NOFX’s Fat Mike assaults fan on stage, apologizes on Twitter

“Fat Mike” Burkett, the mohawked, 47-year-old lead singer of NOFX, is no stranger to onstage controversy. In 2010, he appeared at South By Southwest as Cokie The Clown, an alter ego that caused a stir when the audience was made to believe it took shots of Fat Mike’s urine. Two months after the kerfuffle, it was revealed that it was all a hoax, securing Burkett’s spot as Jimmy Kimmel in bondage pants. But now Fat Mike is back in hot water after he punched and kicked a fan at the band’s tour kickoff show in Sydney, Australia, in a video that was definitely not a prank.
The video shows an enthusiastic fan in a bucket hat rush the stage and attempt to hug Fat Mike during “Linoleum.” Instead of embracing him, Fat Mike punches him and, once he’s on the ground, offers a boot to the face as well. The fan, who afterward identified himself as “Alex” on Twitter, is quickly removed from the stage as the band continues playing. Reports from the show state that Fat Mike had been complaining of neck pain during the show, and when the video surfaced, an outcry ensued—though not from either of the parties involved.
Both Alex and Fat Mike took to Twitter to apologize to one another, with Fat Mike confirming that he had, in fact, been suffering from neck pain during the show: