A to Z of King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime

It's been thirty years since Faith No More released their fifth studio album King For A Day Fool For A Lifetime. We are celebrating this momentous anniversary with an A to Z.

A is for Alphaville

Some of the lyrics from the fifth track on the record, Star AD, also appear in dialogue from the 1965 French film Alphaville directed by Jean-Luc Godard. 'When you die...You'll become something worse than dead.....You'll be become a Legend'.

A wonderful critique on the trappings of fame and the narcissistic behaviour of particular rock stars.

B is for Bearsville

Faith No More chose a change of scenery to record King For A Day... The band retreated to Bearsville studios, an isolated live-in facility near Woodstock in upstate New York. Some former residents were: Meatloaf, The Isley Brothers, REM, Fear Factory and Jeff Buckley.

"Oh my God, kids, there's not much to do out there in Bearsville, nothing with a capital 'N'! It'd be Saturday night and we'd hear the crickets chirping in the woods. The most entertaining thing that happened to me was I caught pneumonia, which kept me from being stir-crazy for about a week. The sickness debilitated me to the point where I lost my cabin fever!” – Bill 1995 | Kerrang!

C is for Caca Volante

Windows 95 and Internet Explorer were introduced in 1995 revolutionising the art of web surfing - however slowly compared to today's technology.

Faith No More’s first online fan page was launched in the same year by Andy Couch who to this day is still involved with FNM’s online content.

Fan friendly tech nerd Bill Gould embraced Caca Volante’s content of facts, photos and screensavers which brought fans together in the first community.

"The precursor for CV was “The UnOfficial Faith No More Page.” and I put it up in Nov. 1994. Around the same time Hal Turner and Marc Schoenen created a mailing list, which they called “Caca Volante.” They emailed me through my website to tell me about the mailing list. In early 1995, with their blessing, I renamed my site. The name itself was coined by Jai Young Kim." - Andy Couch 2025

D is for Dean Menta

Dean replaced Trey Spruance after only four months as FNM's guitar player. Dean had been Roddy Bottum's keyboard tech in 1992 and was enlisted by the band to tour KFAD/FFAL. Dean had previously been in the San Francisco-based alternative rock band DUH which also featured vocalist Greg Werckman - who would later co-found Ipecac Recordings with Mike Patton.

"I initially started working with Faith No More on the crew during the Angel Dust tour. I was doing computer consultancy with regards to music software programs. What I basically did, and still do, are all sorts of sequencing and hard disk recording stuff. Roddy got my name and number from somewhere, so I started hooking up with him every so often trying to teach him more about computers and then I went on tour with him. I guess he'd never had a roadie before, he and Billy used to share the same guy, but on the Guns N' Roses tour they wanted a separate person for each job. I'd never done keyboards before, never been on the road, had no prior experience of bands at that level." - Dean 1995 | Hot Metal

E is for Eric Drooker

New York artist Eric Drooker provided the album and singles cover art. The image of a subway police officer desperately hanging onto a snarling dog first appeared in the graphic novel Flood! | A novel in pictures released in 1992.

"The subway, to me, represents the unconscious state of the masses, who race through underground tunnels, speeding backward and forward in time." - Drooker 2013

"We were all thinking about album design and this photo really stood out to us as something that paired well with what we were trying to achieve with our music." - Bill 2016 | fnmfollowers

Eric Drooker 1992

F is for Full Metal Jacket

'First to go last to know - We will defend to the death your right to be misinformed'.

The title of track 13 appears on a banner in the Stanley Kubrick movie Full Metal Jacket.

Although we have no evidence that Patton lifted the song title from the movie, we do know that he is a Kubrick fan and film buff so it's highly likely.

G is for Guitarists...

At the end 0f 1993 after eleven years Jim Martin and FNM parted ways and the hunt was on for a new guitar player. Justin Broadrick from Godflesh and Ralph Spight from Victims Family were both considered. As was Killing Joke's Kevin ‘Geordie’ Walker.

"He’s a great guitar player. One of the best I’ve ever seen. He would have been amazing, but he is so distinctive. I think he would have rendered us into a Killing Joke cover band." – Bill 2015 | Small Victories by Adrian Harte

Although more obviously known for the Album Of The Year era in FNM history, Jon Hudson was also considered to replace Big Jim in 1994. His own band Systems Collapse was no more so Jon and Bill worked on some ideas together. Ultimately the band opted for Trey Spruance.

 "I wasn’t surprised when they picked Trey. He and Patton had played together since they were kids, so he was a known quantity, and he was obviously very talented. It seemed like

the perfect match to me." - Jon 2015 | Small Victories by Adrian Harte

H is for Hey Hey It's Saturday!

Faith No More’s TV appearances are the best - great quality footage and sound but with the passion of a live show. During the KFAD/FFAL tour FNM appeared on MTV, The Word, The Jon Stewart Show, Conan and Top of the pops… twice!

In Australia the band performed Evidence live on Hey Hey It’s Saturday - Patton’s pitch perfect falsetto, Roddy’s painted nails and Bill’s double bass made for unmissable watching.

I is for I Started A Joke

FNM have always picked some rather eccentric songs to cover and the b-sides from King For A Day... were recorded sometime after the sessions at Bearsville in Bill's home studio featuring Dean on guitar. The band's cover of the Bee Gees classic I Started A Joke was released after FNM split by the record company as a single in 1998, to promote the greatest hits album Who Cares A Lot?.

"We were in this bar in Gwaum, god, it was so twisted! You see, Gwaum is like a rock in the middle of the ocean; they have like two million snakes per mile -- they have so many snakes that they have killed all the birds, they have no more birds in all of Gwaum. So, we're sitting in this bar and they have posters of hard-core porn videos all over the wall. It was a regular bar, and they had animal porn on the wall! And we're like, 'What the hell is this?!', and in the corner of the room they had this karaoke machine and they were all singing the words "I started a joke ..." and there was this bouncing ball so they could follow the words. The lyrics were so pathetic and depressing that we just said 'We have to do this song!' It's the most miserable song I ever heard in my life!' " - Bill 1995 | Livewire

J is for Jai Kim Young

Multi instrumentalist and producer found himself in Brilliant Studios SF during the mixing of KFAD/FFAL. He conducted the most revealing interview with members of the band, getting some real information on the songs and lyrics.

Jai Kim would go on to produce the second Secret Chiefs 3 album and eventually join the band on keyboards and organ.

JK: All right. "The Gentle Art of Making Enemies."

RB: Angst-ridden. Good punctuation. Good definition and instruments for me. No keyboards.

JK: So what'd you do on this song?

RB: Just danced around. Moral support.

TS: He wrote choreography for the rest of us as well.

K is for 'Kill the body and the head will die...'

The What A Day lyric 'Kill the body and the head will die', is a phrase that appears in Hunter S. Thompson's 1971 novel Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas. Before he was Patton's manager Greg Werckman worked for an agency in NY representing lecturers, Thompson was one.

''He was an overrated asshole, in my opinion. Treated people very poorly and was out of his mind. He lost his creative talent many many years before his death. A sad man. I have many stories, but would rather not add to his myth.'' - Werckman 2019 | fnmfollowers

L is for Loris Holland

The spectacular song Just A Man featured real orchestral strings and a choir, it was Guyanese born composer Loris Holland who was behind the orchestration of these amazing accompaniments. Holland had previously worked on Jeff Buckley’s album Grace. Onita Boone was one of the vocalists in the choir.

"They were awesome! Nice guys. easy on the eyes and quite personable! I enjoyed them. They explained to us what they wanted and we did it. I don't remember the session being long. In fact, it was short and easy. We had a nice time. Everyone was happy and we had no idea who they were until much later. They were humble, down to earth guys!" - Onita 2013 | fnmfollowers

M is for Marcus Raboy

Faith No More first worked with music video director Marcus Raboy during the filming of Another Body Murdered. Raboy returned to direct the video clip for Digging The Grave a year later. The dark and mysterious scenes captured are reminiscent of a 1950s film noir crime thriller. The video showcased the band's fresh new look and sound. FNM stand out in his catalogue of film making credits as the only non rnb/pop act.

N is for Nirvana

It is often discussed whether the lyrics of Ricochet refer to the death of Kurt Cobain – the working title for the song was Nirvana and the words could certainly be compared to the circumstances of Cobain's suicide. Roddy was close to the singer and his wife Courtney Love and spent time with Kurt before his tragic passing.

"It was written the day that Kurt died. That's just why it was called "Nirvana." (Pause.) I like that one. The vocal harmonies are really great. And those are my favourite lyrics on the record." – Roddy 1995

In February 1995 Mike Patton addressed the meaning of his lyrics with NME.

Several lyrics on 'King' seem to snarl against the trap of celebrity, entrapment and the ageing process. But Patton dismisses any suggestion that the Kurt Cobain saga had any effect on him ("I didn't know him or anything").

As a singer in a rock n roll band who may have gone through some of the same things that he did, you had no thoughts or feeling about the whole business?

"What can I say? (Laughs). What can I say? I'm sorry? Bad things happen, y'know? I'm sure it wasn't as great as everyone thinks it was."

What wasn't?

"His suicide, I'm sure wasn't such a glamorous event."

O is for The Old Trout

Following in tradition FNM began their album tour in the UK. On February 28th, the day Digging The Grave was released as a single, the band played a low-key date at The Old Trout in Windsor. Billing themselves as NEW FAT BASTARDS they performed to 200 people and introduced fans to new guitarist Dean Menta.

This gig appeared at number 63 on Kerrang! Greatest Show of All Time in 1997.

P is for Portishead

Faith No More have added adlibs into there own songs during live performances since the days of Chuck Mosley, not to mention a huge catalogue of cover songs. Each era seems to have a different preferred song - during the KFAD/FFAL era the band opted for two! Firstly a slick rendition of Glorybox by UK trip-hoppers Portishead and the other was Zombie by Irish rockers The Cranberries.

Q is for Quotes

The band often say the most weird and wonderful things in the music press. Sometimes they can be poetic or even prophetic, mostly they are just puerile and sharp-witted. In February 1995 there was less talk of masturbation, turds and murder and more cynical discussion on the state of the business they were in. Patton spoke with NME and made a comment which sums up his approach to lyric writing perfectly.

“I can’t actually write words before music. The words are the last thing, before the words I hear sounds. Sometimes the words have no connection to anything, they just have to fit the sound.”

R is for Rent-a-car

The narrow dirt roads which lead from civilization to Bearsville studios would be responsible for several car accidents involving members of the band.

'...the two Mikes—Patton, who was driving, and Bordin—were involved in a serious smash in which their car flipped over. The driver of the other car was seriously injured. ‘I know it freaked Mike out a lot,’ says Bordin. ‘I feel bad for the guy who was in the car, and I feel

bad for Mike for being behind the wheel.’ The band were subsequently banned from hiring cars from the only car hire company around.' - Small Victories by Adrian Harte

S is for Spit!

Faith No More ended their 1995 tour in South America, returning like heroes to Chile. On 8 September the band shared the stage with Ozzy Osbourne, Alice Cooper and Megadeth at Monsters Of Rock Festival. The most amazing and unsanitary scenes were captured on film when the front rows of 50,000 strong crowd spat at Patton to show their appreciation. Instead of being repulsed Patton opened his mouth!

"I remember all of us were really into the spit. That was a high energy show we gave them. It was September 11, so it was the anniversary of the coup. People were really jacked up, and we fed off of that. People liked to spit. We were totally fine with that. He [Patton] had no problem with that. He did what he had to do." - Bill 2014 | Small Victories by Adrian Harte

T is for Trey Spruance

The Mr Bungle guitarist joined the ranks of FNM and began writing with them 1994. His unique style and knowledge of different genres helped to create some truly remarkable music.

Trey would also add keyboards and helped with string and vocal arrangements. Trey left the band after KFAD... was recorded and didn’t play the songs live until 2011 at the Maquinaria Festival in Chile - when the band treated the crowd by playing the album from beginning to end.

"We knew we had songs that worked. We tried out a lot of guitarists and Trey definitely understands our language. He had his own very capable language and is able to lock into what we're thinking too. It's exciting to be able to finally get in and do the album we've been waiting to do all this time."

“If anything, we did everything possible to convince ourselves that he wasn't the right guy. Patton had said that Trey was going to be our man, but he didn't even want to deal with the idea. He's known him for years and the last thing he wanted was to be in another band with him, but in the end we were hurting ourselves by avoiding him so hard. For a long time it was too obvious, and we were fighting the obvious - but there comes a time where you have to realise who the right guy for the job is." – Bill 1994 | Kerrang!

U is for Ugly In The Morning

Patton’s lyrics on KFAD/FFAL were often charged with menace and self loathing, and even in songs which suggest joy and elation it’s easy to find the undertone of despair .

Patton’s technique of creating tragic characters to inhabit whilst telling his stories of banal themes is a work of genius. Whilst his contemporaries bleat on about love he continues to explore the darker side of the human condition - a hangover, narcissism, toilets!

Doesn't matter how much you think

Or the number of hairs in the sink

I did it to myself again

I know how piggy feels

He starves without missing a meal

V is for Velvet Hammer

Mike Patton has had a romance with foreign languages for some time. It was during 1994 that he married an Italian and relocated to Bologna - his inspiration for an album of Italian pop music later called Mondo Cane.

KFAD... saw Patton's first genuine bilingual flirtations, he recorded the song Evidence in both Spanish and Portuguese.

The Latin flavoured song Caralho Voador, working title of Velvet Hammer, translates from Portuguese as 'Flying Dick'. During the middle section Patton sings in Portuguese which is roughly translated as: 'I can't drive... With my index finger... up my nose.'

W is for Two Wallaces

Matt Wallace, often considered as the George Martin of FNM, recorded and produced the first four Faith no more albums. His skills added to their distinctive sound, his touch on songs like We Care A Lot, Epic and Midlife Crisis helped in their success.

However for KFAD/FFAL the band turned to producer Andy Wallace to take their music in a different direction. Andy had worked with some of the biggest names in rock and his style certainly suited the change in direction FNM had taken.

"Everything that happened regarding the making of that album is part of the story. Working with Trey was very stimulating, things came together much more easily we were used to. Andy Wallace was the first producer we worked with outside of Matt, and his approach was definitely different, and we learned a lot from it. Then there’s Bearsville Studios — when I hear that album I still get mental images from recording at that place." - Bill 2016 | fnmfollowers

“After Angel Dust, I felt like I had taken the band as far as I could. Maybe with a different producer, maybe they could go further. It was an act of love, for lack of a better phrase, where I just thought I wanted to let them run free.” – Matt Wallace 2015 | Small Victories

X is for eXcrement lives forever...

Track 6 on King For A Day... is the most metal the band get on the record, not too dissimilar from the repetitive beats of the We Care A Lot [1985] album. Cuckoo For Caca is a hideous masterpiece, on the surface the lyrics describe Patton's Angel Dust era shit eating hobby perfectly. However, poke a little deeper and it could be perceived as a metaphor for drug abuse.

In 1995 Patton addressed the meaning while talking to NME in Venice:

NME: "Would you call it a shit-eating manifesto?"

Patton: "I really don't remember. If I could sit here and write the words out I might be able to remember."

NME: A lyric sheet is laid before him.

Patton: "it's just....shit. Shit is...shitty people, garbage, everything. What do you think it's about?"

Y is for Yamaha

In 1995 HM Magazine published an interview with Mike Bordin's drum tech Feely. Feely had some cool stuff to say, and we all know being good gets you…

"All the toms are birch, even the kick drum is birch. This creates a really dark sound, it's like swamp water. The snare is maple though, which has a clear, sharp sound, and when you put the two together, it's crystal clear, the sound cuts right through."

"We took all the toms to a drum doctor to get the bearing edges made sharper. When they leave the factory, the edges are sometimes a little rounded.

"Sharpening the edges creates less resonance. Mike hits them so hard and you don't want them ringing out for ages and ages. We try to create a sound that is deep enough to boom out heavily, but not one so low that it just gets lots in the mix."

Z is for Absolute Zero

Unbelievably this song did not make the album however it was available to fans on the b-side of Digging The Grave. It has to date only been played live once at Maquinaria festival in 2011.