Faith No More bassist Billy Gould has admitted his first thoughts about reuniting with his old colleagues were negative.
The band split in 1998 before getting back together in 2009, leading to the launch of seventh album Sol Invictus and their return to the Download festival next month.
FNM had been certain that no regrouping would ever take place, until frontman Mike Patton and drummer Mike Bordin attended keyboardist Roddy Bottum’s wedding.
But Gould – who was out of the US at the time – tells Metal Hammer’s Dave Everley: “I found out they were all hanging out, and I thought that was a little weird.
“The first thing that comes to mind with something like that is, ‘Someone needs money.’ I had a very negative gut feeling about it. But when you’re apart you remember the bad things – when you’re together, you remember the good things.”
He finally reconnected with FNM over lunch. “I happened to be in LA and they happened to be in LA,” he says. “I just thought, ‘I’ve got nothing to lose.’ It was the first time we’d all been in the same room since 1999.
“It was much more pleasant than I thought it would be. Being in the room and laughing and telling stories and stuff – it was nice reconnecting.”
Patton says of Bottum’s wedding: “We were like, ‘I miss you!’ ‘I miss you too!’ Once we reconnected, just the concept of doing a reunion became a little bit more possible. Like, ‘Wow, this could be a chance to rewrite some things, mend some fences.”
But they took their time over starting work again. Bottum recalls: “I remember saying, ‘I’m not really scared of this…’ Everyone pretty much said the same thing: ‘I’m not opposed.’ We were just sort of feeling each other out. It was a big decision.”
Sol Invictus was launched earlier this month after FNM “bored” themselves into a studio return. Bordin explains: “In America, there’s something called an ‘Oops Baby’ – it’s like, the woman who’s 45 and wants another kid and is, like, ‘Fuck, I’m too old, it’s not gonna happen.’
“And then it does happen: ‘I’m 45… oops, I’m having a baby.’ This album is a fucking ‘Oops Baby’ for us.”
The full interview appears in the latest edition of Metal Hammer, on sale now in print, digital and via TeamRock+. FNM play three shows in the UK next month:
Jun 13: Download festival, Donington
Jun 14: Glasgow O2 Academy
Jun 17: London Roundhouse
