Melvins frontman Buzz Osborne has revealed one of his favourite methods of trolling and upsetting his friend and Fantômas bandmate Mike Patton: he simply 'credits' Patton for inspiring the birth of nu metal via his ground-breaking work with Faith No More.
Faith No More - and specifically their breakthrough album The Real Thing (1989), Patton's debut with the San Francisco band, plus it's bold and brilliant follow-up Angel Dust (1992) - have long been cited as a major influence by members of Slipknot, Deftones, System of a Down, Korn and Limp Bizkit. But Patton has never been shy about expressing his disdain for nu metal, refusing to accept any responsibility whatsoever for the music made by artists who cite him as an inspiration.
"Faith No More spawned an awful lot of shitty bands," the singer joked to Kerrang! in 1999. "Most of those bands I don't like at all, and I'd hate to take credit for what they're doing. I think you have to have a very vivid imagination to link them and Faith No More."
"Do you think I listen to any of that stuff at all?" he once asked Metal Hammer. "No, it's for 13-year-old morons!"
Nevertheless, the association is never going to go away, which is why Buzz Osborne, a musician forever identified as a pivotal influence upon Seattle's grunge scene, delights in using the link to wind up Patton.
Speaking with Patton's Tomahawk bandmate Duane Denison (also the guitarist with The Jesus Lizard) in an interview hosted by Consequence, Osborne said, "I used to have a joke with Patton, ’cause he’s called influential as well. And I would go, I’ll take Nirvana and Soundgarden and you can have Limp Bizkit and Korn. He’s like, ‘Fuck you.’ [laughter] That was always funny. But I mean the whole nü-metal thing to me it all sounded like Helmet ultimately."
"I think that the word influence is misused," Denison says. "I think maybe we inspire them to play, but I don’t think we influence their music. I think that, you know, people, they tend to name-drop when they use the word influence. And they, ‘Oh I’m influenced by Stockhausen and Miles Davis.’ And then you go to their house and it’s all Mott The Hoople and Bob Seger."
Tomahawk and Melvins are touring North America this summer on their amusingly-titled A Huge Waste of Your Time and Money tour, which kicks off in Nashville on July 18.
"In the spirit of the Olympics, Team Tomahawk has decided to rise up and go for the gold once again," Denison said when the tour was announced.
