The wild moment Mike Patton found Elton John face down in a urinal: ‘Like a horse drinking out a trough’
There is no one quite like Mike Patton. Taking the baton from Frank Zappa in fusing comedy and expressionism and toeing the line between genius and insanity more perilously than anyone has ever done, it makes sense that the man behind the music should have lived a life that’s taken several unexpected twists. It’s a story calling out for an autobiography or even a fictionalised rendering on the big screen.
Although Patton first came to prominence as the frontman of the experimental rock outfit Mr. Bungle, it was as the tip of Faith No More’s spear that he took his art up a level. While the former group are consequential on the fringes of music, the latter remain one of the most influential in the history of rock, birthing alternative metal with Patton at the helm and opening up the gates for the likes of Deftones, Linkin Park and Slipknot. Of course, Patton also plays in Fântomas, the supergroup that the Des Moines masked band cite as an instrumental force in their career.
Since finding international acclaim and notoriety as the vocalist of Faith No More, Patton has continued to show his musical chops with a host of genius undertakings, such as scoring 2012’s hit epic drama The Place Beyond the Pines and Netflix adaptation of Stephen King’s 1922. A prolific creative who’s admitted that his personal life has suffered at the expense of following the path to artistic enlightenment, this nature has seen him push himself in many directions with triumph.
One of the most refined efforts is 2019’s Corpse Flower, the 2019 collaborative album he released with French composer Jean-Claude Vannier. It shows how far he’s come without ever relinquishing any of that absurd character that made him such a fan favourite in the days when high-tops and kaleidoscopic jumpers were all the rage.
As dedicated fans of the Eureka native know, Patton is an impish character and a master of blurring fiction and reality. He demonstrated this with his reaction to Australian hard rockers Wolfmother in 2007, which revealed much about the Faith No More man but also so little, with us wondering if he could hate the ‘Woman’ group in such a full-bodied way. Yet, given the experimental essence of his work, he probably does.
Patton’s most fascinating account regarding his colourful life is his supposed bathroom encounter with Elton John. This was a significant moment for him as the Londoner was one of his ultimate influences, thanks to the presence of his records in his parent’s record collection when he was growing up.
However, if we are to believe Patton, what transpired undid almost all of what he had thought about John since childhood. In 1997, when speaking on a Russian TV show, he was asked about the problem between him and the ‘Rocket Man’ singer, which was news to most. Patton didn’t know what John’s exact problem was but said it all originated one night in a club when he was waiting for a friend and decided to use the bathroom. What he found blew his mind.
He said: “I went into the bathroom, and I was going to take a pee, and there in the urinal – you know where you go – was this man. He was on his knees, and his face was in the urinal. It was like a horse when he drinks out of a trough, you know. And I had thought maybe he had passed out, like, what the hell? Maybe you should help this guy.”
Patton continued: “So, I got his head, pulled it up, and it was Elton John. And he turned to me, and he spit on my face. And that was that fight, that was it.”
I don’t know what’s weirder, Mike Patton allegedly finding one of his heroes in such a state or that there seemed to have been some form of physical altercation between them afterwards, in a toilet of all places. I’d wager that Patton’s friend could not believe it when they did turn up. We’ve all seen some sights in clubs, but this pips all of them.
Watch Mike Patton recount the supposed answer below.
