A brief history of Face the Pain

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If you have watched the UFC since it was acquired by ZUFFA in 2001, you know this song.

Tim Bissell did an awesome article for BE that traces the history of the song. Do yourself a favor and skip the excerpts below and read the entire article HERE.

In 1998 Joe Cafarella was living in Lewiston, way upstate in New York, driving a truck, and formed a band called STEMM with two buddies. In 2001 Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta acquired the UFC and started to mold what is now its multi-billion dollar look and feel.

Through a chance acquaintance, Cafarella connected with the UFC bosses, who told Cafarella they were looking for independent music to start changing the shape and sound of the UFC. By late 2002 the UFC was using perhaps a dozen STEMM songs. Then the UFC decided to reach for mainstream levels of interest with UFC 40, headlined Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock. It needed a song.

“‘I would just like to have something that is about the mindset of a fighter, something that lyrically explains what they go through when they step into the ring,'” Cafarella recalls White telling him. Then he wrote Face the Pain, on a notepad, in his truck, based on the imagined life of a fighter and the very real life of a musician.

Face the pain, no escape can you step to this
Face the pain, Face the pain, It’s ripping me into pieces

UFC 40 was a hit, and so was Face the Pain. Cafarella was an honored guest at UFC 41 in 2003, and UFC 49 in 2003.

The band bowed out cordially in 2012, unready to adapt to the new digital music industry. Today Cardella drives a truck, has three children, and still writes and sells songs. He didn’t make life-changing money from the UFC association.

We didn’t really sign the greatest deal for ‘Face The Pain’, laughed Cafarella, heartily. But they came back at us with other music and helped us out, to make up for that, which goes to show how classy they are.

I think we were all learning at the time, how it worked, to be honest with you. I could be naive saying that but, you know, it really doesn’t matter. At the time, all we cared about was exposure and getting our name out there, and they were a massive vehicle to do that.

I actually read an article with Dana after they signed with FOX and he said ‘Face The Pain’ stays. ‘You don’t like it turn down your TV’ … I just couldn’t believe it.

Dana is a class act all the way around. He could have easily just dropped this little band STEMM but he stuck by us the entire time, and I don’t know what to say, it’s really mind-blowing to me, to think that they would do something like that, it’s been quite the ride.

Buy Face the Pain on iTunes…
Like STEMM on Facebook…

Photo Credit: Jenifer Crowl