James Blanco Martin (born July 21, 1961)[1] is an American guitarist who played with the rock band Faith No More from 1983 to late 1993.
Career
In the early 1980s, Martin played guitar in the thrash metal band Vicious Hatred.[2] He was an on-off member of the jam band Spastik Children, which also featured schoolmate and close friend Cliff Burton and other members of Metallica.
Following the release of Angel Dust, Martin left the group for reasons that remain unknown. On his now-defunct website, Martin stated[citation needed] that The Real Thing was FNM's ideal album, both in the creative process and the subsequent touring. The musical about-face that the band took with Angel Dust, including the change in focus from guitars to vocals, did not sit well with him.[3] The extent to which Martin did or did not contribute to songwriting and recording on Angel Dust is a subject that the band for years never directly addressed, except to recognize his major influence on the track "Jizzlobber".[4]
In an October 2016 PopMatters interview, Faith No More bassist, Billy Gould, addressed the controversy head-on about whether studio musicians or Martin played on Angel Dust:[3]
"No studio musicians. He played, but the writing process was extremely difficult because he wasn't really much of a fan of the music. He wasn't really behind it. He wasn't really into it. So it was a tough process. I mean, I think, really, we realized that he wasn't going to continue while we were making that record because he was just on a different musical page."
Martin said in an interview, "My publicized 'not being into' Angel Dust was all about the way the whole process went down. There was a lot of weird pressure to follow up The Real Thing, and as a consequence, the album Angel Dust was more contrived musically than I thought was necessary."[5]
FNM fired Martin by fax on November 30, 1993, after the band had not progressed as they would have liked in rehearsals and songwriting. As an indication of the gulf that had formed between Martin and the rest of the group, they had recorded and released "Another Body Murdered" (with Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E., for the Judgment Night soundtrack) without his participation. Similarly, Martin produced and recorded material for the film Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey without the participation of other members of FNM. Producer Matt Wallace later mentioned in The Real Story (a biographical book about Faith No More) that the death of Martin's father was a factor in the guitarist's departure.[6]
On February 18, 2009, Blabbermouth[7] announced that Martin would not be participating in the rumored Faith No More reunion tour. On February 23, Mike Patton confirmed that the band would be reuniting for a string of European tour dates.[8][9] Two days later, Gould identified the lineup for the tour, which excluded Martin.[10]
Other projects
Martin's only solo album to date is entitled Milk and Blood (1997), on which he covers his former band's song "Surprise! You're Dead", from The Real Thing.
Martin toured as lead guitarist with punk band Fang between 1998 and 2000.
In 1991, Martin appeared in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey as "Sir James Martin, head of the Faith No More Spiritual and Theological Center" in the future. Martin's only lines in the film were "Station!" and "What a shithead".
