A Year In The Life of Mike Patton - 1991
- Faith No More Followers
- 7 hours ago
- 8 min read
To celebrate Mike Patton's 58th birthday we are focusing on one particularly significant year in his life.
Mike Patton’s career in 1991 marked a pivotal moment in alternative music. His work during this year extended far beyond the Faith No More's rising fame. His involvement with Mr. Bungle and collaborations with Naked City showcased his versatility and fearless approach to music. This article explores how 1991 shaped Mike Patton’s artistic identity and set the stage for his future projects.
At the end of 1990 Faith No More had completed two grueling years of touring to promote The Real Thing. The band's third studio recording, and their first with Patton, had been voted album of the year by many and had been nominated for several Grammys. FNM had been credited with creating a shiny new music genre, and Patton had unwillingly become metal's shiny new poster boy.
1991 became somewhat a transitional year for the singer as he searched for his place within the music scene while he consciously tried to shake popular opinion and unwanted attention. Patton entered into a twelve month cocoon phase from which he eventually emerged in 1992 as the much loved self destructive shit terrorist! The first thing fans noticed about Patton in January was a drastic new hairstyle. His long brunette locks were shorn to shoulder length dyed red and skull shaved to the bone beneath, a style lovingly imitated by fans all over the globe.
While Faith No More were navigating mainstream attention, Patton returned to Mr. Bungle for an intimate Californian tour including nights at The Cattle Cub in Sacramento and Club Lingerie in Hollywood. The band were warming up to record their debut album at Different Fur in San Francisco.
"I always knew in my mind that I would do Mr. Bungle, there was never any question of that. The question was whether I was gonna do FNM, and being the dull, indecisive person that I am, it was a helluva hard decision to come to. My initial reaction was, No way! I talked it over with the Bungle guys, and I talked to my parents about it and they were positive: 'Hey Mike, make us proud!' " Patton giggles. "I'm doing this all for my parents. I admit it, I've been doing it to support their drug habit." - Patton | Sounds, February 1991
Mr. Bungle’s music was a stark contrast to Faith No More’s more accessible sound. The band mixed genres like ska, jazz, metal, and circus music, creating a chaotic but compelling soundscape. Patton’s vocal experimentation was front and centre, showcasing his ability to use his voice as an instrument and sing in a multitude of genres.
This period was crucial for Patton’s development as an artist willing to push boundaries. Mr. Bungle’s work in 1991 laid the groundwork for a career defined by innovation and unpredictability.
During recording Patton took time out to regroup with FNM in South America for Rock In Rio II. The festival took place in January and February of 1991 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The band performed on January 20 to their largest ever crowd of 180,000 sharing the stage with other acts such as Guns N’ Roses, Billy Idol, Prince, New Kids On The Block, George Michael and INXS.
‘It was the biggest show we’ve ever done. It was really scary. I couldn’t tell how many people were actually in the audience until later when I watched Guns N’ Roses, because they lit up the crowd. I thought it was just people in front of me, but there were people here, here, here.’ - Patton | MTV Brasil, September 1991.
The festival’s scale was unprecedented in South America at the time. It offered a unique platform for bands like Faith No More to reach a diverse and enthusiastic audience. The energy of the crowd and the festival’s vibrant atmosphere created the perfect backdrop for Faith No More’s dynamic and unpredictable live show.
"Rock In Rio is, at times, like one enormous press junket and the bands get little escape from cameras or tape recorders or screaming fans camped outside the hotel. Mike Patton in particular is a target for the screamers: they love him, want to touch him, want to scream in his ear, want his signature, want everything they can from him.
Bodyguards have to hustle the band through converging crowds pretty much all the time. Patton is bemused by the whole thing, understanding now what it's all about yet still not knowing why they do it." - Steffan Chirazi | Kerrang, January 1991
From Brazil FNM travelled to Chile for the first time and played two dates at Quinta Vergara in Viña Del Mar. Faith No More headlined the first night supported by local favourites Myriam Hernández and Chayanne. La Segunda negatively reviewed the show calling FNM 'thunderous trash rockers' and commenting on the lack of numbers in the crowd, 'When they began their performance, at 1:25, they had 12 thousand people, after seven minutes, there were only about fifteen hundred. The others? They fled in terror, covering their ears.'
During their stay in Chile Patton bonded with local author Alberto Fuguet and on the second night he encouraged the singer to dress as a schoolboy, dedicate a song to Myriam Hernández and to kiss the much loved presenter Antonio Vodanovic on the cheek. All of the above designed to upset the establishment.
The young generation who watched the band on television in 1991 were exposed to something that changed their lives and Faith No More's music became the soundtrack of Chilean youth. The bond FNM and the South American country has strengthened over the years and Chile has been the setting of more momentous occasions in the band's history with Patton being revered with god-like status.
In February Slash Records were pushing FNM to record a follow-up to The Real Thing while fan fever was still at its peak, but with Patton busy with Mr. Bungle this would have wait. Instead the record company released the live recording of Brixton Academy from April 1990 to satisfy the band's fanbase who were hungry for new music.
On March 2 Faith No More cleaned up at the fourteenth annual Bay Area Music Awards winning in five categories including Outstanding Male Vocalist. Patton collected his phallic shaped trophy commenting 'Behold the magnificent golden dildo.'
Another important project for Mike Patton in 1991 was his collaboration with Naked City, a band led by avant-garde composer John Zorn, who would also produce Mr. Bungle's record. Naked City’s music was known for its rapid shifts in style and intensity, blending jazz, grindcore, and classical elements. Patton toured with the ensemble in April and July.
Patton’s involvement with Naked City allowed him to explore even more extreme vocal techniques. His contributions added a new dimension to the band’s already intense sound. This collaboration highlighted Patton’s willingness to engage with challenging and unconventional music scenes.
'I guess I maybe met him in '90 or '91, and I asked him to work with Mr. Bungle. I had heard a bunch of his records and liked them. I approached him, and he was really into it. We kind of became friends, started off with a bang, and have been working together ever since. He'll be here tonight. I think that obviously I've learned a lot from his music, but he's a pretty amazing person and I've learned a lot personally from him as well. He's been like family.' - Patton | Tape Op, May 2006
Working with Naked City in 1991 further expanded Patton’s reputation as a versatile and fearless vocalist. It also connected him with a network of experimental musicians that would influence his future projects.
In June Patton again returned to the ranks of FNM to perform Epic at the International Rock awards in London. In late 1990 Faith No More had re-recorded Sweet Emotion, adding fresh lyrics and re-titling the song The Perfect Crime. It was included on the soundtrack to film Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey released in July 1991.
Mr. Bungle's debut album was released on August 13 which saw the band play shows in San Francisco and Hollywood to celebrate - but again his time with Bungle was short as the frontman returned to duties with Faith No More. Through September FNM toured in Argentina and Brazil with dates in Japan during October.
These months proved crucial in the development of the Patton's place within FNM and the band's evolution. The South American shows allowed the band to showcase new material. RV and The World Is Yours were played for the first time at the Estadio
Obras Sanitarias in Buenos Aires, while an early version of Caffeine was unveiled in Recife.
"In a relationship, in the beginning, there's inhibitions. After a while, all of those things fall apart, and that's how you get comfortable with somebody. I think that's probably how it happened. You learn how to fart and cuss in front of them. That's healthy. The way the band operates, politically, is, whoever steps out of line, everyone pounces on him. So if you're constantly afraid of doing something, nothing gets done. When everybody gets a little more comfortable, you can pull out any idea, and it can be manipulated, raped, made fun of, whatever. But still ... that's OK. Because that's how shit gets created; I'm convinced of that." - Patton | Kerrang! 1993
During 1991 Patton was busy devising some of the most profound, poetic and often disturbing lyrics of his career for FNM's fourth record Angel Dust. His extreme and bizarre methods of finding inspiration would help to create characters which Patton inhabited for different songs on the album. He spent the later part of 1991 involved in self torturous sleep deprivation experiments and observing human behaviour.
With his relationship with Faith No More maturing his contribution to the music became more significant, helping to shape the future sound of the band.
"It was strange for me because I had spent every musical moment with the Bungle guys, and we have our own thing - we're Nintendo kids, so we get into a studio and there are all these little knobs,!and we've just gotta play with the dials and push the buttons. [Mr.Bungle] basically doesn't know how to write songs - they're like A-B-C-X! - so it was weird for me to try and put something over a song that was really linear, and very verse/chorus/verse/chorus. So I think I did what was really...obvious. That's fine, but since then, I've definitely vowed to spend a lot more time and put a lot more into anything I do." - Mike Patton 1992
Faith No More’s final show of 1991 was at the Oakland Coliseum on October 12 for Metallica's A Day On The Green festival. Here Patton had freshly broken out of his cocoon and it was our first glimpse of the new improved singer - as Adrian Harte writes in Small Victories - 'He was only an eyebrow-ring and some self-harming stage flips away from Angel Dust Patton.'
The events of 1991 were a turning point for Mike Patton. His work with Faith No More brought him ongoing mainstream success cementing his god-like status in South America and Japan, while his projects with Mr. Bungle and Naked City demonstrated his commitment to artistic exploration. This balance between commercial appeal and experimental risk-taking became a defining feature of his career.
By the end of 1991, Patton had established himself as one of the most exciting and unpredictable figures in alternative music. His ability to move between different styles and projects without losing his unique voice set him apart from many of his contemporaries.
Looking back, 1991 was more than just a successful year for Mike Patton; it was a foundation for everything that followed. His work during this time showed that he was not content to stay within one genre or band. Instead, he sought out new challenges and collaborations that would keep his music fresh and innovative. It was also the year in which he found his place within Faith No More, writing some of his most extraordinary lyrics to date.
Fans of Faith No More and Mr. Bungle can trace many of the qualities that define Patton’s later work back to this year. His fearless approach to vocals, his genre-blending style, and his willingness to collaborate with diverse musicians all began to take shape in 1991.
For anyone interested in the evolution of alternative music, understanding Mike Patton’s activities in 1991 offers valuable insight into how one artist can influence multiple scenes at once.
