I mean actors, they have to work 12 hours a day.”įat Mike doesn’t think punk has changed much in the last 40 years, but it “got more popular.” He does, though, say NOFX have changed: “We’ve gotten a lot fucking better. It’s got to be the easiest job in the world. It’s tiring, but it fucking beats working eight hours a day. We go on stage and play for an hour and a half. Is life on the road that hard? “Well, I’m going to say there’s nothing really hard about it. He will continue to produce records, he explains, but he won’t tour again. “We’re done,” says Fat Mike, although in the music world unexpected comebacks are becoming increasingly the norm. However, after their final show in Los Angeles, in 2024, there will be no further live reunions. He has sometimes defined himself as queer.ĭespite the farewell tour, NOFX have 30 to 40 songs pending mixing and arranging. He is also an outspoken advocate of his cross-dressing and sexual tastes: sadomasochism, which he has tried to draw out of invisibility. Music is one thing you’re allowed to do while intoxicated. You can’t drive a steamroller or a crane and do drugs. “You can play music and do drugs and it’s fine. Fat Mike has been described as one of the most hated people on the punk scene because of his political activism and frequent outbursts, and he has gone public with his drug problems and his stints in rehab. I hurt myself sleeping,” he says with a chuckle. I haven’t been able to move my arm in three days because I slept on it bad. “ will be longer than our usual shows, and they’re going to be very emotional.” Age, he says, has taken its toll. I’m tired of entertaining people,” Fat Mike explains.
“I think 40 years is a good time to break up. Mike Pont (WireImage/Getty Images) 40 years of punk Does this mean punk really is dead? Fat Mike at a signing for his autobiography 'The Hepatitis Bathtub and Other Stories,' in New York on April 29, 2016. NOFX’s success wasn’t as stratospheric as other California alumni, but they have arguably aged better and maintained a more solid and indomitable status within the scene than many of their contemporaries. Among many cloned projects, the band stood out for its aggressive but bright and shiny sound, its hyper-speed, completely unpredictable harmonies, and the sharp humor of Mike’s lyrics, in addition to his somewhat nasal voice. It was in this musical context that Punk in Drublic appeared, in 1994, the album that catapulted NOFX into the upper echelons of the punk scene. A few years earlier Nirvana had paved the way for guitar bands, although with a much more depressing and nihilistic air. However, they exploded onto the California pop punk scene of the 1990s following the success of albums such as Green Day’s Dookie, which sold 20 million copies, and The Offspring’s Smash, and which also included groups such as Bad Religion and Rancid, the latter performing a classic and chiseled punk mixed with Caribbean rhythms, like advanced students of The Clash. NOFX formed in Los Angeles in the early 1980s, and for many years they tasted the chill of failure in front of audiences who were bored to death. It’s got the best lyrics and it’s played by cool people, not jerks,” says the musician, in his characteristic teasing tone. “Punk is the best style of music, it’s the funnest and the most sincere. The band are in Barcelona on this leg, where they have sold out three dates at the Poble Espanyol venue.
Michael John Burkett, universally known as Fat Mike, is the, singer, lyricist and bassist of the now legendary punk rock band, which this year is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a farewell tour of 40 cities - with 40 songs per concert - called the Final Tour. The NOFX frontman talks somewhat listlessly, often monosyllabically, although with a friendly manner from his home in Las Vegas, where he is creating the Museum of Punk Rock. He’s slouching in his seat with a sleepy face, unshaven, with tousled blue hair, wearing a low-cut dress with a plunging neckline and a dark red Perfecto leather jacket. Can you still be a punk rocker in your fifties? “Clearly, look at me,” Fat Mike replies sarcastically.
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