Mike Patton Somehow Fears He’ll Become Vince Neil

It’s hardly a secret that Mike Patton is one of the greatest living vocalists. Just listen to any Faith No More, Dead Cross, or Mr. Bungle album (to name a few) and it’ll be obvious damn near immediately. It’s also not a secret that Vince Neil is aging like Mexican food these days vocally – it was pretty good when it first came out of the kitchen, but someone’s needed to do something about it for a little while now.

In an interview with Revolver, Patton discussed one of his references to Neil on the new Dead Cross record II, saying he fears he might become “that” one day. Given they’re only seven-ish years apart in age, and the differential in how they sound during recent live shows, feels like Patton’s fears ain’t coming true.

What did I say again? I forget. Wasn’t I kind of making fun of him? Oh, yeah: “Like a Vince Neil who sings too many songs.” Yeah, like fat, old — we all know where he’s at now. I’m conscious of that, and I also fear that I may become that. [Laughs] So why not talk about it?

Patton later touched on the fact that he’s in approximately ten thousand bands (give or take), saying he just goes where he feels he needs to at the moment. And given that kind of passion, can the guy really go wrong? The answer is “no.” Of course it’s no. It’s fucking Mike Patton dude, the guy has a voice the rest of us would kill for.

I do what feels good to me. It’s based on sound and aesthetic. To me, all that stuff you mentioned fits together. This is the kind of stuff that I would listen to on a mixtape. So, in a weird way, I guess my career is a fucked-up mixtape. I do what feels right and what sounds right. At the time I joined Dead Cross, I really needed to do that. Now I’m on to some other stuff. Maybe I’m a wanderer. I don’t know. I just wanna do justice to every recording or concert that I’m involved in. I wanna do it the right way. Hopefully in an authentic way.

Anyway, go listen to Dead Cross.