Faith No More’s Mike Patton Says He Was Diagnosed With Agoraphobia

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Faith No More‘s Mike Patton opened up about the psychological struggles he had during the pandemic.

Faith No More was set to hit the road in the summer of 2020 and announced dates for its European and North American shows. The group had been silent for five years, so the tour would have been their comeback, but the Covid-19 pandemic interrupted their scheduled performances. The band had to postpone their shows to 2021.

After the dates were finalized and the group was set to perform in 2021, they announced that all of their performances for the fall of 2021 were canceled as Mike Patton was struggling with mental health issues that prevented him from performing.

When asked about the cancellation of the shows, he mentioned that he was diagnosed with agoraphobia. He stated that he was afraid of people and crowds. Patton added that he needed to go to therapists to acknowledge his problem and talk about it, which was very helpful to him.

Mike Patton‘s words on his diagnosis:

“It was a little bit of everything. But mostly, in my experience, it was mostly mental. I saw some therapists and all that stuff, which was the first time I ever had to do that in my life. And they basically diagnosed me as having agoraphobia; like, I was afraid of people. I got freaked out by being around people. And maybe that was because I spent two years basically indoors during Covid. I don’t know. Maybe it reinforced feelings that I already had. But just knowing about it, talking about it, really helped.”

As for Patton’s relationship with Faith No More, there is no tour or reunion yet, but Patton, who has been diagnosed with agoraphobia, is scheduled to return to the stage in South America with Mr. Bungle in December.