NOFX’s Fat Mike on Final Tour, Clearing the Air With Blink-182

After greater than 40 years, the top of NOFX is in sight. The long-running punk band introduced the final slate of reveals of its Closing Tour, making certain the group behind songs like “Linoleum” and “Bob” will exit on a excessive observe – despite the fact that frontman Fats Mike isn’t in the intervening time.

“I’m sober proper now,” Fats Mike, 56, tells Us Weekly completely, explaining that he’s at present not consuming or utilizing medication. “I do that each six months. I’ll take just a few months off. And I really like being sober proper now.”

As the person behind songs like “Medication Are Good,” “I’m an Alcoholic,” and “Every part in Moderation (Particularly Moderation),” sobriety could be the one unusual bedfellow for the sex-positive and brazenly queer Fats Mike. Nevertheless, for the reason that mid-2010s, NOFX’s bassist, vocalist, songwriter and mouthpiece discovered a wholesome stability between sobriety and partying. It’s a stability he’s carrying into 2024 when the band takes its remaining bow in Denver, New York (tickets on sale now), and their hometown of Los Angeles.

“I’ve been sober for over a month. I’m reducing weight and I’m bike driving 10-15 miles a day,” he tells Us. Fats Mike just lately relocated to Las Vegas, the positioning of The Punk Rock Museum, an in depth assortment of historic objects and cultural memorabilia that gives guests with a singular, hands-on expertise. When he’s not engaged on the museum, serving to to run the beloved unbiased music label Fats Wreck Chords, or working with Codefendants (his new “crime wave” side-project), Fats Mike says he’s conserving busy by staying away from the “sin” of Sin Metropolis. He lives 20 minutes from the Strip in a “quiet Mormon neighborhood” and spends his time climbing, biking, {golfing}, and taking in a Vegas present like The Beatles Love by Cirque Soleil (which he says he’s seen eight instances).

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“I’m doing every kind of stuff that, once you’re hungover or consuming, you don’t need to do. I wakened at seven at present and exercised on my trampoline, after which I went for a half-hour stroll with my girl,” he tells Us. “So I really like sober time.”

“However then once I return to consuming and utilizing, these instances are nice too,” he provides. “That’s once you actually bond with folks. That’s once you make one of the best dangerous choices of your life. You have a tendency to not make dangerous choices once you’re sober. In the event you don’t have belongings you remorse, then what the f—ok?”

Regrets? Fats Mike has had just a few after spending 4 many years on the highway with NOFX (Eric Melvin, Aaron “El Hefe” Abeyta, and Erik “Smelly” Sandin). Whereas talking with Spin in 2022, Fats Mikes mentioned “Punk Rock Cliché” – a track from NOFX’s 2022 album, Double Album – was initially meant for Blink-182.

He wrote the track with Matt Skiba when the Alkaline Trio frontman joined Blink-182 in 2015, changing the outgoing Tom DeLonge. From there, every little thing appeared good. Travis Barker even spoke with NME about how he was excited for “Punk Rock Cliché” to return out, however the observe was by no means launched as a single and was left off the band’s 2016 album, California.

Fats Mike careworn to Spin that he wasn’t mad, saying that he was going to ghostwrite the track and be executed with it. Nevertheless, he famous that the timing may need been odd, with Skiba becoming a member of as DeLonge was leaving. “I might see how somebody saying ‘Oh, you needed to get Fats Mike to jot down a track for you” could be one thing they didn’t need to come out,” he mentioned.

What may need been a last-minute enterprise determination (representatives for Blink-182 didn’t instantly reply to Us’ request for remark) led to some confusion on Fats Mike’s finish, however he tells Us that issues are all good between him and the band.

“I went to see them [Blink-182] the opposite evening. They had been all so pleasant and I’m simply joyful that we’re all buddies,” Fats Mike tells Us. “I didn’t begin speaking about that [song] to place a wedge between our friendship. I simply wished to — NOFX did that track as a result of that track needed to come out. In the event that they didn’t need to put it out, I used to be going. So I figured I’d inform the story, however there was no ailing will. However, it was nice to see all these guys. They’re all good dudes.”

Although Fats Mike declared Blink-182 ’s model superior, NOFX’s “Punk Rock Cliché” is the right instance of why the band has endured for forty years, displaying musical components discovered all through the band’s oeuvre. It eschews choruses for recurring lyrical themes (as heard in “Bob,” “Linoleum” and virtually each different NOFX track). There’s the signature Fats Mike bassline, a vibrant sound that powers different tracks like “The Idiots Are Taking Over,” “The Desperation’s Gone” and “Whoops, I OD’d.” Sandlin’s drumming is as intense as when the band dropped Ribbed in 1991. Melvin and Hefe’s guitars surge like skateboards on hearth, harkening again to the work that made Punk In Drublic a contemporary basic.

Whereas Fats Mike has reaffirmed his friendship with Barker, DeLonge, and Mark Hoppus, there stays some unresolved distress enterprise between him and Hayley Williams. In January, Williams, 34, spoke with Billboard and claimed that Fats Mike made a crude joke about her when Paramore was on the Warped Tour within the late 2000s.

Whereas showing on the “Punk Rock MBA Podcast” in April, Mike famous that he was clearly making a joke – and one fifteen years in the past — however admitted that his remark was “sexist” and “a s—ty factor for me to say.” Fats Mike additionally mentioned he contacted Williams’s administration to apologize to her personally, and “she wouldn’t take my name.” (A consultant for Hayley Williams didn’t instantly reply to Us’ request for remark.)

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Although NOFX now has an expiration date – the ultimate present is October 6 at Los Angeles’s Berth 46 – it’s not as if the band is dying and Fats Mike must make amends with everybody. “In punk rock, you don’t actually have enemies,” Fats Mike explains to Us when requested whether or not anybody has come out of the woodwork to bury longstanding grudges now that NOFX might be no extra.

“We’ve all been doing this collectively for thus lengthy, so possibly you lose contact with folks,” he displays. “However what’s occurring is everybody needs to return to the final present and we simply put the tickets on sale and so they’re going loopy, as they’d, and we’re charging extra. We’re charging some huge cash for the primary time ever, however nobody’s actually complaining about it ‘trigger the final present.”

Whereas Mike will at all times have that sardonic streak that has made him one among punk’s biggest frontmen, he tells Us that the primary run of farewell gigs has left him feeling emotional. “You’re saying goodbye to the folks you’ve identified for thus lengthy. However you realize what feels so good is that, and why it’s so emotional, is as a result of it’s actual,” he says. “Bands do ‘farewell excursions’ on a regular basis, and that’s not what that is. That would be the final time we play.”

So, how is Fats Mike feeling now that the ultimate dates have been revealed? “My temper’s actually good,” he says earlier than shortly including, “It’s such a bizarre feeling. Nobody will get to undergo this. No one will get to say goodbye and thanks. It’s type of like being there in your wake, and I really feel so privileged and honored to have the ability to say goodbye to followers who’ve been supporting us for thus a few years.”

Nevertheless, Fats Mike laughs on the considered NOFX throwing its personal memorial: “And we’re charging for flowers. Charging for booze and flowers at our personal wake.”

There’s lots to plan within the subsequent 11 months or so. Fats Mike hasn’t selected what would be the final track NOFX ever performs (“I can’t reply that,” he says), however he does share that the ultimate present will see the band play a brand new track that nobody’s ever heard, and nobody will ever hear it till their final present.

“I’ve written a track that is essential to me, and it’s extraordinarily heartfelt,” he shares whereas getting barely choked up whereas serious about it. “It’s in me. I’ve been engaged on it for some time. I don’t know if I can play it with out getting too emotional. And we’re solely going to play it as soon as, and it’s going to be at our final present.”

Earlier than that occurs, there might be loads of new NOFX music for followers to listen to. “I simply completed the art work for Half Album,” says Fats Mike, the ultimate songs from the Single Album and Double Album recording classes.

From there, NOFX has “an album that we’re not completed with,” says Fats Mike. He famous that there are about 15 songs, with about 30 extra which can be unfinished. “I don’t know – I don’t suppose I’ll be recording extra songs with [NOFX]. I’ll simply be ending the songs.”

Recording with NOFX continues to be enjoyable for Fats Mike. Enjoying reside, at one level, was not. “I used to be needing to get loaded earlier than I went on stage to be able to have an excellent time,” he explains. “And we couldn’t do excursions [that were] greater than 12 reveals as a result of I used to be simply punishing my physique and I don’t need to reside that manner. I didn’t need to go on stage each evening. I used to be similar to, ‘I don’t need to play! I don’t need to play! I don’t need to play! Let’s drink some extra.’ And I don’t need to reside that manner.”

“These final reveals are totally different as a result of it’s actually thrilling to only say goodbye,” he says. “‘Oh s—t, that is the final time we’re ever enjoying Portland, Oregon. We’ve had so many experiences right here.’ And it’s like, ‘I don’t have to do that once more, so I’m going to have a good time.’ And we’re, we’ve been having a good time at these reveals, and that’s how I f—king need to exit.”

Since realizing it was time to finish NOFX, Fats Mike has been “far more enjoyable to be round than I’ve previously few years.” He now approaches these gigs with pleasure slightly than dread.

Whereas NOFX could also be hanging it up, Fats Mike and the group aren’t heading to the punk rock retirement neighborhood detailed in “Mattersville.” In December 2022, Fats Wreck Chords introduced the creation of the Bottles To The Floor Information imprint, a label curated and owned principally by the members of NOFX. Eric Melvin has launched his Melvinator mission, molding collectively punk, EDM, hip-hop and funk. El Hefe appeared within the Mayans M.C. collection, and Smelly launched his Pickle Stix surf and skateboard line.

Plus, there’s rather more NOFX left to go. Half Album will full the trifecta, and there’s nonetheless the matter of that remaining LP. And there are the ultimate reveals, which have been grand in serving to the 4 members safe their monetary futures. The Punk In Drublic festivals have taken place at venues permitting the band to pocket their income with out worrying about issues like merch cuts.

“That’s why [breaking up] is nice,” says Fats Mike on the finish of the dialog. He must run, as he’s as a result of give Brett Gurewitz of Unhealthy Faith – an early believer in NOFX, as he produced their debut LP and launched the band’s first seven albums on his Epitaph Information — a guided tour of the Punk Rock Museum. “As a result of frankly, throughout COVID was the primary time we ever had phrases as a result of we couldn’t play and cash was a difficulty,” he notes.

“We had some arguments,” says Fats Mike. “We by no means had arguments earlier than. ‘What are we going to do about cash now?’ And now, doing this final tour, our crowds are larger than ever and cash just isn’t a difficulty anymore. And we’re in an excellent place.”