Faith No More’s NHL Roadie: Dan Boyle on Touring With His Rock Heroes
New York Rangers defenseman Dan Boyle has amassed a pretty impressive resume over the course of his 17 seasons in the National Hockey League.
A savvy defender and power play specialist, Boyle won a Stanley Cup with the 2003-04 Tampa Bay Lightning and a gold medal with Team Canada in the 2010 Winter Olympics. He’s finished in the top six in Norris Trophy voting three times, and was twice named a Second Team All-Star. He holds the San Jose Sharks’ franchise records for most points, goals and assists by a defenseman, and currently ranks ninth on the all-time list of NHL games played by undrafted free agents, despite losing an entire season to the 2004-05 lockout, and over half of the 2007-08 campaign to a freak accident in which a skate fell out of his locker and severed three tendons in his left wrist.
But as what may be his final NHL season draws to a close, Boyle says he’s also proud of one particular off-the-ice resume item: Serving as a roadie for Faith No More.
It happened last summer, during the East Coast swing of the tour for Sol Invictus, the legendary alt-metal act’s first new album in 18 years. Boyle, an ardent Faith No More fan, hopped on the band’s bus in Philadelphia, and stayed on it for five nights and four shows, culminating in an August 5 performance at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City. While it’s not unusual to see pro athletes hanging out backstage at big concerts, Boyle was actually onstage throughout the set, dressed in the same white outfit as the rest of the FNM road crew, performing such duties as dousing drummer Mike “Puffy” Bordin with water while he played, or assisting Mike Patton with his microphone cable whenever the singer dove into the pit.
“It was an amazing experience,” Boyle says. “I didn’t do too much the first night; I was pretty much just watching. But by the fourth show, I was helping out every which way I could – dispensing VIP tickets, decorating the stage, bringing guitars and basses out.
“One night, something was wrong with Puffy’s drum kit, and they needed some help with that,” he continues. “I’d never even touched a drum kit before, but somehow I helped correct the situation – don’t ask me how!”
“Dan really wanted to help,” Bordin laughs. “We’ve never been the kind of band that has friends coming on the road to hang out with us; everyone who has a tour laminate works pretty fucking hard, and it can be a real drag having someone extra in your way. It’s like, ‘Who’s that guy? What’s he doing here?’ But Dan was there working – that’s just the kind of guy he is.”
Boyle’s love for Faith No More goes back to 1990, when he was a ninth grader at École secondaire publique De La Salle in Ottawa, and “Epic” – from the band’s breakthrough album The Real Thing – was steadily climbing the Canadian charts. “I went to an artsy high school where everybody was kind of different,” Boyle remembers, “and obviously, Faith No More was really different. I got into The Real Thing, and then I went backwards and got into the pre-Mike Patton stuff and of course I got into Mr. Bungle and went from there. I was hooked, and I’ve been a huge, huge fan ever since.”