One of the most stylistically adventurous rock bands to emerge from the 1990s also turned out to be among the era’s most influential. That band is Faith No More, who — across landmark albums like Angel Dust and King for a Day… Fool for a Lifetime — boldly fused an eclectic mix of genres: alternative rock, metal, rap, funk, experimental, easy listening, and even Middle Eastern influences.
Because of this wide-ranging sound, Faith No More ended up sharing stages with a remarkably diverse lineup of artists, including Soundgarden, Voivod, Robert Plant, Billy Idol, Guns N’ Roses, and Limp Bizkit.
Keyboardist Roddy Bottum recently spoke with Alternative Nation ahead of the November 4, 2025 release of his autobiography, The Royal We (via Akashic Books). In our conversation, Bottum opened up about his new book, his storied career, and what it was really like for Faith No More to tour alongside a band as massive as Guns N’ Roses during their heyday. In Part 1 of our interview he announced Faith No More’s permanent breakup.
Bottum has also created an in-depth and free Faith No More biography for Alternative Nation.
Alternative Nation: While writing the book, was anything particularly painful to look back upon?
Roddy Bottum: The actual writing of it wasn’t painful. It was really cathartic. And I just kind of, like, let it flow. Now that the book is coming out, things have gotten a little bit intense. Honestly, talking about it is pretty intense. And the most surprising sort of element of it was recording the audiobook was really intense. I didn’t see that coming. That, for some reason, is more intense in the reliving of the experiences for me. I think writing it felt kind of good. To get it out. Now maybe it’s sort of like, coupled with the notion that a lot of people are going to read these intensely personal sort of things that I’ve put out into the world, maybe that’s it. But right now, right before the book is coming out, has become a very intense time for me.
Alternative Nation: It was interesting to read about your relationships with Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain in the book.
Roddy Bottum: The last thing I want to do is make what I was writing a sort of a tell all of famous people. The aim was to deliver sort of a literary, retelling of prose and poetry in my life. And not dwell on the who’s who, or any sort of tabloid fixture, of what that might mean to people. So, I tried to keep it as sort of conversational and personal as I could. So for me, those people were in my life, just as friends. And I tried to let that be my focus, rather than dwell on the notion that they’re crazy talented, famous people. I don’t know if I pulled that off. But I meant to make it as casual and sort of not name-drop-y as I could.
Alternative Nation: Another memorable story in your book is when Faith No More toured with Guns N’ Roses in 1992. It seemed like it was two different worlds colliding.
Roddy Bottum: It was two different worlds. It was like a world that I don’t think any of us were comfortable with. But in terms of where music was in that timeframe, historically, like the sort of toxic male energy of dudes in bands at that point was sort of at a real peak. And we’d never sort of been part of that world. So yeah, it was two different worlds, for sure. We were invited to open up for the biggest show on earth. Who wouldn’t do that? Who wouldn’t say yes to an invitation of, like, opening up for Guns N’ Roses and Metallica. It felt like it was the biggest opportunity.
We had a new record coming out [Angel Dust], and it felt like a golden opportunity for us to play to that many people. It felt like, ‘Wow, that was the route to go.’ And I think at the end of the day, we didn’t win that many fans doing what we were doing. But yeah, as I laid it out in the book, it was a very different world for us. Like me being a gay man in that sort of world, it was like…it couldn’t be further from my comfortability factor than it was.
Alternative Nation: Did you get a chance to actually speak to Axl Rose during that tour?
Roddy Bottum: No. I didn’t speak to him.
Alternative Nation: What do you remember about the tour in 1997 where Limp Bizkit opened for Faith No More?
Roddy Bottum: I didn’t know about them. At that point, I was sort of dealing with a lot of problems in my own life, and I didn’t really take a role in choosing – or helping to choose – the bands that were opening up for us. Which is a shame. I think at some point, it gets easy to let people make those decisions for you. And shame on us and shame on me that we let that decision be made for us. Because who wants to see Limp Bizkit play?
