Mike Bordin

Faith No More

Michael Andrew 'Puffy' Bordin was born on November 27 1962 in San Francisco. Mike has always been a music fanantic and his first obsession was with Creedence Clearwater Revival. After family trauma at an early age he used music to escape, his early heroes were all guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix, Tony lommi, Jimmy Page and Ritchie Blackmore. 
When Mike was 10 he heard Black Sabbath in a friend's basement and their music had a profound effect on him. In 1975 Mike attended Castro Valley High School where he and Cliff Burton became friends. Black Sabbath convinced them both to be in a band. At 15 Mike was so desperate to see Black Sabbath he stole a neighbours car to get to the show. 
A second major turning point for Mike was seeing The Sex Pistols at Winterland in 1977.
Cliff and Mike's first band, Fry By Night, also featured Eddie Chacon who would later find fame as one half of the pop duo Charles and Eddie. 
Their next band was EZ Street whose leader and guitarist was Jim Martin and which took it's name from a strip-club in San Mateo . 
Mike part didn't last long as he was sent to boarding school in Menlo Park for 'behavioural problems', it was here he became serious about studying and playing the drums. 
His first drum teacher encouraged him to listen to jazz such as The Tony Williams Lifetime rather than metal. Mike went to university in college in Berkeley and threw himself into it whole-heartedly, learning the basics from renowned drum guru Chuck Brown, who also taught Michael Shrieve and Terry Bozzio. Brown was a great influence on Mike's unorthodox style and taught to drum with a right-handed kit. 
He studied African percussion in school with a Ghanaian teacher C.K. Ladzepko who couldn't play a drum kit but he could play 30 different instruments with his hands, feet and elbows and sing different rhythms. This tuition and bands such as Echo and The Bunnymen and Killing Joke helped Mike break away from traditional techniques. 
In 1981 Mike answered the same ad as Bill Gould and both became members of Sharp Young Men, with Mike Morris (guitar/vox) and Wade Worthington (keyboards). The band became Faith. No Man, Worthington left and was replaced by Bill's childhood friend Roddy Bottum. Bordin, Gould and Bottum became a unit and replaced Morris with Mark Bowen, who stayed with them for a year. For a while the band tried different singers until Chuck Mosley became their permanent frontman. 
Cliff suggested Jim Martin to fill the guitarist position after Bowen's departure. 
At this time Mike sported an Afro hairstyle and was given the nickname 'Puffy' by Jim which stuck. 
On September 27th 1986 Puffy's friend of 10 years Cliff Burton was killed in a bus accident, this made Puffy more determined to succeed as a musician to honour his friend. 
Like Gould, Puffy began to find Chuck's drunkenness was hindering the band. On October 4th 1986 FNM played a show at Humboldt state university in Arcata, it was Puffy who received a copy of Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny from Trey Spruance. 
However it wasn't until two years later that Mike Patton became FNMs lead singer. When the band were on the hunt for a new singer Puffy asked Slash from Guns N' Roses to distribute an ad throughout their network, which he didn't do.
In the early 90s Puffy was often the object of the band's ridicule during interviews due to his intense personality. He maintained close relationships with members of Metallica and in 1989 FNM joined them on a tour of the States.
FNM again toured with Metallica in  1992 and he often made clear his disapproval of the way his fellow band members spoke of their contemporaries, particularly Guns N' Roses.
When FNM split in 1998 the band famously (and comically) blamed Puffy, who they claimed had left to joined Ozzy Osbourne.  

Ozzy Osbourne

Mike first played with his hero Ozzy Osbourne at an RIP Magazine birthday show in Hollywood, on November 9th 1990. The singer joined FNM for their rendition of the Black Sabbath classic War Pigs. Mike was able to explain to Ozzy how his music had changed his life and in 1996 Mike was invited by Ozzy to join his band. During the 1997 Ozzfest Tour Mike played with Black Sabbath filling in for Bill Ward who was suffering from health issues.
Mike featured on three Ozzy Osbourne studio albums Down to Earth (2001), Under Cover (2005) and Black Rain (2007). As well as Live at Budokan (2002) and re-recordings of Blizzard of Ozz (2002) and Diary of a Madman (2002). 
Mike left Ozzy's band when FNM reunited. He also struck up a friendship with bassist Robert Trujillo.

Other Projects

Mike played drums on Jerry Cantrell's second solo album Degradation Trip (2002), which also featured Trujillo on bass. He toured the album for only one month as he and Trujillo had committments with Ozzy. 
Mike has worked with Primus on several occasions. He provided guest vocals on songs from Primus' album Frizzle Fry (1990) and Sailing the Seas of Cheese (1991). He played drums on the song Choked, a collaboration with Primus' Tim Alexander and Tool's Maynard James Keenan, released on the compilation Flyin' Traps (1997).
Mike also joined Korn on tour in 2000 filling in for drummer David Silveria who suffered an injury to his wrist.

2016

LautDE
"For a guy like me to play with Ozzy and run with him for that long, honestly that's the craziest thing of all. When you think about what happened in that time, the TV show he did, his wife got cancer, he almost died on that quad bike, all these crazy things happen the whole time. And I gave him the best I had every fuckin day and I'm proud of that. The music he's made in his lifetime had such a powerful impact on my life. To be able to give something to him like that and you know, worked my ass off behind him every night gladly, to me it's like kind of saying thank you."

Noisey
"...one thing I gotta say is that there's a club in this world, and there's only two members, and the name of the club is "Drummers who've played with Cliff Burton, Jason Newstead and Robert Trujillo". There's only two members in this whole world, and that's me and Lars."

2015

Rhythm Magazine
"...we all kind of learned a language together and we were the only ones who really spoke it. Because they were learning what I learned but not only what I learned but how I learned it. It wasn't like they were taking the same class from that same guy and getting something different out of it I was saying, 'The guy said this or we did that, check this out. I think Roddy at the beginning, his melodies were very syncopated, pretty simple but very syncopated, but we were all playing percussion to each other, all syncopating with each other around the rhythm, we were all speaking the same damn language. Regardless of what happened in the class, you take a little chunk of that plant out of there and stick it somewhere else and it grows into something."

Modern Drummer
"...that’s what live music should be; it should be physical, it should be in your face, it should be compelling and energetic and powerful. Otherwise, you might as well sit at home and watch it on your computer. I want some hair on it where it needs to be."

News Radio
"Like us or hate us, we’ve always tried to make the music as good as we possibly could, and that’s a hard enough job as it is. Let alone worrying about what you look like or who you are dating or if you’re going to be on TV. I think we just want to create music that we’re proud of, is the best way to say it. But no one gives you a medal for that."

2012

Drummer Magazine
"I try not to be too regretful: I don't like looking back. What I like to do is have my head in the game at the time and do the best I can with what I have: that works better for me. I did my best at the time!"

2010

Drum Magazine
“I was ten years old, just getting into music, when my mother died. I could have gotten mean and bitter and things might’ve wound up very differently for me. But one of the bands that I gravitated to was Black Sabbath. Their music wasn’t being played on the radio, it wasn’t on jukeboxes at the pizzeria – you had to go to a friend’s house and discover it in the basement. It was an underground thing, which made it more special. It’s no joke that Black Sabbath saved my life. I always dreamed of meeting Ozzy and telling him that.”

1995

HM Magazine
"The drum kit is the piece of equipment that is going to have the most variation from night to night, that's why we try and use our own kit as often as possible. Otherwise it's like using someone else's toothbrush or wearing someone else's underpants, it just doesn't feel quite right."

Metal Maniacs
"When we made it, we honestly knew it was special because we put so much into it. Whatever makes you do that, whether it's pride or fear or whatever, you have to have something that drives you. You can't just make a record because you're supposed to and you're very satisfied and comfortable with yourself. You gotta keep reaching and digging."

1992

Screamer 
"It doesn't bother me what people say or think. It would bug me if people saw us as a strict metal band. I personally don't like certain things about heavy metal, and that would definitely bug me because that's a limitation. I think that being considered trend-setters is a compliment, because that means we're doing our job. We're not living in the future, we're making records for now, and that's the point. Things have to change. It's normal."

Metal Maniacs
"For me, usually, a tour consists of playing gigs and depending on how your record's doing you're either playing in smaller places or bigger places, but then trying to sneak off and go the a baseball game and seeing all the stadiums, you know?"

1989

Kerrang! Issue 242
"Jim's a dick, that's his job. We're all dicks. .. but we're dicks that are part of the same team and we're heading  for the same goal."

Faith. No Man Quiet In Heaven / Song Of Liberty
1983.
Ministry Of Propaganda Records.
DISCOGS

Faith No More We Care A Lot
November 1985.
Mordam Records.
DISCOGS

Faith No More Introduce Yourself
April 1987.
Slash Records.
DISCOGS
BUY

Faith No More The Real Thing
June 28th 1989.
Slash Records.
DISCOGS
BUY

Faith No More Live At Brixton Academy
(Video) August 20th 1990.
(Audio) February 4th 1991.
Slash Records.
DISCOGS
BUY 

Faith No More Angel Dust
June 8th 1992.
Slash Records.
DISCOGS
BUY

Faith No More King For A Day Fool For A Lifetime
March 28th 1995.
Slash Records.
DISCOGS
BUY

Faith No More Album Of The Year
June 3rd 1997.
Slash Records.
DISCOGS
BUY

Faith No More Sol Invictus
May 19th 2015.
Reclamation Records.
DISCOGS
BUY

Ozzy Osbourne Down To Earth
October 16th 2001.
Epic.
DISCOGS
BUY

Ozzy Osbourne Live At Budokan
June 25th 2002.
Epic.
DISCOGS
BUY

Ozzy Osbourne Blizzard Of Ozz
2002.
Epic.
DISCOGS
BUY

Ozzy Osbourne Diary Of A Madman
2002.
Epic.
DISCOGS
BUY

Ozzy Osbourne Under Cover
November 1st 2005.
Epic.
DISCOGS
BUY

Ozzy Osbourne Black Rain
May 22nd 2007.
Epic.
DISCOGS
BUY

Jerry Cantrell Degradation Trip
June 18th 2002.
Roadrunner.
DISCOGS
BUY

Cliff Burton Day 2018
New York Rock Scene 2017
Happy Birthday Mike Bordin 2017
Happy Birthday Mike Bordin 2016
Happy Birthday Mike Bordin 2015
Ten Best Mike Bordin Beats


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