As founder Faith No More alongside bassist Billy Gould and drummer Mike Bordin, Roddy Bottom brought the "pretty" to the band's abrasive sound. "My band was taking pride in our disdain for each other", even at the height of their fame however, as he discloses in his new memoir 'The Royal We'. A vivid dive into his life, his art, and his years with Faith No More, the book captures the band’s raw energy, their ground breaking sound, and the chaos behind it all; from addiction and personal turmoil and more. But this is Roddy's story, not the band's and it goes much further, and is bursting with honesty and emotion. We caught up with the keyboardist, song writer, and actor to discuss the process. Just a man; Eamon O'Neill.
Hi Roddy, how are you doing?
I'm good. I'm in Paris right now. I came to Paris to do my first book event because when I was finishing this book about a year ago, I brought all the pages that I had written to Paris and just sat in a library for over a month by myself every day and worked it into what it is now. It seems fitting. I did my first event here, just two nights ago. I had an event at an art gallery as part of Art Basel, and it was really, really fun.
That's very Jim Morrison, isn't it? Going to Paris to find your muse.
Jim Morrison had nothing to do with it, but I love Paris so much.
You write very poetically, and from the book you get a sense that you're someone who lives in the moment; was that just the way it flowed for you?
I think so. I mean, it's kind of funny, I've always considered myself a writer, but I never really wrote anything before - besides lyrics to songs and some texts and some emails - but I'm always in my head playing with storytelling, for whatever reason. I don't know why. I mean, you say I seem like someone that lives in the moment; I guess so, but honestly, when I'm in the moment, I'm always telling about that moment to someone else. You ever do that? I'm like; "oh, my god, you would not believe what I'm seeing right here!", and I'm spelling out my experiences in my head that it seems so, not in the moment. For whatever reason, I do that a lot, and I think it led me to develop a voice, particularly in the writing sense, and helped me to hone a way of telling stories. I like the process of slowly evolving or revealing what I'm getting at, rather than boom, just dropping it.
You talk about growing up and the stuff you got into; you were a bit of a loose canon, but you had a strong bond with your friendship group; what was it like revisiting those days?
It just poured out of me. When I was talking about it, it was like part of developing the voice that I was hoping to achieve. It didn't really get emotional, honestly, until later. Right now, actually, is when it gets emotional - not right at this specific moment - but a couple weeks ago I did the audio version of the book, and I had to read it all, and that's a crazy process. It took me five days. I went into a studio with a microphone, which I thought was just going to be super easy and chill, sitting on a chair reading my book, but it was so intense. I mean, the book gets super dark, and it gets really intense into drug addiction, and a lot of people in my life have died, and a lot of the stories go to a really dark place. So reading it, revisiting it after I'd written it was really very emotional, and honestly, all these interviews that I've been doing about it, it takes me to a super emotional place. It's a funny time in my life right now. Like, the writing of it wasn't that emotional; I just sort of got it out of me and it was more about crafting stuff and being smart with prose and the poetry of it, but it's only now that I'm dealing with the emotions of it, honestly.
There's obviously a musical side too, and there's a paragraph where you're talking about meeting Kurt Cobain for the first time, and Courtney Love features a lot; what was it like being there at the epicentre of that cultural sea change in music?
The Nirvana pinnacle was definitely like a moment in time. It was so special. Witnessing that first hand as it happened was very, very special. I try and get to that in the book, but I don't know if I did it justice. Courtney, in and of herself, is such a whirlwind of like a moment in history, but Kurt's voice particularly, and the force that was Nirvana was so special. Again, it's one of those things that I wrote it down, and I didn't think a lot as I was writing the book, but I look back and as I'm going through it, it strikes me as like, yeah, it was such a fortunate time to be alive and such fortunate circumstances to be involved in. It's where the title of the book came from 'The Royal We'; I'm talking about, we were so entitled, me and my friends and my community and my family, just to have happened on to this accidental time in history, a place, a sort of era, I'm so fortunate to have been part of that and to have experienced that, that it feels like royalty. That's where I was going with the title.
You get a real sense of who Faith No More really are, musically, from reading the book, with the core of you and Mike Bordin and and Billy Gould, and you describe your keyboards as "the spiritual glue", and the "heaven", of the sound, which I think is entirely accurate; was that always your kind of role?
I think so. Yeah, I mean, it was sort of a really particular, specific sound. When we started creating it, it came from a really dark time in San Francisco. There was a lot of goth music happening, and there was punk rock, for sure, but the times were turning and the music slowed down a little bit and got really dark and heavy. And the three of us, when we started the band, we were definitely exploring that musical soundscape. It was a dark and heavy sound, but I had the fortunate position of being able to add the pretty to that, and without that sense of pretty we wouldn't have been who we were and who we are. I think I used to not acknowledge that so much, because honestly, it feels like a sense of, almost gay shame or something, or homophobia in myself, but the deal was like, that's what it was. I'm happy to own that now. Like when you were saying about what I wrote about me adding the "heaven" or "the spiritual glue", it sounds a little bit like ego or something, but I'm kind of good with it. It is what it is. It was a really special element to what we had created, and I'm good with owning that right now.
Well, yeah, because of what Mike and Billy do - which is pretty relentless - you're the movement underneath it that gives it the melody and as you say, the sense of beauty.
Thanks so much. That's nice of you to say. I mean, in all honesty, Billy had a lot to do with that too. Billy Gould, who's the bass player, had a really strong sense of melody and keyboards and drama. So a lot of that sort of beauty was all about Billy too. I don't mean to take away from that, but yeah, I got to sort of like bring that into the band, and it felt very strong.
I'm good. I'm in Paris right now. I came to Paris to do my first book event because when I was finishing this book about a year ago, I brought all the pages that I had written to Paris and just sat in a library for over a month by myself every day and worked it into what it is now. It seems fitting. I did my first event here, just two nights ago. I had an event at an art gallery as part of Art Basel, and it was really, really fun.
That's very Jim Morrison, isn't it? Going to Paris to find your muse.
Jim Morrison had nothing to do with it, but I love Paris so much.
You write very poetically, and from the book you get a sense that you're someone who lives in the moment; was that just the way it flowed for you?
I think so. I mean, it's kind of funny, I've always considered myself a writer, but I never really wrote anything before - besides lyrics to songs and some texts and some emails - but I'm always in my head playing with storytelling, for whatever reason. I don't know why. I mean, you say I seem like someone that lives in the moment; I guess so, but honestly, when I'm in the moment, I'm always telling about that moment to someone else. You ever do that? I'm like; "oh, my god, you would not believe what I'm seeing right here!", and I'm spelling out my experiences in my head that it seems so, not in the moment. For whatever reason, I do that a lot, and I think it led me to develop a voice, particularly in the writing sense, and helped me to hone a way of telling stories. I like the process of slowly evolving or revealing what I'm getting at, rather than boom, just dropping it.
You talk about growing up and the stuff you got into; you were a bit of a loose canon, but you had a strong bond with your friendship group; what was it like revisiting those days?
It just poured out of me. When I was talking about it, it was like part of developing the voice that I was hoping to achieve. It didn't really get emotional, honestly, until later. Right now, actually, is when it gets emotional - not right at this specific moment - but a couple weeks ago I did the audio version of the book, and I had to read it all, and that's a crazy process. It took me five days. I went into a studio with a microphone, which I thought was just going to be super easy and chill, sitting on a chair reading my book, but it was so intense. I mean, the book gets super dark, and it gets really intense into drug addiction, and a lot of people in my life have died, and a lot of the stories go to a really dark place. So reading it, revisiting it after I'd written it was really very emotional, and honestly, all these interviews that I've been doing about it, it takes me to a super emotional place. It's a funny time in my life right now. Like, the writing of it wasn't that emotional; I just sort of got it out of me and it was more about crafting stuff and being smart with prose and the poetry of it, but it's only now that I'm dealing with the emotions of it, honestly.
There's obviously a musical side too, and there's a paragraph where you're talking about meeting Kurt Cobain for the first time, and Courtney Love features a lot; what was it like being there at the epicentre of that cultural sea change in music?
The Nirvana pinnacle was definitely like a moment in time. It was so special. Witnessing that first hand as it happened was very, very special. I try and get to that in the book, but I don't know if I did it justice. Courtney, in and of herself, is such a whirlwind of like a moment in history, but Kurt's voice particularly, and the force that was Nirvana was so special. Again, it's one of those things that I wrote it down, and I didn't think a lot as I was writing the book, but I look back and as I'm going through it, it strikes me as like, yeah, it was such a fortunate time to be alive and such fortunate circumstances to be involved in. It's where the title of the book came from 'The Royal We'; I'm talking about, we were so entitled, me and my friends and my community and my family, just to have happened on to this accidental time in history, a place, a sort of era, I'm so fortunate to have been part of that and to have experienced that, that it feels like royalty. That's where I was going with the title.
You get a real sense of who Faith No More really are, musically, from reading the book, with the core of you and Mike Bordin and and Billy Gould, and you describe your keyboards as "the spiritual glue", and the "heaven", of the sound, which I think is entirely accurate; was that always your kind of role?
I think so. Yeah, I mean, it was sort of a really particular, specific sound. When we started creating it, it came from a really dark time in San Francisco. There was a lot of goth music happening, and there was punk rock, for sure, but the times were turning and the music slowed down a little bit and got really dark and heavy. And the three of us, when we started the band, we were definitely exploring that musical soundscape. It was a dark and heavy sound, but I had the fortunate position of being able to add the pretty to that, and without that sense of pretty we wouldn't have been who we were and who we are. I think I used to not acknowledge that so much, because honestly, it feels like a sense of, almost gay shame or something, or homophobia in myself, but the deal was like, that's what it was. I'm happy to own that now. Like when you were saying about what I wrote about me adding the "heaven" or "the spiritual glue", it sounds a little bit like ego or something, but I'm kind of good with it. It is what it is. It was a really special element to what we had created, and I'm good with owning that right now.
Well, yeah, because of what Mike and Billy do - which is pretty relentless - you're the movement underneath it that gives it the melody and as you say, the sense of beauty.
Thanks so much. That's nice of you to say. I mean, in all honesty, Billy had a lot to do with that too. Billy Gould, who's the bass player, had a really strong sense of melody and keyboards and drama. So a lot of that sort of beauty was all about Billy too. I don't mean to take away from that, but yeah, I got to sort of like bring that into the band, and it felt very strong.
You talk a lot about the early days with Chuck Mosley, and you seem to have a real strong bond with him.
Was there some magic in the era with Chuck? Yeah, for sure. I mean, I always gravitate towards the band's first records. It's such a special time and such a special chapter of any band where they're creating songs for the first time and just getting started, and definitely Chuck was that for Faith No More. It was a really crazy direction that we went in, the decision to be in a band with Chuck. He had such a weird voice, and he was such an odd person. He was so unconventional and so untraditional. It was a really odd band that we had when Chuck was in it. It was so different and weird and it kind of just struck me as crazy, always, that people got on board with it. I couldn't believe people would make that leap, but it was really flattering when people did. I was so impressed with the world!
It was definitely an unusual sound.
You know how certain bands you hear, and you're like; "oh my god, I can't believe they're as popular as they are"? Like, even the White Stripes, I remember when the White Stripes started and all of a sudden they were so popular. I was like; "alright!", and I was so proud of the world for getting on board for a weirdness like that. Or even, right now, that band Geese. Have you heard that band yet? Oh, they're fun. You'll hear about them, like tomorrow, now that I've brought it up, but they're a really odd band. They're from New York City, they're really young kids, and they're going to be so huge, and I don't know, it just makes me feel good that people can get on board with weirdness still in this day and age. But that first couple records with Chuck was definitely a very weird musical statement.
For a kid like me who got 'The Real Thing' after hearing 'From Out of Nowhere', 'Introduce Yourself' was a real shock, even though it's probably the record I listen to the most these days.
Oh really? Yeah, it's very nuanced, for sure. It's a really weird thing. I mean, I listened back - I don't ever listen to that stuff - but I listened to 'Anne's Song' the other day, and that's such a special, weird song.
I'm glad you mentioned that one, because you never played it with Mike Patton, and you mentioned Anne from New York in the book, on the band's first tour; I'm guessing that's the same Anne?
Yeah. I mean, it was all about Chuck, that song. It was all about his friend group in New York at the time; Anne and all her friends. She's still a close friend of mine. That whole friendship group is still a really close, tight friend group of mine in New York City.
Were you glad you got to play with Chuck again at those one-off 2016 shows?
It was a really special thing to do. I'm patting ourselves on the back for doing that. It was really a sweet, nostalgic thing to address at the time, and it felt really special and it brought up crazy emotions, going back to that. And we did a couple of shows with like both Mike and Chuck, which is kind of unheard of. The things that we were able to pull off as that band are pretty remarkable. That was definitely a special moment in my memory. It's one of those things that was really an achievement, to get Chuck on board and do shows with Chuck. He was still just as crazy. You know, he was one of my best friends. He's not with us anymore - if any of you out there don't know that - but it was a special time with him, and that was one of the last times that I got to really hang with him tight.
I have to obviously, talk about 'The Real Thing' and about Mike Patton. You say in the book that his voice was "incredible and undeniable"; did you realise when you heard the album that it was going to be such a smash?
I think our ears at that point were pretty well tuned to what worked and what didn't, and it was really surprising. We'd never put that much creed into our singers, which is insane to say, but we just kind of never cared what the singer was doing, Billy and Mike and myself. It was a really funny perspective to have. Every band I know, every band I listen to, the first thing, of course, that you pay attention to, is the singer, so it was so odd that we never cared about it. With Chuck too, his voice was not a traditional, great voice, but he had an energy that we just went with, so then when Mike got on board, it was like; "whoa!" I mean, he's such a singer, he's such a chameleon. He's able to pull off any style he wants to do, and he has incredible musical prowess.
And yeah, hearing those songs with his voice on, I was like; "whoa!" It almost scared me, in a way, it was so, like, I could see where it was going, absolutely. It took a long time, honestly, for it to go that way, for it to reach any sort of sense of success, but I knew right from the get go. We heard those songs, like 'Falling to Pieces'; that's one of the first ones that I remember hearing when he came down from Northern California and played with us for the first time, and I think we recorded it on a little four track just to get a sense of where we were all at, and, yeah, it was unbelievable. He's a really talented guy.
Was there some magic in the era with Chuck? Yeah, for sure. I mean, I always gravitate towards the band's first records. It's such a special time and such a special chapter of any band where they're creating songs for the first time and just getting started, and definitely Chuck was that for Faith No More. It was a really crazy direction that we went in, the decision to be in a band with Chuck. He had such a weird voice, and he was such an odd person. He was so unconventional and so untraditional. It was a really odd band that we had when Chuck was in it. It was so different and weird and it kind of just struck me as crazy, always, that people got on board with it. I couldn't believe people would make that leap, but it was really flattering when people did. I was so impressed with the world!
It was definitely an unusual sound.
You know how certain bands you hear, and you're like; "oh my god, I can't believe they're as popular as they are"? Like, even the White Stripes, I remember when the White Stripes started and all of a sudden they were so popular. I was like; "alright!", and I was so proud of the world for getting on board for a weirdness like that. Or even, right now, that band Geese. Have you heard that band yet? Oh, they're fun. You'll hear about them, like tomorrow, now that I've brought it up, but they're a really odd band. They're from New York City, they're really young kids, and they're going to be so huge, and I don't know, it just makes me feel good that people can get on board with weirdness still in this day and age. But that first couple records with Chuck was definitely a very weird musical statement.
For a kid like me who got 'The Real Thing' after hearing 'From Out of Nowhere', 'Introduce Yourself' was a real shock, even though it's probably the record I listen to the most these days.
Oh really? Yeah, it's very nuanced, for sure. It's a really weird thing. I mean, I listened back - I don't ever listen to that stuff - but I listened to 'Anne's Song' the other day, and that's such a special, weird song.
I'm glad you mentioned that one, because you never played it with Mike Patton, and you mentioned Anne from New York in the book, on the band's first tour; I'm guessing that's the same Anne?
Yeah. I mean, it was all about Chuck, that song. It was all about his friend group in New York at the time; Anne and all her friends. She's still a close friend of mine. That whole friendship group is still a really close, tight friend group of mine in New York City.
Were you glad you got to play with Chuck again at those one-off 2016 shows?
It was a really special thing to do. I'm patting ourselves on the back for doing that. It was really a sweet, nostalgic thing to address at the time, and it felt really special and it brought up crazy emotions, going back to that. And we did a couple of shows with like both Mike and Chuck, which is kind of unheard of. The things that we were able to pull off as that band are pretty remarkable. That was definitely a special moment in my memory. It's one of those things that was really an achievement, to get Chuck on board and do shows with Chuck. He was still just as crazy. You know, he was one of my best friends. He's not with us anymore - if any of you out there don't know that - but it was a special time with him, and that was one of the last times that I got to really hang with him tight.
I have to obviously, talk about 'The Real Thing' and about Mike Patton. You say in the book that his voice was "incredible and undeniable"; did you realise when you heard the album that it was going to be such a smash?
I think our ears at that point were pretty well tuned to what worked and what didn't, and it was really surprising. We'd never put that much creed into our singers, which is insane to say, but we just kind of never cared what the singer was doing, Billy and Mike and myself. It was a really funny perspective to have. Every band I know, every band I listen to, the first thing, of course, that you pay attention to, is the singer, so it was so odd that we never cared about it. With Chuck too, his voice was not a traditional, great voice, but he had an energy that we just went with, so then when Mike got on board, it was like; "whoa!" I mean, he's such a singer, he's such a chameleon. He's able to pull off any style he wants to do, and he has incredible musical prowess.
And yeah, hearing those songs with his voice on, I was like; "whoa!" It almost scared me, in a way, it was so, like, I could see where it was going, absolutely. It took a long time, honestly, for it to go that way, for it to reach any sort of sense of success, but I knew right from the get go. We heard those songs, like 'Falling to Pieces'; that's one of the first ones that I remember hearing when he came down from Northern California and played with us for the first time, and I think we recorded it on a little four track just to get a sense of where we were all at, and, yeah, it was unbelievable. He's a really talented guy.
You actually say that in 1989 "my band was taking pride in our disdain for each other"; I think people know there was always a fractious relationship, but it sounds like it's a miracle you made it to 1997 before breaking up.
Yeah. I mean, there was a lot of like, inner family struggle, for sure. I don't know, like, Billy and I have been friends since we were ten years old or something, so I felt pretty strong in that relationship, but I don't know, being in the band and doing what it takes - like the amount of time you spend with each other, and you're creating and you're writing and you're living together and you're making business decisions that's really hard for young people to get through - so yeah, to me also, it's remarkable that we were able to keep it together for so long.
You probably don't even want to answer this, but why exactly did you go your separate ways in 1997? I mean, I thought 'Album of the Year' was a really strong album.
Thanks so much. Yeah, I think a lot of things were pulling us in different directions. I think it came down to honestly, Mike, the drummer, was playing a lot for Ozzy at that point, and I think the way I remember it, we were slated to do a pretty big festival thing, and he had to say no to it because he had a prior commitment to Ozzy, and I think it set off an odd disparity amongst us. I was doing Imperial Teen at the time, and we had put out our first record, and we were maybe into our second record, and I really had a fondness in my heart for that, and it felt more true to my art at the time to be singing words and expressing what I was expressing with that band. And then I think Mike Patton also was doing Mr. Bungle, and he had created a new record, so there was a tension in that. A lot of us were doing different things, and for whatever reason, we made a decision at that point.
I've skipped forward a little bit, but I want to go back to 'Angel Dust'. The only thing you say about it in the book is that it was "complicated and challenging", yet it's regarded as the band's absolute masterwork. What are your feelings on it now? Can you expand on complicated and challenging?
You know, it's like it came from a privileged place, sort of. We had had a lot of success with 'The Real Thing', and I think although we all felt really proud of that moment, we felt a responsibility to challenge our audience, so to speak, at the time. Also, we'd been embraced by a whole new, different generation of people. After Chuck, we made that record, and a lot of our fans became more traditional rock people; like, suddenly, it's Guns and Roses, like, Faith No More. It was so weird. All of a sudden we were this like flavour that people really like, and being the provocative people that we were, I think it just felt right to combat that with something super challenging. So we knew that going into the process, that we were really going to push the envelope and make something that was harder to get, and that's the way it kind of played out. It's a difficult record, so it's nice to hear that it is respected as one of our strong ones, but at the time, I think it was a it was a process of challenging our fans and challenging ourselves to make something weird and undigestible.
You talk about the 1991 /1992 tour with Guns and Roses, and you say it was full of "cancelled shows and trips home and being dope sick"; it sounds like a bit of a nightmare!
It was a nightmare, but at the same time, it was really fun. It was a crazy chapter. We just ended up seeing things that I never needed to see. I come from a different sort of world. I don't need to see blow jobs backstage, or strippers. Shit like that just rubs me the wrong way. It was a really weird thing to witness coming from where we came from. We were a San Francisco band, we were mildly political and progressive-minded, and we were very different than that, and felt out of place in that world. It was odd, for sure, but there's a fondness in some memories that I have of that time, for sure.
Do you have all your gold discs and all your platinum albums and all that kind of stuff?
You know, there's a couple gold records, I think, in my basement in Los Angeles that are on the wall somewhere. I think my mom has one of them. I don't ever save things, though. I'm really bad at that kind of stuff. I don't save anything.
You talk about your drug addiction in the book, and around the 'King for a Day' era [1995], that's when you entered into rehab. You've only a couple of co-writes on that album; what were you completely burnt out by that stage?
I was, yeah. I went through a lot right then. A lot of people died in my life, and I was dealing with getting out of this phase of drugs and dealing with my being open about being gay for the first time, and for whatever reason, I kind of had a nervous breakdown, I guess I was just in a kind of a feeble place. I wasn't somewhere where I needed to address Faith No More. I wasn't able to address Faith No More. It was a difficult place for me to go, so in the writing process of that record, particularly, I just had to back out a little bit and take care of myself, and I was kind of exploring different things. I wasn't not being proactive in the arts - I was doing Imperial Teen - but I just needed to do stuff that made me feel a specific sense of happiness, if that makes sense. It was just hard to go back to Faith No More at that point, but Billy and Mike covered me at that point a little bit, and that felt brotherly in a nice way. But I don't know, it was a weird time.
Do you think that the fame element of the huge success was something that caught up with you?
Not really. I don't really think that I suffer from any sort of thing like that. I wasn't the centrepiece of that band. I think it would have been different if I would have been the singer of the band and getting that much attention, for sure, things would have been different. I didn't feel that much in the spotlight. It was really just sort of circumstantially, and my book, I think, is more about me and my journey as a person, and the weird stories and weird situations that I've gone through as a person, rather than the band. The band comes into it, but the band is not the most interesting thing about who I am. It's more so that I've been this person that's just happened into so many insane situations. The insanity that I've lived through, I think, took me to a place of breakdown, for sure. It wasn't any sort of spotlight. but being in that spotlight and doing what it took to be in Faith No More - like, travel and highly charged performances - that for sure, had a lot to do with the circumstances that I would come across in the world, but the spotlight? I love attention; that's the last thing that's going to make me crazy, is people looking at me, actually.
Speaking of attention and singers, when the band reunited in 2009 for the Download Festival, yours was the first voice that people heard. What was it like for you? How was that reunion for you?
Yeah, that was super special. That was a really nice thing that we did. We always took a lot of time and care in deciding the cover song that we would do [in this case, 'Reunited' by Peaches & Herb], and honestly, we always ended up doing something that we thought would be provocative and that would rub people the wrong way. I don't think it rubs people the wrong way necessarily, but it was a challenge, like; "oh my god, wait, what is this song?!" I think it gets a laugh, for sure, but I think it was effective and powerful. But yeah, to be able to sing that was a really cool thing. It was sort of like us acknowledging, and me acknowledging what a voice I had in the band. Being the keyboardist, I think there's a sense of, I don't know, like maybe you're a throwaway part of the the ingredients in the mix, or something, or that you don't matter that much. I don't know. Maybe I talk or suck myself into that, so going back to it and doing the band again, and reuniting and playing and making that decision that I was going to sing that song with Mike was like a cool pat on the back, like; "oh yeah, I'm of worth".
Yeah. I mean, there was a lot of like, inner family struggle, for sure. I don't know, like, Billy and I have been friends since we were ten years old or something, so I felt pretty strong in that relationship, but I don't know, being in the band and doing what it takes - like the amount of time you spend with each other, and you're creating and you're writing and you're living together and you're making business decisions that's really hard for young people to get through - so yeah, to me also, it's remarkable that we were able to keep it together for so long.
You probably don't even want to answer this, but why exactly did you go your separate ways in 1997? I mean, I thought 'Album of the Year' was a really strong album.
Thanks so much. Yeah, I think a lot of things were pulling us in different directions. I think it came down to honestly, Mike, the drummer, was playing a lot for Ozzy at that point, and I think the way I remember it, we were slated to do a pretty big festival thing, and he had to say no to it because he had a prior commitment to Ozzy, and I think it set off an odd disparity amongst us. I was doing Imperial Teen at the time, and we had put out our first record, and we were maybe into our second record, and I really had a fondness in my heart for that, and it felt more true to my art at the time to be singing words and expressing what I was expressing with that band. And then I think Mike Patton also was doing Mr. Bungle, and he had created a new record, so there was a tension in that. A lot of us were doing different things, and for whatever reason, we made a decision at that point.
I've skipped forward a little bit, but I want to go back to 'Angel Dust'. The only thing you say about it in the book is that it was "complicated and challenging", yet it's regarded as the band's absolute masterwork. What are your feelings on it now? Can you expand on complicated and challenging?
You know, it's like it came from a privileged place, sort of. We had had a lot of success with 'The Real Thing', and I think although we all felt really proud of that moment, we felt a responsibility to challenge our audience, so to speak, at the time. Also, we'd been embraced by a whole new, different generation of people. After Chuck, we made that record, and a lot of our fans became more traditional rock people; like, suddenly, it's Guns and Roses, like, Faith No More. It was so weird. All of a sudden we were this like flavour that people really like, and being the provocative people that we were, I think it just felt right to combat that with something super challenging. So we knew that going into the process, that we were really going to push the envelope and make something that was harder to get, and that's the way it kind of played out. It's a difficult record, so it's nice to hear that it is respected as one of our strong ones, but at the time, I think it was a it was a process of challenging our fans and challenging ourselves to make something weird and undigestible.
You talk about the 1991 /1992 tour with Guns and Roses, and you say it was full of "cancelled shows and trips home and being dope sick"; it sounds like a bit of a nightmare!
It was a nightmare, but at the same time, it was really fun. It was a crazy chapter. We just ended up seeing things that I never needed to see. I come from a different sort of world. I don't need to see blow jobs backstage, or strippers. Shit like that just rubs me the wrong way. It was a really weird thing to witness coming from where we came from. We were a San Francisco band, we were mildly political and progressive-minded, and we were very different than that, and felt out of place in that world. It was odd, for sure, but there's a fondness in some memories that I have of that time, for sure.
Do you have all your gold discs and all your platinum albums and all that kind of stuff?
You know, there's a couple gold records, I think, in my basement in Los Angeles that are on the wall somewhere. I think my mom has one of them. I don't ever save things, though. I'm really bad at that kind of stuff. I don't save anything.
You talk about your drug addiction in the book, and around the 'King for a Day' era [1995], that's when you entered into rehab. You've only a couple of co-writes on that album; what were you completely burnt out by that stage?
I was, yeah. I went through a lot right then. A lot of people died in my life, and I was dealing with getting out of this phase of drugs and dealing with my being open about being gay for the first time, and for whatever reason, I kind of had a nervous breakdown, I guess I was just in a kind of a feeble place. I wasn't somewhere where I needed to address Faith No More. I wasn't able to address Faith No More. It was a difficult place for me to go, so in the writing process of that record, particularly, I just had to back out a little bit and take care of myself, and I was kind of exploring different things. I wasn't not being proactive in the arts - I was doing Imperial Teen - but I just needed to do stuff that made me feel a specific sense of happiness, if that makes sense. It was just hard to go back to Faith No More at that point, but Billy and Mike covered me at that point a little bit, and that felt brotherly in a nice way. But I don't know, it was a weird time.
Do you think that the fame element of the huge success was something that caught up with you?
Not really. I don't really think that I suffer from any sort of thing like that. I wasn't the centrepiece of that band. I think it would have been different if I would have been the singer of the band and getting that much attention, for sure, things would have been different. I didn't feel that much in the spotlight. It was really just sort of circumstantially, and my book, I think, is more about me and my journey as a person, and the weird stories and weird situations that I've gone through as a person, rather than the band. The band comes into it, but the band is not the most interesting thing about who I am. It's more so that I've been this person that's just happened into so many insane situations. The insanity that I've lived through, I think, took me to a place of breakdown, for sure. It wasn't any sort of spotlight. but being in that spotlight and doing what it took to be in Faith No More - like, travel and highly charged performances - that for sure, had a lot to do with the circumstances that I would come across in the world, but the spotlight? I love attention; that's the last thing that's going to make me crazy, is people looking at me, actually.
Speaking of attention and singers, when the band reunited in 2009 for the Download Festival, yours was the first voice that people heard. What was it like for you? How was that reunion for you?
Yeah, that was super special. That was a really nice thing that we did. We always took a lot of time and care in deciding the cover song that we would do [in this case, 'Reunited' by Peaches & Herb], and honestly, we always ended up doing something that we thought would be provocative and that would rub people the wrong way. I don't think it rubs people the wrong way necessarily, but it was a challenge, like; "oh my god, wait, what is this song?!" I think it gets a laugh, for sure, but I think it was effective and powerful. But yeah, to be able to sing that was a really cool thing. It was sort of like us acknowledging, and me acknowledging what a voice I had in the band. Being the keyboardist, I think there's a sense of, I don't know, like maybe you're a throwaway part of the the ingredients in the mix, or something, or that you don't matter that much. I don't know. Maybe I talk or suck myself into that, so going back to it and doing the band again, and reuniting and playing and making that decision that I was going to sing that song with Mike was like a cool pat on the back, like; "oh yeah, I'm of worth".
How does it feel now to have the book out and to have it in other people's hands?
It's like I was saying earlier, it's a really intense time. It's like; "oh, my god, what have I done?!" There's stories in the book that are insane. I talk about having sex with men in bushes when I was a young boy, and stealing things, and making bomb threats, and shooting up drugs, and bathroom stalls, and sex that I've had, and crazy scenarios that I've been in. It's all very personal, all very revealing, so it's a little bit; "oh my god".
I think the most surprising revelation to me was when you talked about how Courtney Love was expecting your baby, and the abortion that followed.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's sort of not really my story to share, so I feel a little bit weird about sharing that. I didn't bring it up specifically with Courtney, but she read the book at a really early stage, and she knew I was writing about that, and she was a real big fan of my writing. But, yeah, it makes me a little feel a little weird having shared that, but I guess in a way, it was something that I went through as well, but it was more her story, for sure. And it's an intense thing for a young person to go through.
That whole era in the book is really evocative, and you really get a sense of where you came from. As you say, it's not a Faith No More story, it's very much your your story.
That was the intention, for sure. I think I knew right away I didn't want to write a Faith No More book, and it came up from the publishers, and they wanted to write 'Roddy of Faith No More' on the cover, and I was like; "no, that's not going to be what we're doing here". And I was really insistent that I didn't want that little eight-page inclusion in the middle of the book with pictures. I knew I didn't want to write that kind of a book. What I aimed for was something a lot more poetic and prosy, and I think that's why, also, I chose to be so personal and reveal such intense things about myself in the writing. I wanted it to be a different sort of biography or memoir. I didn't want it to be the story of a band, for sure.
In that sense it has parallels with the beginnings of Faith No More's music; like you said, you weren't a rock band; you were experimenting and you didn't want it to be conventional.
Yeah, that's true. That's funny that you bring that up. A lot of things like that have been coming up and like; "oh, yeah!" I had never really thought about but yeah, for sure, you're right. There's parallels in my life and themes that recur, and that, for sure, is one of them.
Have you any more plans to do any more events like the one you just did in Paris?
Yeah, for sure, I'm going to Rough Trade East in London to do a signing. I'm going to be talking with that kid, Jake Shears from Scissor Sisters, and talk about the book and sign books and stuff. That's on Tuesday that's coming up. And then the night after that, I'm going to be at a bookstore called Donlon Books, which is on the east side of London. It's a smaller bookstore, and I'm going to talk with my friend Charlie Porter, who's a writer. He wrote a book called Nova Scotia House that came out of England a couple months ago. He's a really great writer. And then on Saturday, I think on the first of November, I'm going to be in Brighton at Resident music and do the same sort of thing there.
Finally, I wanted to ask about a story Andy Cairns of Therapy? told me back in 2016; he said you were backstage in Buenos Aires at a festival, and the cops walked in asking to get some stiff signed for their kids, and as they were chatting, you came in, reached into one of the cops' the holster, pulled out his gun, and said, "freeze"! Do you remember that?
That was crazy. I did that. I can't believe I did that. I remember it was the most audacious thing. I kind of feel like the cop let me hold his gun. I don't remember taking it, but I remember pointing it at the cop and going "freeze", with a loaded pistol. So crazy. What kind of maniac would do that?
Roddy Bottum's 'The Royal We' is out on 7th November 2025 via Akashic Books. Click here for details.
It's like I was saying earlier, it's a really intense time. It's like; "oh, my god, what have I done?!" There's stories in the book that are insane. I talk about having sex with men in bushes when I was a young boy, and stealing things, and making bomb threats, and shooting up drugs, and bathroom stalls, and sex that I've had, and crazy scenarios that I've been in. It's all very personal, all very revealing, so it's a little bit; "oh my god".
I think the most surprising revelation to me was when you talked about how Courtney Love was expecting your baby, and the abortion that followed.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's sort of not really my story to share, so I feel a little bit weird about sharing that. I didn't bring it up specifically with Courtney, but she read the book at a really early stage, and she knew I was writing about that, and she was a real big fan of my writing. But, yeah, it makes me a little feel a little weird having shared that, but I guess in a way, it was something that I went through as well, but it was more her story, for sure. And it's an intense thing for a young person to go through.
That whole era in the book is really evocative, and you really get a sense of where you came from. As you say, it's not a Faith No More story, it's very much your your story.
That was the intention, for sure. I think I knew right away I didn't want to write a Faith No More book, and it came up from the publishers, and they wanted to write 'Roddy of Faith No More' on the cover, and I was like; "no, that's not going to be what we're doing here". And I was really insistent that I didn't want that little eight-page inclusion in the middle of the book with pictures. I knew I didn't want to write that kind of a book. What I aimed for was something a lot more poetic and prosy, and I think that's why, also, I chose to be so personal and reveal such intense things about myself in the writing. I wanted it to be a different sort of biography or memoir. I didn't want it to be the story of a band, for sure.
In that sense it has parallels with the beginnings of Faith No More's music; like you said, you weren't a rock band; you were experimenting and you didn't want it to be conventional.
Yeah, that's true. That's funny that you bring that up. A lot of things like that have been coming up and like; "oh, yeah!" I had never really thought about but yeah, for sure, you're right. There's parallels in my life and themes that recur, and that, for sure, is one of them.
Have you any more plans to do any more events like the one you just did in Paris?
Yeah, for sure, I'm going to Rough Trade East in London to do a signing. I'm going to be talking with that kid, Jake Shears from Scissor Sisters, and talk about the book and sign books and stuff. That's on Tuesday that's coming up. And then the night after that, I'm going to be at a bookstore called Donlon Books, which is on the east side of London. It's a smaller bookstore, and I'm going to talk with my friend Charlie Porter, who's a writer. He wrote a book called Nova Scotia House that came out of England a couple months ago. He's a really great writer. And then on Saturday, I think on the first of November, I'm going to be in Brighton at Resident music and do the same sort of thing there.
Finally, I wanted to ask about a story Andy Cairns of Therapy? told me back in 2016; he said you were backstage in Buenos Aires at a festival, and the cops walked in asking to get some stiff signed for their kids, and as they were chatting, you came in, reached into one of the cops' the holster, pulled out his gun, and said, "freeze"! Do you remember that?
That was crazy. I did that. I can't believe I did that. I remember it was the most audacious thing. I kind of feel like the cop let me hold his gun. I don't remember taking it, but I remember pointing it at the cop and going "freeze", with a loaded pistol. So crazy. What kind of maniac would do that?
Roddy Bottum's 'The Royal We' is out on 7th November 2025 via Akashic Books. Click here for details.
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