Fat Mike

Fat Mike
Fat Mike in 2010
Background information
Birth name	Michael John Burkett
Also known as	Fat Mike, Cokie the Clown
Born	(1967-01-31) January 31, 1967 (age 49)
Origin	Los Angeles, California
Genres	Punk rock, skate punk,ska punk,melodic hardcore,hardcore punk
Instruments	Lead vocals, Bass guitar, keyboard, guitar
Years active	1983–present
Labels	Epitaph, Fat Wreck Chords, Mystic
Associated acts	NOFX, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, False Alarm, Against Me!
Website	nofxofficialwebsite.com

Michael John Burkett (born January 31, 1967), also known as Fat Mike, is an American musician and producer. He is the bassist and lead vocalist for the punk rock band NOFX and the bassist for the punk rock supergroup cover band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Also, he was a temporary bassist for the band Against Me!. Fat Mike was born in Newton, Massachusetts.

While attending Beverly Hills High School, Mike began his musical career with the band False Alarm. After the band split up in 1983, he met Eric Melvin and Erik Sandin and formed the original line-up of NOFX. He has also appeared as a guest-vocalist on a number of other bands' tracks including "Peter Brady" on Screeching Weasel's 1993 album, "Anthem for a New Tomorrow." Other appearances include "Beware" by Randy, "Mr. Coffee" and "Lazy" by Lagwagon, and can be heard heckling and requesting "Free Bird" at the end of the Lunachicks song, "Missed It," off their 1996 album, "Pretty Ugly," which he also produced. He also appears as a guest vocalist on the Dropkick Murphys single "Going Out In Style". Mike is the owner and founder of Fat Wreck Chords, one of the biggest independent labels in North America.

Mike recorded the "Cokie the Clown" EP with NOFX, playing Cokie on both the cover of the EP and the music video for the title-track, "Cokie the Clown". In the video, Mike dresses as Cokie and puts white powder into his squirting flower, which in the song he describes as "my own special blend of ex, coke, and K". Cokie then walks around Chicago squirting powder in pedestrians' faces, as chronicled in the song itself. The video was shot during the punk music festival Riot Fest.