Faith No More’s Mike Patton Diagnosed w/ Agoraphobia: “I became completely isolated and almost antisocial” – 2022 – Interview – Mr. Bungle – Dead Cross

Posted by On July 19, 2022 0 Comment

Rolling Stone: EXCLUSIVE: Last year, Mike Patton canceled tour dates with Faith No More and Mr. Bungle. Now he’s finally ready to talk about the crippling agoraphobia diagnosis that is keeping him off the road. You can read the entire interview @ this location.

INTERVIEW EXCERPT:

When Faith No More and Mr. Bungle canceled their concerts, you released a statement citing problems with your mental health. Can you talk about what you were going through?

Mike Patton:

It’s still going on — but it’s better. [Pauses]. It’s easy to blame it on the pandemic. But I’ll be honest, man: At the beginning of the pandemic, I was like, “This is fucking great. I can stay home and record.” I’ve got a home studio. So I was like, “Yeah, what’s the big deal?” And then something clicked, and I became completely isolated and almost antisocial [and] afraid of people.

That sort of anxiety, or whatever you want to call it, led to other issues, which I choose not to discuss. But I got some professionals helping me, and now I’m feeling better and getting closer to diving back in. Towards the end of the year, I’ll be doing my first shows in, like, two years, which is the longest time since I started doing this, that I’ve been out of the game.

When you say you had other issues, do you mean substances? Alcohol?

It was a little bit of everything. But mostly, in my experience, it was mostly mental. I saw some therapists and all that stuff, which is the first time I ever had to do that in my life. And they basically diagnosed me as having agoraphobia; like, I was afraid of people. I got freaked out by being around people. And maybe that was because I spent two years basically indoors during Covid. I don’t know. Maybe it reinforced feelings that I already had. But just knowing about it, talking about it, really helped. And we’ll see how it goes in December.

At what point did you realize, “I have a problem”?

Right around the time that Faith No More was about to go back on the road. That’s when I kind of lost it, and it was ugly and not cool. A few days before we were supposed to go on the road. I told the guys, “Hey man, I don’t think I can do it.” Somehow my confidence was broken down. I didn’t want to be in front of people, which is weird because I spent half of my life doing that.

Had you been rehearsing with Faith No More?

Nope. It was right before our first rehearsal, and I just freaked out. I just said, “I can’t do it.” They had been rehearsing so [pauses] If I were them, I’d be really pissed off at me. And they were. And they probably still are. But it’s just about being true to yourself and knowing what your limits are. And I knew that if I kept pushing, it could have been some sort of disastrous result. It was just like, “Goddamn it. Maybe I don’t need to do this. Even though I agreed to do it, and it’s gonna bum a lot of people out. I gotta take care of myself.” So I’m getting better at that.

Where do things stand with Faith No More now?

Radio silence. [Laughs]. I don’t know. We may reschedule stuff; we may not. I’ll just leave it at that. It’s a little confusing and complicated. So if we do, we do. If we don’t, that’s cool, too.

You can read the entire interview @ this location.