Interview Outtakes: NOFX's Fat Mike Talks Cokie the Clown, Playing at Pop's and His Lyrical Evolution

courtesy of Fat Wreck Chords

NOFX returns to the St. Louis area for the first time since 1998.

In this week's paper, Michael Dauphin scored a rare interview with NOFX figurehead Fat Mike. The band will be performing at Pop's on Saturday, May 1, its first local club appearance since the late '90s. Tickets are $20, and are still available. Dauphin touched on many aspects of NOFX's recent history, including Fat Mike's lyrical content and a controversial incident at SXSW where he fed the audience tequila shots mixed with his own urine, during a solo set performing as alter-ego "Cokie the Clown." Read on below for outtakes.

Michael Dauphin: NOFX will be playing Pop's this weekend. I know you guys have come through as part of the Van's Warped Tour, but I don't remember you playing a club gig in St. Louis since April of 1998, when you played the now-defunct Mississippi Nights.
Fat Mike: Yeah, I think that's probably correct. It's been a long time. We've been busy going to places like Southeast Asia, South America and South Africa.

Are you familiar with the Sauget/East St. Louis area?
No, not really. I've hung out in St. Louis a bunch because I have a lot of old friends and family there. But I don't really know where that area is.

Knowing NOFX's love for debauchery, Pop's may be right in your wheelhouse. It shares a parking lot with a gas station that apparently has off-track betting and two separate strip clubs.
Well, you know, I'd rather go to a strip club than a regular bar, but it's still not really my scene. My tastes are generally a little dirtier than strip clubs. Strip clubs are a little light for me.

Your Cokie the Clown antics during your SXSW show at Emo's in Austin created some pretty heavy waves. You've since been banned from the club and TMZ apparently ran more than one feature about the story. Has there been much of a legal backlash?
I didn't really have any idea that it would get so huge. All I did was a show--I was performing. And people just couldn't handle it. I didn't [talk to any attorneys]. I just did it.

Can fans expect any Cokie appearances on this upcoming tour?
I don't know what I'm going to do. I have no plans for the future with that; I just haven't thought about it yet. It's just something I felt like doing.

Have any of your friends or fans accepted free drinks from you since then?
[laughing] Nope.