Saturday, January 27: Tig’s Rock Birthdays

Happy Birthday today (Jan. 27) to singer Mike Patton of Faith No More. He's 50. Other rockers celebrating include drummer Nick Mason of Pink Floyd (74), Thin Lizzy drummer and founding member Brian Downey (67), guitarist Janick Gers of Iron Maiden (61), and singer Jamie St. James of Black 'N Blue (58).

Faith No More released two albums with singer Chuck Mosley in the 1980's,  We Care A Lot and Introduce Yourself, but it was 1989'sThe Real Thing that would become the band's breakthrough album. The Real Thing featured the lineup of new lead singer Mike Patton (replacing Chuck Mosley), Jim Martin on guitar, Bill Gould on bass, Roddy Bottum on keyboards, and Mike Borden on drums. The album went platinum with singles “From Out of Nowhere”,  “Epic” and “Falling to Pieces”. It also included a cover of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” which kicks total ass! The album received Grammy nominations for Best Metal Performance in 1989 and “Epic” was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1991. Other releases included Angel Dust (1992), King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime (1995), Album of the Year (1997), and the band's most recent album Sol Invictus in 2015. I remember in junior high I had a buddy named Joe VanBuren who was the biggest Mike Patton and Faith No More fan that I had ever met. Great memories of listening to this band with Joe and my other headbanger friends for hours on end. Cheers to Mike Patton on his birthday today!