RODDY BOTTUM Calls FAITH NO MORE’s 1992 GUNS N’ ROSES Tour “Offensive” & A Turning Point In His Life

During a recent appearance on the 60 Minutes Or Less podcast, Faith No More co-founder, keyboardist, and cultural trailblazer Roddy Bottum reflected on one of the most infamous tours in modern rock history: Faith No More‘s 1992 run opening for Guns N’ Roses during the Use Your Illusion era alongside Metallica.

Bottum has been making the rounds in support of his newly released memoir, The Royal We, and the conversation touched on what it was like to exist inside what is often remembered as a peak moment of excess, aggression, and unchecked rock-star behavior.

Rather than romanticizing the experience, Bottum was candid about how alienating it felt — especially given his identity and worldview at the time: “I think it was a challenge, but, honestly, only for me. I think it was very much the rock and roll norm at that point. Misogyny, male aggression, toxic masculinity was all just part of the equation in that time, and everyone was on board for it. I don’t know anyone that wasn’t, honestly.”

He described a sharp divide within Faith No More itself. While guitarist Jim Martin fit comfortably into the traditional metal ecosystem — flying V guitar, long hair, tight bond with Metallica — the rest of the band felt completely out of step with the environment surrounding them.

“The rest of us were all sort of leftist-leaning, progressive, weird artists, liberal minded,” Bottum said. “Billy [Gould], Mike [Bordin], Mike [Patton] — we were all kind of blown away by the audacity of that environment. We couldn’t believe what we were seeing, but we were very much alone in that mindset.”

According to Bottum, most of the tour’s ecosystem — from Guns N’ Roses and Metallica‘s camps to sections of Faith No More‘s own crew — was fully immersed in the era’s hedonism.

“Everyone on that tour… they were down with the hedonism. They were okay with it. It was just an era in which people got on board,” he said. “Me being the gay man who sort of — I grew up with three sisters, basically — that was just offensive and wild and ‘what the fuck?’ to me, more than anyone else, for sure.”

That discomfort ultimately became a turning point. Bottum explained that witnessing — and being associated with — that culture pushed him toward publicly coming out, something he had not previously done in the press.

“It reaches a point in my life where recognizing that and seeing the potential association of us as a band and me in that band being regarded as that was like, ‘No, no, no, no, no,'” he said. “So after that point… it kind of stirred me on to making that declaration in the press and talking about being gay. And that’s sort of when my story turns in the book.”

Bottum also reflected on his complicated relationship with Guns N’ Roses‘ music itself. He admitted that he was a genuine fan when Appetite For Destruction first dropped — but even then, there were warning signs he struggled to reconcile.

“When that first record came out, I bought it. As pop songs, they were so good. It was dynamic and it worked so well,” he said. “But there was this insert… a cartoon of an underage girl in a schoolgirl outfit, her underwear down to her ankles. The vibe is she’s been raped. I’m just gonna say that.”

Looking back, Bottum acknowledged how normalized imagery like that was at the time — even among progressive listeners — and how unsettling that realization is now.

“Especially today, if we were to look at that and see it as an addendum in someone’s artwork, you’d just be like, ‘What the fuck? No,'” he said. “But for whatever reason, we as a people embraced Guns N’ Roses. Even progressive and liberal people embraced them.”

It took years, Bottum noted, for the discomfort to fully crystallize into clarity: “It took a long time for the distaste of what they were to settle in. It took a long time for me to be like, ‘Oh, wait—hold on.'”