for best metal performance.
This would be the first of three times they were recognized by the Grammys, with a nomination for best hard rock performance following in 1990 and another nomination in 1992 for best hard rock vocal.
The band released another three albums; ‘The Real Thing’, ‘Angel Dust’ and ‘Album of the Year’.
In 1998 the band announced that they had decided to split. In a joint statement, they said, “The decision among the members is mutual, and there will be pointing of fingers, no naming of names.”
“Other than stating, for the record, that Puffy [Mike Bordin, the band’s drummer] started it,” they added to the tongue in cheek statement.
Outside of Faith No More
During his time in Faith No More, Patton continued to sing with Mr. Bungle. With his fame rising, Mr. Bungle had been gaining attention and had built a loyal fanbase of their own, bagging themselves a record deal with Warner Bros.
Mr. Bungle continued to release music until 1999 but became inactive without an explanation. In 2004, it was finally confirmed that they had stopped working together, with Patton telling an interviewer, “This band was poisoned by one person’s petty jealousy and insecurity, and it led us to a slow, unnatural death.”
He continues to explain that he has found peace with the situation.
Outside of music, Patton has turned his hand to other challenges, including acting in movies and setting up his own record label. His label, ‘Ipecac’, has now been profitable for over two decades.
The label positions itself as one that grants unique control to artists. “This label is…a place where bands we admire have the freedom to release music they might not be able to, or want to, release on other labels.”
In 2009, Faith No More confirmed that they would be reforming and embarking on a tour. In 2015, the band released ‘Sol Invictus’, their first new music in almost 20 years.