Billy Gould has spoken about Faith No More's 1998 split, comically saying; "I still blame Puffy". Making the light-hearted revelation whilst chatting to eonmusic on the red carpet at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods in London in 2015, the exclusive interview has remained unpublished until now.
Photo: Dean Fardell.
By Eamon O'Neill On 20th April 2017.
Billy Gould has spoken about Faith No More's 1998 split, comically saying; "I still blame Puffy". Making the light-hearted revelation whilst chatting to eonmusic on the red carpet at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods in London in 2015, the exclusive interview has remained unpublished until now.
It's been nineteen years since Faith No More announced that they'd broken up, on 20th April 1998. Declaring that they were calling it quits, the band released a short press statement that revealed little about the real reasons for the decision. They did however, take the opportunity to humorously point the blame at drummer Mike 'Puffy' Bordin for the bands's collapse.
The full statement read; "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 reunited to headline Download Festival in the UK in 2009, and three years later, with an award for their new album in the can, eonmusic took the opportunity to ask the band about the press release, when speaking to them on the red carpet at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods awards in London.
Bassist Gould was the first to respond, joking and referring back to the original press release stating; "I still blame Puffy - for the record!"
Bordin himself, who was on hand with Gould to accept the 'Best Album' award for ‘Sol Invictus’, was then asked if it was his fault that the band had got back together. Said Mike; "Oh no, I don't think I'd get the blame for that", adding; "I get the blame for the other things!"
Continuing the good humoured chat, eonmusic asked if bad reviews for 'Sol Invictus' would have been Mike's fault too; "Oh, absolutely", said the drummer, with Gould adding; "If we didn't win the award tonight, this guy, you don't even know what was going to happen to him!"
Moving on to talk about receiving the 'Best Album' award meanwhile, Gould joked that; “we were ahead of our time,” when asked about the irony of their previous release from 1997 being titled ‘Album Of The Year.’
Adapting a more serious tone, when pressed about the gap between albums, the FNM co-founder mused: “If you think about that, you’re gonna go crazy. Life is an improvisation, and you just work with what you’ve got. It took this long, but it needed to.”
A more straight talking, but upbeat Bordin meanwhile confided that: “I never thought that it would happen, ever.”
Gould admitted; "We spent a lot of time with each other, and it was like; "well what the fuck are we going to do? We're sitting here, we're playing shows. That's it!"
Concluding, Bordin went on; “At a certain point you gotta have something to say otherwise we’re going to have to stop, because it'll be dishonest or embarrassing or nostalgic or whatever you want to call it, so that was the next step.
Speaking to eonmusic in 2016, Billy Gould was more pensive about Faith No More's reasons for splitting,. The bass player stated; "Some day, I will tell you. *laughing* But not today! I’m not ready to talk about that, because actually, you know what, the band isn’t over, and at the end of the day, hindsight, twenty-twenty hindsight, when it’s time, then we can look into what we did. But I think what we tried to do, even when we were having tough times is try to be honest with where we were. I mean, a lot of people don’t like where we were and that’s fine, but we were there, and we tried to put that in the music". Click here for the full 2016 interview.
Billy Gould has spoken about Faith No More's 1998 split, comically saying; "I still blame Puffy". Making the light-hearted revelation whilst chatting to eonmusic on the red carpet at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods in London in 2015, the exclusive interview has remained unpublished until now.
It's been nineteen years since Faith No More announced that they'd broken up, on 20th April 1998. Declaring that they were calling it quits, the band released a short press statement that revealed little about the real reasons for the decision. They did however, take the opportunity to humorously point the blame at drummer Mike 'Puffy' Bordin for the bands's collapse.
The full statement read; "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 reunited to headline Download Festival in the UK in 2009, and three years later, with an award for their new album in the can, eonmusic took the opportunity to ask the band about the press release, when speaking to them on the red carpet at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods awards in London.
Bassist Gould was the first to respond, joking and referring back to the original press release stating; "I still blame Puffy - for the record!"
Bordin himself, who was on hand with Gould to accept the 'Best Album' award for ‘Sol Invictus’, was then asked if it was his fault that the band had got back together. Said Mike; "Oh no, I don't think I'd get the blame for that", adding; "I get the blame for the other things!"
Continuing the good humoured chat, eonmusic asked if bad reviews for 'Sol Invictus' would have been Mike's fault too; "Oh, absolutely", said the drummer, with Gould adding; "If we didn't win the award tonight, this guy, you don't even know what was going to happen to him!"
Moving on to talk about receiving the 'Best Album' award meanwhile, Gould joked that; “we were ahead of our time,” when asked about the irony of their previous release from 1997 being titled ‘Album Of The Year.’
Adapting a more serious tone, when pressed about the gap between albums, the FNM co-founder mused: “If you think about that, you’re gonna go crazy. Life is an improvisation, and you just work with what you’ve got. It took this long, but it needed to.”
A more straight talking, but upbeat Bordin meanwhile confided that: “I never thought that it would happen, ever.”
Gould admitted; "We spent a lot of time with each other, and it was like; "well what the fuck are we going to do? We're sitting here, we're playing shows. That's it!"
Concluding, Bordin went on; “At a certain point you gotta have something to say otherwise we’re going to have to stop, because it'll be dishonest or embarrassing or nostalgic or whatever you want to call it, so that was the next step.
Speaking to eonmusic in 2016, Billy Gould was more pensive about Faith No More's reasons for splitting,. The bass player stated; "Some day, I will tell you. *laughing* But not today! I’m not ready to talk about that, because actually, you know what, the band isn’t over, and at the end of the day, hindsight, twenty-twenty hindsight, when it’s time, then we can look into what we did. But I think what we tried to do, even when we were having tough times is try to be honest with where we were. I mean, a lot of people don’t like where we were and that’s fine, but we were there, and we tried to put that in the music". Click here for the full 2016 interview.
