Michael Allan Patton (born January 27, 1968) is an American singer, songwriter, producer, and voice actor, best known as the lead vocalist of the rock bands Faith No More and Mr. Bungle.Zorn, John, ed. (2000). Arcana: Musicians on Music. New York: Granary Books/Hips Road. . He has also fronted and/or played with Tomahawk, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Fantômas, Moonchild Trio, Kaada/Patton, Dead Cross, Lovage, Mondo Cane, the X-ecutioners, The Avett Brothers, and Peeping Tom. Consistent collaborators through his varied career include avant-garde jazz saxophonist John Zorn, hip-hop producer Dan the Automator and classical violinist Eyvind Kang. Patton saw his largest commercial success with Faith No More; although they scored only one US hit, they scored three UK top 20 singles.
Noted for his vocal proficiency, diverse singing techniques, wide range of projects, style-transcending influences, eccentric public image and contempt for the music industry, Patton has earned critical praise and influenced many contemporary singers. He has been cited as an influence by members of Coheed and Cambria, Deftones, Five Finger Death Punch, Hoobastank, Incubus, Lostprophets, Killswitch Engage, Korn, Queens of the Stone Age, System of a Down, Flummox, Papa Roach, Mushroomhead, and Slipknot.
Patton has worked as a producer or co-producer with artists such as Merzbow, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Sepultura, Melvins, Melt-Banana, and Kool Keith. He co-founded Ipecac Recordings with Greg Werckman in 1999, and has run the label since. Patton is an outspoken, even derisive, critic of the mainstream music industry and has been a champion for non-mainstream music that he says has "fallen through the cracks."
Early years
Mike Patton was born in Eureka, California on January 27, 1968, to a social worker mother and a physical education teacher father. Patton's home was strictly secular. During his first years, his family had an apartment in San Jose, California, in which they spent much time before they permanently relocated to Eureka. Patton says he has written recreationally for as long as he can remember. Due to his father's profession, Patton grew up as a sports enthusiast and practiced them regularly until his touring career began in 1989. One of his early musical memories was listening to his father's records by Earth, Wind & Fire and Frank Zappa; however, at the time, the artists never left a significant impression on Patton. In elementary school, he was a good student and athlete, but had very few friends due to his focus on getting good grades. As an "escape valve", he regularly asked his parents to drop him off at the movies, where he secretly watched slasher films and Star Wars, and the latter's soundtrack impacted him deeply. He and his bandmates have consistently credited their early years in Eureka, a relatively isolated city in the far north of California, to the intense curiosity that would drive their future career paths. Although his family did not have an artistic background, Patton was thankful for the freedom they granted him, which further led him toward music.
Patton studied at Eureka High School where he met bassist Trevor Dunn and later guitarist Trey Spruance, both members of its music theory class and jazz ensembles. Patton got to know Dunn through trading records, and they bonded over their studiousness, sarcastic humor and disaffection. Both were part of the cover band Gemini that performed songs by popular heavy metal groups. They quickly gained interest in heavier styles and joined the thrash metal cover band Fiend, but were kicked out and subsequently recorded a death metal tape under the name Turd, with Dunn on vocals and Patton on the instruments. Although Patton was "pretty well-adjusted and well-liked by [his middle school] peers", he had a "hyper geek" personality and felt increasingly alienated from sportspeople; ultimately, he found a supportive environment in the death metal music scene where he shifted his focus from sports to art. He and Dunn also had punk friends and started to branch out to that subculture; neither musician wanted to be associated with the drug epidemic in Eureka nor the school's party scene, thus they soon self-identified as straight edge. On the other hand, Trey Spruance and Jed Watts were members of Torchure, a Mercyful Fate-inspired band that had played with Patton's Fiend, and they formed another two-piece extreme metal band called FCA. Eventually, the four musicians joined up and established Mr. Bungle in 1984. In November, they performed its first show in the adjacent town of Bayside, California. Dunn, Spruance and Patton "pretty much hated everyone" at school and hung out alone next to the tennis courts outside campus. To pass the time, they often engaged in late night freighthopping, getting off at nearby towns or remote, wooded areas, and relying on hitchhiking to find their way home. While they disliked the cultural vapidness and degradation of the area, they appreciated their school teachers who nurtured their artistic interests; an English teacher turned Patton onto Marquis de Sade and The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosiński, while Dan Horton, their music teacher, let them use the music room after school and even joined them as a temporary horn player at a show.
Patton enrolled in California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, located in the nearby town of Arcata, California, to study English literature with plans to become a writer. He performed very well in college and wrote numerous short stories of varied genres, while at the time music was an enjoyable yet not-too-serious hobby for Patton. At Humboldt, Patton met his future band Faith No More during a 1986 show at a pizza parlor, where Mr. Bungle played numerous times. After the performance, Spruance, who had invited Patton to the show, gave drummer Mike Bordin Mr. Bungle's demo The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny. From school to college, Patton also worked part-time at the only record store in Eureka until he joined Faith No More in 1988.
During the late 1980s, Mr. Bungle released a number of demos on cassette only: 1986's The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny, 1987's Bowel of Chiley, 1988's Goddammit I Love America and 1989's OU818. The last three feature tracks that would later be included on their 1991 debut studio release.
Music career Faith No More: 1988–1998; 2009–2021; 2026–present Remembering Mr. Bungle's first demo tape, The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny, the members of Faith No More approached Patton to audition as their lead singer in 1988. The band tried out more than fifteen singers to fill the role, including Chris Cornell from Soundgarden, but they settled on Patton in view of his versatility. Over the next few months, they performed a few live shows together. Patton would be officially announced as their new singer in January 1989, replacing Chuck Mosley; this forced Patton to quit his studies at Humboldt State University. Mosley subsequently formed the bands Cement and VUA, and had several special "one-off" performances at shows with Faith No More and Patton before his death in 2017.
Faith No More's third album, and debut with Patton, The Real Thing was released in 1989. The album reached the top 20 on the US charts, thanks largely to MTV's heavy rotation of the "Epic" music video, (which features Patton in a Mr. Bungle T-shirt). Faith No More released three more studio albums—Angel Dust (1992), King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime (1995), and Album of the Year (1997)—before disbanding in 1998. In one interview, Patton cited what he perceived as the declining quality of the band's work as a contributing factor to the split.Mike Patton, June 30, 2001, Wâldrock Festival
On February 24, 2009, after months of speculation, Faith No More announced they would be reforming with a line-up identical to the Album of the Year era, embarking on a reunion tour called The Second Coming Tour. To coincide with the band's reunion tour, Rhino released the sixth Faith No More compilation, The Very Best Definitive Ultimate Greatest Hits Collection in the UK on June 8. The same line-up eventually released a new album called Sol Invictus in 2015, and following its supporting tour, Faith No More entered another hiatus. In 2019, the band announced that they were reuniting for a tour of the UK and the Europe in 2020, which was postponed to 2021–2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and eventually cancelled with Patton citing mental health reasons, and Faith No More had since resumed their hiatus. The band announced its third reunion in June 2026.
Solo work and band projects: 1984–present
During his time in Faith No More, Patton continued to work with Mr. Bungle. His success in mainstream rock and metal ultimately helped secure Mr. Bungle a record deal with Warner Bros. The band released a self-titled album (produced by John Zorn) in 1991, and the experimental Disco Volante in 1995. Their final album, California, was released in 1999. The band ceased being active following the 1999–2000 tour in support of the California record, although their disbandment was only officially confirmed in November 2004. Mr. Bungle reunited in 2019 with three original members (Patton, Dunn and Spruance) plus drummer Dave Lombardo and guitarist Scott Ian to re-record its first demo from 1986 The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny; the album was released on October 30, 2020.
Patton's other projects included two solo albums on the Composer Series of John Zorn's Tzadik label, (Adult Themes for Voice in 1996 and Pranzo Oltranzista in 1997). He is a member of Hemophiliac, in which he performs vocal effects along with John Zorn on saxophone and Ikue Mori on laptop electronics. This group is billed as "improvisational music from the outer reaches of madness". He has also guested on Painkiller and Naked City recordings. He has appeared on other Tzadik releases with Zorn and others, notably as part of the "Moonchild Trio" alongside Joey Baron and Trevor Dunn, named after Zorn's 2006 album on which the trio first appeared, Moonchild: Songs Without Words.
In 1998, Patton formed the metal supergroup Fantômas with guitarist Buzz Osborne (of The Melvins), bassist Trevor Dunn (of Mr. Bungle), and drummer Dave Lombardo (of Slayer). They have released four studio albums. In 1999, Patton collaborated with Japanese experimental musician Merzbow on the album She, released under the name Maldoror.
In 1999, Patton met former The Jesus Lizard guitarist Duane Denison at a Mr. Bungle concert in Nashville, and the two subsequently formed the band Tomahawk. Tomahawk's straightforward rock sound has often been compared to Album of the Year/King for a Day era Faith No More.
In 2001, he contributed vocals to Chino Moreno's group Team Sleep and released the album Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By with the group Lovage, a collaborative project consisting of Patton, Dan the Automator, Jennifer Charles, and Kid Koala.
Patton performed vocals for Dillinger Escape Plan's 2002 EP, Irony Is a Dead Scene. That year, he joined violinist Eyvind Kang and his ensemble Playground to play the piece Virginal Co Ordinates at the in Bologna. The performance would be released as an album in 2003.
In 2004, Patton worked with Björk and the beat boxer Rahzel on the album Medúlla. That same year, Patton released the album Romances with Kaada and contributed vocals to the album White People by Handsome Boy Modeling School (Dan the Automator and Prince Paul). In 2005, Patton collaborated with hip-hop DJ trio and turntablists The X-Ecutioners to release the album General Patton vs. The X-Ecutioners.