Faith No More is an American rock band from San Francisco, California, hailed as one of the most influential metal/rock bands of the late 80s and early 90s, and credited for inventing alternative metal and as an influence on nu metal. It was formed originally as Faith No Man in 1981 by bassist Billy Gould, keyboardist Wade Worthington, vocalist M Morris, and drummer Mike Bordin. A year later when Worthington was replaced by keyboardist Roddy Bottum, who along with Gould and Bordin, formed Faith No More. After going through a series of singers which included Courtney Love, the band was joined by Chuck Mosley in 1983. The same year, Jim Martin was recruited to replace guitarist Mark Bowen.
Faith No More underwent several line-up changes before releasing their first album, We Care a Lot, in 1985. Within a year the band signed up with Slash Records, and in 1987 their second album Introduce Yourself was released. Membership remained stable until vocalist Mosley was replaced by Mike Patton in 1988. In 1989, the band released their highly successful album, The Real Thing, which featured their breakthrough hit single "Epic". The band's next album, 1992's Angel Dust, was also highly successful and spawned the hit "MidLife Crisis", which became their sole #1 hit on the Modern Rock Tracks chart in their career. Angel Dust is widely considered to be one of the most influential albums of the 90's. Faith No More however declined in popularity in the subsequent years. Longtime guitarist Jim Martin left the group in 1994 and was replaced by Mr. Bungle guitarist Trey Spruance. After the release of their next album, 1995's King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime, Spruance was replaced briefly by Dean Menta, who would eventually be replaced by their current guitarist Jon Hudson. After releasing one more album, Album of the Year, in 1997, Faith No More broke up in April 1998, and all members began work on side projects.
On February 24, 2009, Faith No More announced that they would be reforming for a European tour with the same lineup at the time of their breakup. In June 2009, they performed together for the first time in eleven years at the Brixton Academy in London, United Kingdom, as part of their The Second Coming Tour. Throughout 2010, the band continued to perform at multiple live venues. In September 2010, the band announced that the reunion tour would come to an end in December and plans for a new album had been scrapped, although bassist Billy Gould has said recently that the band might continue. Faith No More returned again in November 14th 2011 at the SWU Music and Arts Festival, in the Brazilian city of PaulÃnia, as well on three other dates. Trey Spruance joined the band onstage for the very first time to perform the King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime album in its entirety in Santiago, Chile in November 2011.