Both Faith No More and Red Hot Chili Peppers would prove to be some of the
most exciting bands of the late 80’s and early 90’s. What started out as
a cordial relationship with Faith No More opening for the Chili Peppers,
would soon sour resulting in a decades long feud. Stay tuned for the full story.
Back in 1987 the Chili Peppers would launch a tour in support their latest alum at the time The
Uplift Mofo Party Plan. The tour would run until 1988 and one of the opening acts was Faith No More
who was on the road with the Chili Peppers for several months. Now it's important to
note that this was the pre-Mike Patton lined up of Faith No More that was fronted by Chuck Mosely.
The hostility didn’t really begin until Patton became the frontman of the band,
which was funny considering both bands played somewhat similar styles of music.
In 1989 the feud would erupt between the Chili Peppers Anthony Kiedis
and Faith No More’s frontman Mike Patton. The feud apparently stemmed from Faith No
More’s 1989 music video for the song Epic from the album “The Real thing.’ The video
allegedly angered Kiedis who was upset that Patton appeared to be stealing his moves.
During a 1990 interview with Kerrang magazine, Kiedis made his displeasure known.
Interviewer Mick Wall would ask the question
did Mike Patton rip you off hook, line, and sinker, or what? to which Kiedis responded
“Yeah,” he says, no hesitation. “My drummer says he’s gonna kidnap him and shave his hair off
and saw off one of his feet. Just so he’ll be forced to find a style of his own.”
“It used to really bother me. I thought, what a drag if people get the idea that I’m actually
ripping him off! Especially in the UK where Faith No More are much better known than us.
In America, it’s a different story, people are aware of the profound influence we've had on them.
Many in the press chose to bring up the Kiedis beef with Patton during
interviews with Faith No More. During a 1990 interview with Hot Metal, Patton was
pretty cordial claiming the similarities between the bands were merely superficial,
while also praising the chili peppers saying. I don't have a clue. It just kind of came out
of the blue. I mean, I could speculate, but I really don't know. It doesn't bother me a bit.
I got a real big kick out of it. to tell you the truth. I mean, if he's gonna talk about me
in interviews, that's fine - it's free press! It's pretty out of line. Either he's feeling inadequate
or old or I don't know ... That's beat, but I have no reason to talk shit about him."
The feud seemed to be limited to Kiedis from the Chili Peppers as the other members of the
band didn’t really care. Here’s Flea of the chili peppers discussing the feud.
We've definitely been an influence, but that's not really my concern. My concern is to just keep the
Red Hot Chili Peppers sounding good & you know if people are influenced by us then that's an
influence you know we just play what we play and do as good as we can. That fight created between
us was just a bunch of bull created by media. I mean i think they're a good band um you know
some things said between Anthony and the singer and it all means nothing to me. You know. I know
those guys in the band and they're nice people & that's no fight. The media loves to create
things like that & that's how they get their jollies off, but you know it means nothing to me.
The feud wouldn’t be reignited until 1999. At that time Faith No More was done for the time being and
Patton was playing in Mr. Bungle who happened to be on the same label as The Chili Peppers.
Both bands were set to release similarly titled records as the Chili Peppers
were putting out californication while Mr. Bungle was releasing the album California.
The label opted to delay Mr. Bungle’s album so as not to create confusion amongst the public.
In addition to that, both groups were set to play the same festivals in Europe in the summer of
1999, but Patton would be notified that his band was removed from three festivals at the request
of Keidis. Mr. Bungle guitarist Trey Spruance would reveal what happened in an interview saying
"We were booked, months in advance, to do eleven festival dates in Europe. Come Summer,
we get a call from the three biggest of those festivals, all of them the same day, saying that
we can't play, because the headlining band retains the right to hire and fire whomever they wish.
We found out it was the Red Hot Chili Peppers, so our manager called their manager to find out
what the hell was going on, and their manager was very apologetic, and said,
'We're really sorry, we want you to know this doesn't reflect the management's position,
or the band's for that matter, it's Anthony Kiedis who wants this.'"
As an act of retribution Mr. Bungle played a Halloween show in Kiedis’ home state of
Michigan in 1999 The band that night would play a series of chili peppers covers while dressed
as the band. Patton would alter the lyrics of some of the chili peppers songs to make
reference to the band’s struggles with drugs. And Keidis supposedly heard of the show and got
the group banned from a festival in Australia both acts were set to play the following year.
Mr. Bungle bassist Trevor Dunn on his website would state the following Everything
you've ever heard about the Red Hot Chile Poppers screwing us is true. I'm not sure why they did it
other than a non-singer's jealousy. They kept us off of festivals i Ultimately they screwed ME out
of a lot of money for which I will forever harbor anger. The best part is they had full support
from their record label he would state. Even the fox tv show the five which would
be anchored by greg gutfield would weigh in on the feud with gutfeld calling the chili
peppers and i quote "a poor man's faith no more" and referred to the chili peppers as
"the worst band on the planet." .In a 2010 interview though,
Mike Patton appeared to be over the feud: "I've no idea what it was about then
and I don't know now. But I bet we'd have a warm embrace if we saw each other referring to Kiedis.
That does it for today video guys thanks for watching. Be sure to hit the like and subscribe.
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