Faith No More Keyboardist Says Band Is on ‘Semi Permanent Hiatus’

Faith No More keyboardist Roddy Bottum has reveled online that the band is “kind of on semi permanent hiatus.”

The musician, who’s been in the band since 1981, wrote a post on his Substack, which is a subscription-based platform where individuals can share updates. He introduced himself and shared a couple of other personal endeavors he’s worked on.

“I’ve made a life for myself making music. With Faith No More and then Imperial Teen,” Bottum wrote. “FNM is kind of on semi permanent hiatus and Imperial Teen is making a record slowly but definitely.”

He didn’t elaborate on the “semi permanent hiatus,” nor did he mention Faith No More at any other time in the post. Instead, he shared details about a memoir he’s been writing titled The Royal We.

“My book is more of an ode to San Francisco, bicycle messengering, sex work, heroin, dreadlocks, the birth of politics in punk rock, wheatgrass, witches, crystal meth, coming out, self love and the burning down and obliteration of a great American city. It’s not a tell all but it tells a lot,” he described.

What Happened to Faith No More?

According to Setlist.fm, Faith No More haven’t played a show since August of 2016. In November of 2019, the band revealed a set of 2020 tour dates as well as a co-headlining run with Korn, but both legs were eventually postponed due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Faith No More were set to make up the shows in 2021 and frontman Mike Patton‘s other group Mr. Bungle were supposed to perform that year as well. However, all of the shows were called off when the vocalist shared that he was dealing with mental health “issues that were exacerbated by the pandemic.”

In the summer of 2022, Patton opened up on the issues during an interview with Rolling Stone and revealed that he’d been diagnosed with agoraphobia, which the Mayo Clinic states is “a type of anxiety disorder in which you fear and avoid places or situations that might cause you to panic and make you feel trapped, helpless or embarrassed.”

This disorder led to other issues for the singer and he later admitted to The Guardian that he’d been drinking to help cope with them. He also admitted that there were “a few issues going on” within the band, though he didn’t explain any further.

It was unclear why the shows hadn’t been rescheduled, but Bottum’s post offers a bit of insight.