Beginning with Motley Crue’s critically acclaimed candid autobiography The Dirt, the standard had been set for a tell-all exposè of a band’s drug use, brushes with death and ultimate lessons of survival and resilience, of a career beginning from nameless DIY venues to global festival stages. Reflecting on the decision to write a book, Mike quickly established the expectation of how the project was to be handled. “I read a lot of rock autobiographies and I thought that our stories were way better than anything else I’d read. I told the guys, ‘If we’re going to do this we have to give it all up. If we’re putting out a book we need to be honest and have the brutal truth.’ It was weird seeing them give up all the stories so easily. For years our drummer Smelly would never talk about the time he fucked Courtney Love, but in the book he just put it out there. When Erik Melvin talked about being sexually abused as a child we’d never heard him talk about that before either.”
Naturally, there was apprehension before releasing such candid details of each member’s personal lives, particularly those that have been private until now. However, this unease was easily overcome by the writing process.
“We were all interviewed separately and it’s a lot easier to talk about personal things like that. It was a relief, especially with things like my cross-dressing that I’d never talked about publicly before. All my life I’d been ashamed of that, but once it was out there I realised I could do whatever the fuck I wanted. It felt so freeing and awesome,” says Mike. “Since then I’ve played shows and even gone shopping with my wife in a dress and I don’t care anymore. It’s fun to dress like that, it’s what makes me feel good. People stare and I love that. I come from the LA hardcore scene where if you even had long hair you’d get beat up for being a hippie. It’s like being a teenager with a mohawk again. I like to say, ‘Get rid of all shame and all pride’.” Mike proudly says.
Many of the book’s darkest moments stem from situations that had been unshared or hidden from other members of the band until now, ultimately bringing the band closer. “I didn’t know that Eric Melvin got molested when he was a kid and I didn’t know that he never talked about it to his parents. I didn’t know that Smelly’s best friend raped Eric Melvin’s girlfriend either and that he never knew about it,” Mike explains. “I remember when he was reading the book for the first time I had to stop him before he got to that chapter and tell him the whole story. I think there were tons of things that no one knew until now. It really made the band closer because of how honest we had to finally be with each other.”
With NOFX in their 33rd year as a band, and their 13th studio album in the works, Mike attributes their longevity to not only their resilience, but also their approach to putting the experience and adventure of the band before any consideration of money or commercial success. “One reason I think we’ve done so well for so long is because we’re not trying to be something or get somewhere, we’re just trying to be whatever we want to be. We went nowhere for eight years as a band, many other bands would’ve broken up in that time. Bands don’t do that anymore. What we’ve learned all these years is that it’s not about getting big or making money, it’s about having fun. It’s not about who has the most money or has the biggest cock, it’s about whoever has the most fun.”
BY JOE HANSEN
