Really, Eric Melvin said it, and I was just trying to save him. When did you first realize people were angry about the Vegas incident?įat Mike: Wednesday. In true Fat Mike fashion, though, he is still brazenly outspoken about it the reaction to it. His publicist has kept interview requests at bay for the last year, but in his first interview about the incident, he seems remorseful to the Vegas residents he hurt. I met up with Mike at the spacious compound in Van Nuys where he is currently renovating the grounds and their hollowed-out house, drained pool, and unkempt tennis court.
There are also traces of lingering resentment over the Vegas incident peeking through: “So fuck you all, who like to watch me fall / For those who need to step on someone to feel tall.” The record is filled with maudlin songs about death, depression, and betrayal. This month, though, he’s returned with You’re Welcome, a solo record by his sporadically revived sad circus alter-ego Cokie the Clown. Mike has been uncharacteristically quiet since then. It seemed like the uncancelable had been canceled. It appeared as though the days of NOFX’s consequence-free shock humor might have finally expired in the age of smartphones and social media. But the reaction to the Vegas incident felt heavier than any pushback they’d ever received. In 2014, the website posted footage of him kicking a fan in the face. In 2010, TMZ reported that he was banned from an Austin venue for telling an audience he tricked them into drinking his urine. Mike had found himself in situations like this before.
The following week, the band issued an apology via Facebook, saying they “crossed the line of civility.” Mike later griped via Instagram that the band was “not welcome to play ANY big venue in the United States,” further galvanizing his loyal fanbase.
The band’s beer sponsor, Stone Brewing Co., announced that it would be “severing all our ties with NOFX, including festival sponsorship and the production of our collaboration beer.” Additionally, NOFX was reportedly kicked off their own music festival, the Ohio-based Camp Punk in Drublic, by its organizers, who issued a statement saying “the festival producers of Camp Punk in Drublic are shocked and disappointed by the band’s recent statements.” The band was scheduled to perform that weekend but was replaced last-minute by Descendents. Fox News quickly picked up the story, grinding the event into outrage gruel for their conservative viewers who demanded repercussions for the injustice. The band soon found itself trending on social media and facing real-life consequences. Video footage of NOFX’s Vegas show wound up on TMZ three days after their performance. The outrage pendulum swung back and forth like this until it eventually struck, of all people, four idiots in a punk band. In turn, right-wingers were clapping back at comedian Samantha Bee for calling Ivanka Trump a “feckless cunt,” for which she ultimately issued an apology.
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That same week, Roseanne Barr was facing public blowback for a tweet in which she likened Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett to an ape, resulting in ABC canceling her TV show. On any other day, this likely would’ve passed as another example of NOFX being punk’s boorish jesters, but the news cycle was in a particularly weird place that week in 2018. A documentary was once made about them touring the world, doing the things they’re best known for: namely, snorting copious amounts of drugs and visiting S&M clubs. The cover of one of their most famous albums, 1996’s Heavy Petting Zoo, features a man sexually pleasuring a sheep. For those who haven’t been following NOFX over their 36-year existence, they’ve made a career out of crude jokes.
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