BILLY GOULD On JIM MARTIN's Absence From FAITH NO MORE Reunion: 'It Just Didn't Feel Right'

FAITH NO MORE bassist Billy Gould was asked in a new interview with RollingStone.com if original guitarist Jim Martin, who left the band in 1993, was asked to participate in the current reunion which started in 2009. Gould answered: ["We spoke to him and] it was a very strange conversation. He said he would do it. He said this was not an emotional thing. 'But there are some songs we wrote after you.' And he's like, 'That's not a problem.' So on the surface it was great, but it didn't really feel right."

Gould added that Martin made a comment about sending a contract to his fax machine, which signaled to the other members of FAITH NO MORE that the guitarist's motivations were different from those of the rest of the group.

"We left on a bad note," Gould said. "It had been 20 years. We have some catching up to do with ourselves; do we really want to bring this other energy into this fragile thing where we don't even really know what it means? So it's like, no. It just didn't feel right."

FAITH NO MORE keyboardist Roddy Bottum spoke to Noisey earlier in the year about Martin's absence from the band's reunion. Roddy said: "Oh, we totally reached out to him. I was of the mind that, of course, we would not do this without Jim. There's no way. I think we all felt pretty strongly about that initially — well, some of us maybe more strongly than others. Jim was a real contentious person in the band, but I loved him… I wanted him to do it, and I actually talked to him about it. I thought it was going that way, but it just didn't work out."

Bottum was also asked if Martin had interest in returning. He replied, "I think he had interest. But I think he also had really pent-up resentments about the way we broke up. I think it was difficult for him to come back into the fold, and he set it up in such a way that… I think, unconsciously, he was gonna cut off his nose to spite his face. Like he was so damaged from resentment that he dug a hole and didn't come out of it. Which is a shame. That's my take."

Martin departed after completing the touring cycle for the band's fourth album, "Angel Dust". He was followed by a short succession of guitarists, including Trey Spruance, Dean Menta and Jon Hudson, who was the band's last axeman when it broke up in 1998.

Hudson was also in the lineup for the current reunion and plays on the band's upcoming album, "Sol Invictus".

The disc, the group's first collection of new music in 18 years, is set to arrive on May 19 through the band's Reclamation Recordings.