How much does money play a part in the decision to get back together?
“Well, it’s important that things pay for themselves. We’re involved in a business, so that certainly comes up. And in the initial discussions as to why we’re doing this, [money] comes up an awful lot. Each of us has said, ‘I don’t need the money, I don’t need to do this.’ I think we usually set off with our best foot forward with that in mind, that it’s not something that we need to do for the money. I know that sounds a little hokey, but that’s where we are. I think it comes down more to the union of five friends doing this music again and getting on the road again and doing a project together. That was the most important thing to us.”
Was there any one member that needed convincing more than the others?
“I think we honestly all felt the same way about it. We all felt that we didn’t have to do this, but that it was something that we wanted to do. Everyone came to the table at different times and with different approaches – and the span of our career has been a lot of years – and we’ve all been in positions of vulnerability within ourselves at different times. But this time we were more on the same page than we have been in the past. It’s not easy to get everyone together and to agree on stuff, which goes back to what we were talking about earlier, that we’re a band that operates on friction. But I don’t think there was any one person who needed more persuading to get on board. We know and read each other so well, and we acknowledge everyone’s opinions and gestures in a familial kind of a way. So we all ended up getting on board in a companionable way.”
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The music industry has undergone massive changes since the emergence of Faith No More. What challenges would you face, were you a new band today?
“I’m not really sure. Is rock chic right now, does rock sell, do people still go to shows? And my sense is that people do still go to shows. I still go to shows, and I still see people at shows. I think the world in that kind of realm, in the touring way, remains pretty much the same. I think people take in information a lot quicker than they did – social media and so on – so they get on board a lot quicker and they learn a lot quicker… But in terms of being a young band who just makes enough money to survive and who goes in the road in a van? I don’t think things have changed that much. When Faith No More started touring, we didn’t make any money and we lived on 10 dollars a day for years before we made any money. But the fact that we went from being a band that toured in a van to becoming a band that headlined arenas blows my mind. I have no idea how that happened. I don’t know if a band as odd as Faith No More could do that today, but I do hope so.”
You were one of the first rock musicians to come out as gay. Pleasingly, no-one seemed to care all that much. Is the rock community as tolerant a place today as it was back in 1993?
“I certainly did feel that the rock community was a tolerant place when I came out. But the rock community was not why I made that gesture – in fact, it was the least of my worries. It was more important for me to make that statement and make that gesture for the gay community and for the unrecognised people of that time. Back then, Judas Priest’s Rob Halford wasn’t even out of the closet. My statement was a provocative statement for the straight world in general, but more important to me was the fact that it needed to be said for the gay community, for my community. It needed to be said, and to be heard as a way of signifying gratitude and compassion for my people.”
So, to recap, you’re looking forward to the return to Faith No More?
“Yeah, although it’s super-scary to be jumping back into it again. We remain a loose cannon, you know? Collectively, walking amongst each other and doing what we do remains a volatile place. It scares me, but the possibility of grandeur and what we’re able to pull off is exciting. It’s shaky ground, but it’s exciting at the same time.”