Fat Mike | |
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Fat Mike in 2010
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Background information | |
Birth name | Michael John Burkett |
Also known as | Fat Mike, Cokie the Clown |
Born | January 31, 1967 |
Origin | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
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Years active | 1983–present |
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Associated acts | |
Website | nofxofficialwebsite |
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.