Mike Patton opens up about agoraphobia diagnosis and mental health struggles behind Faith No More tour cancellation

Faith No More frontman Mike Patton has opened up about his mental health struggles following the band’s axed tour dates.

• READ MORE: Faith No More are back. Here’s why you should care about the wild and witty progenitors of alt-metal

Last year, Mike Patton announced that all their shows had been cancelled citing mental health reasons.

“I have issues that were exacerbated by the pandemic that are challenging me right now. I don’t feel I can give what I should at this point and I am not going to give anything less than 100 percent. I am sorry to our fans and hope to make it up to you soon,” he said at the time.

Now, he has spoken at length about his mental health struggles.

“It’s still going on but it’s better,” he told Rolling Stone. “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.”

He continued: “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.

“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.”

Patton is planning to tour with Mr. Bungle in South America in December for the first time since he axed shows with them and Faith No More last year.

Speaking about the latter, he said: “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.”

As for future Faith No More shows, Patton said they were up in the air.

“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,” he added.

For help and advice on mental health:

• CALM – The Campaign Against Living Miserably
• Help Musicians UK – Around the clock mental health support and advice for musicians (CALL MUSIC MINDS MATTER ON: 0808 802 8008)
• Music Support Org – Help and support for musicians struggling with alcoholism, addiction, or mental health issues (CALL: 0800 030 6789)
• YOUNG MINDS – The voice for young people’s health and wellbeing
• Time To Change – Let’s end mental health discrimination
• The Samaritans – Confidential support 24 hours a day

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