On May 24 1988, Faith No More played their last live show with Chuck Mosley as frontman, at London’s Town & Country Club. A punch-up in a hotel lobby several days prior brought long-brewing tensions to a head, and while relationships were mended (barely) enough to see out the end of the band’s European tour, it became apparent that the four-year partnership between Chuck and the rest of the band wouldn’t last.
Singer-less but not rudderless, the remaining members of the band – drummer Mike Bordin, guitarist Jim Martin, bassist Billy Gould and keyboardist Roddy Bottum – began work on their third record, a release that would change the musical landscape. Returning home to San Francisco, a furious summer of writing and demoing followed, yielding much of the material that would make up their third album, The Real Thing. The entire record had essentially been written before a replacement singer had even been considered, and while a steady number of people applied for the position, there were few the band contacted to try out. In one of music history’s great ‘what if’ scenarios, one of those people was Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell.
