Chuck Mosley passed away on 9 November 2017 at the age of just 57.
Chuck was the voice of Faith No More for most of the 1980s, and on their first two albums, and in many ways the personification of the the raw, untamed and brash band spirit of that era.
Embed from Getty Images
The band summed up their loss and his contribution with a poignant tribute last year:
It’s with a heavy, heavy heart we acknowledge the passing of our friend and bandmate, Chuck Mosley. He was a reckless and caterwauling force of energy who delivered with conviction and helped set us on a track of uniqueness and originality that would not have developed the way it had had he not been a part. How fortunate we are to have been able to perform with him last year in a reunion style when we re-released our very first record. His enthusiasm, his sense of humor, his style and his bravado will be missed by so many. We were a family, an odd and dysfunctional family, and we’ll be forever grateful for the time we shared with Chuck.
In writing the Faith No More biography, Small Victories: The True Story of Faith No More, I was keen to make sure Chuck’s contribution was placed in its correct context.
Here are some extra quotes not used in the final version of the book that further help in this regard.
Paul Wims [who played with Chuck and Bill Gould in The Animated]:
“Chuck Mosely was classically trained. He was an excellent keyboard and piano player. Chuck composed classical pieces when he as around ten years old. Chuck was also a very good song writer and wrote songs with intricate chord changes.”Matt Wallace:
“I believe he was really, really talented. I think without Chuck, we wouldn’t have had a Faith No More. I think he established the essential boiler plate. Chuck had a genuine attitude. He had the attitude coming from a place of a feeling of lacking: like he couldn’t really step up to the plate. He was really propelled by this sense of “I’m not good enough to do this.””Roddy Bottum:
“He was really close to me on tour, we had a sense of humour together. We found the same things funny. That’s a hard thing to lose. Laughing through it was always helpful.”Bill Gould:
“There’s an authenticity about Chuck. He wasn’t faking his dysfunction. He had this kind of cigarette grit to him that you can’t fake. And when he was on, he was on … I mean, we did a lot of shows with him, and half the shows we did, especially in places that didn’t matter, he was a great front person.”
Rock in peace. Rest in power.
(This perfect tribute video was put together by Jim and Faith No More Followers last year)
Just curious…what band ever did what FNM did? Took a keyboard player that was by all accounts a personality, not a singer…and everyone in the room new that, certainly the journalists and the singer and band themselves…and tried to make that work? And got signed to record deals TWICE while doing it? I don’t mean bands with bad singers…I mean bands with someone who didn’t even really want to sing. A guy who also come out dressed as Liberace? It seems you would need to feel like your voice unarguably good to try some of the stuff Chuck did. A punk rock guy who wanted the band to add in more acoustic material. A guy okay with singing the Nestle’s song and War Pigs and Luka. And that’s one guy in the band…this is the most unlikely and weirdest band of all time. And there was only 1 guy ever like Chuck. I agree with Matt Wallace…without Chuck this couldn’t have worked. You had to be able to laugh at As the Worm Turns but also feel that pain. That comes through in the rest of his work…Cement, VUA, solo, Primitive Race. There is always an authenticity and integrity about his part in it. That is very difficult to find now.