Fat Mike of NOFX has launched a new podcast.
Fat Mike might be best known for being the singer-songwriter in seminal punk band NOFX, but he’s more interested in being known for his new podcast: Fat Mikes Fat Mic. Every Tuesday, a new episode will be available featuring insightful conversations with musicians, athletes, actors, and more. The first episode kicked off with Eric Melvin of NOFX. Melvin discusses everything from being a life coach (yes, you can book a session with him) to his weird toe. Then we explore Cobra Kai with Gary Ousdahl, who is a good sport in being a guest when Fatty is stood up. The third episode features Talli Osbourne, who is best known to NOFX fans as “She’s Nubs.” Folks get an inside look into Talli’s childhood, her TEDx Talk, and so much more. People think they know Fat Mike...until they meet him. The outlandish reputation of the NOFX frontman and Fat Wreck Chords president has preceded him for a long time now. It's one that's often been mired in welcomed controversy. He likes breaking society's mores. He's been candid about his triumphs and struggles with alcohol and substances over the years. He's a lifelong cross-dresser and identifies as a boy/girl. He considers himself Jew...ish. He has a lavish dungeon in his house and spends most of his nights there. He's been known to say inappropriate things on stage. People know all this stuff about him because he's never been shy in admitting his lack of shame or pride. Fat Mike is just not like other people. From his New York Times Best Selling memoir, NOFX: The Hepatitis Bathtub, to his AVN-winning ragtime soundtrack, to his off-Broadway Musical Home Street Home, to being on Leonard Nimoy's, In Search Of when he was 10. He hasn't lived a normal life. If you think you know Fat Mike, you probably don't. There's a lot more to him that's hidden beneath the surface. Much of that – of who he is – is revealed in Fat Mike's Fat Mic, his new podcast. "You end up finding out a lot about me," he says. "And it is me, not the guy from NOFX. When I'm onstage, I'm an entertainer and I feel it's part of my job to piss people off. On my podcast, if someone doesn't like what they hear, they don't have to listen. I also think people are going to see me differently after this show. I think I might be more understood… or maybe less." Fat Mike's Fat Mic is a podcast with little boundaries. The idea for it all came after Burkett made numerous podcast appearances while promoting 2021's Single Album, NOFX's 14th full-length record. He'd never actually listened to a podcast before, but when he appeared on H20 frontman Toby Morse's One Life One Chance podcast, something clicked. "He said it was the best podcast he's ever done," says Burkett. "But he started the show by asking me a lot of questions about NOFX and how long we've been around, and I was like, 'I'm not going to answer these questions. I'm going to answer the questions I wish you had asked me. And that's when it turned into a really good podcast. I don't think people are interested in hearing details about my life as much as they're interested in hearing things that let them see themselves differently. Asking questions that catch people off-guard is the way to have a good podcast." Co-hosted by Get Dead vocalist Sam King, and Produced by Chris Graue and Gary Ousdahl, Fat Mike's Fat Mic – which has partnered with premium live stream concert promoter and platform NoCap - is the perfect example of how Fat Mike thinks outside the box. Very deliberately not a music podcast, it has an incredibly eclectic selection of guests, from professional golfer Spencer Levin to Suicidal Tendencies gangster and artist Ric Clayton, from actor Daniel Franzese from Mean Girls to skateboard legend Danny Way, from Sean Whalen – the actor who played Roach in The People Under The Stairs – to Crushow who is one of the block leader's on downtowns infamous neighborhood Skid Row. They all have incredibly intimate, honest, and no-holds-barred conversations with Fatty, but they're also laced with the host's offbeat, edgy, and awkward sense of humor. "All the podcasts are different," says Burkett. "The only linear thing through all these podcasts is that we try to be funny and self-deprecating. When Danny Way came in, I did a little research and I heard that he was abused by his stepfather. Sam, my co-host, was also abused, so in that episode I'm like, 'My next segment is called 'Dads, Am I Right?' and I ask them about their abusive relationships, and where specifically they got hit. For some reason I get away with asking questions like that. Half the time the jokes are on me, anyway. I'm hoping people see this podcast as being refreshing and not standard. One thing for sure is that it's bringing me more happiness than any other kind of work in my life right now."