Fred Durst

In 1994, Durst, Malachi Sage bassist Sam Rivers, and Rivers' cousin John Otto jammed together and wrote three songs. Guitarist Wes Borland later joined. Durst named the band Limp Bizkit because he wanted a name that would repel listeners.[6] Limp Bizkit developed a cult following in the underground music scene when its covers of George Michael's "Faith" and Paula Abdul's "Straight Up" began to attract curious concertgoers.[6]

Later, when Korn performed in town as the opening act for Sick of It All, Durst invited Korn to his house. He was able to persuade bassist Reginald Arvizu to listen to demos of the songs "Pollution", "Counterfeit", and "Stalemate". Korn added a then-unsigned Limp Bizkit to two tours, which gave the band a new audience.[6][7] DJ Lethal, formerly of the hip hop group House of Pain, joined the band as a turntablist; Durst's disagreements with Borland led the guitarist to quit and rejoin the band.[6]

In 1997, Limp Bizkit signed with Flip Records, a subsidiary of Interscope Records, and released their debut album, Three Dollar Bill, Y'all to minimal response. Durst was appointed Senior Vice President of A&R at Interscope.[8] On October 23, 1997, Durst met the band Staind, but friction quickly emerged between the two over the cover art of Staind's album. Durst unsuccessfully attempted to remove Staind from a concert bill shortly before their performance, but after hearing the band play,[8] he was so impressed that he signed them to Flip/Elektra, recorded a demo with the band, and co-produced their next album, Dysfunction.[8]

After Limp Bizkit finished a tour with the band Deftones, Durst and DJ Lethal were asked by Max Cavalera, formerly of the band Sepultura, to appear on "Bleed", a song from the self-titled debut of his new band Soulfly. Cavalera stated that producer Ross Robinson recommended that he work with Durst.[9] Durst also made an appearance on Korn's album Follow the Leader. Jonathan Davis had intended to write a battle rap with B-Real of Cypress Hill, but the latter's label wouldn't let him do it, and Durst was tapped instead.[9] Davis and Durst wrote the lyrics for "All in the Family", which featured the two vocalists trading insults. Davis and Durst would often offer suggestions for each other's lyrics; a lyric written by Durst as "tootin' on your bagpipe" was changed to "fagpipes" by Davis, who stated "I helped him bag on me better".[9]

Durst began to take an interest in filmmaking, directing the music video for Limp Bizkit's single "Faith" in promotion for its appearance in the film Very Bad Things; he was unsatisfied with it and made a second video which paid tribute to tour mates Primus, Deftones and Mötley Crüe, who appeared in the video.[9]

Durst with Limp Bizkit at Sonisphere 2011

Limp Bizkit achieved mainstream success with the albums Significant Other (1999) and Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water (2000). In the summer of 1999, Limp Bizkit played at the highly anticipated Woodstock '99 festival in front of approximately 200,000 people. Violence occurred during and after their performance, including fans tearing plywood from the walls during the song "Break Stuff". Several sexual assaults were reported in the aftermath of the concert.[7][8][10] Durst stated during the concert, "People are getting hurt. Don't let anybody get hurt. But I don't think you should mellow out. That's what Alanis Morissette had you motherfuckers do. If someone falls, pick 'em up. We already let the negative energy out. Now we wanna let out the positive energy".[8] Durst later stated in an interview, "I didn't see anybody getting hurt. You don't see that. When you're looking out on a sea of people and the stage is twenty feet in the air and you're performing, and you're feeling your music, how do they expect us to see something bad going on?"[8] Les Claypool told the San Francisco Examiner, "Woodstock was just Durst being Durst. His attitude is 'no press is bad press', so he brings it on himself. He wallows in it. Still, he's a great guy."[8]

In June 2000, Limp Bizkit performed at the WXRK Dysfunctional Family Picnic, but showed up an hour late for their set.[11] An Interscope spokesman stated that there was confusion over the band's set time.[11] During the band's performance, Durst criticized Creed singer Scott Stapp, calling him "an egomaniac".[11] Creed's representatives later presented Durst with an autographed anger management manual during an appearance on Total Request Live.[11] In the summer, Limp Bizkit's tour was sponsored by the controversial file sharing service Napster. Durst was an outspoken advocate of file sharing.[7]

During the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, Durst performed Limp Bizkit's song "Livin' It Up", as a duet with Christina Aguilera. In response to the performance, Filter frontman Richard Patrick claimed that "Fred getting onstage with Christina Aguilera embarrassed us all."[12] In response to the negative reactions to the performance, Durst remarked, "I already told you guys before, I did it all for the nookie, man."[12] Aguilera, in response to Durst's remark, commented, "He got no nookie."[13]

During a 2001 tour of Australia at the Big Day Out festival in Sydney, fans rushed the stage in the mosh pit, and teenager Jessica Michalik died of asphyxiation. In Auckland, New Zealand, on the same tour, Durst threw water over the head of a security personnel tasked with diffusing a similar situation.[14] During the Big Day Out crush, Durst has been accused of taunting security guards intervening in the situation.[15] In court, Durst, represented by his long-time attorney, Ed McPherson, testified he had warned the concert's organizers Aaron Jackson, Will Pearce and Amar Tailor and promoter Vivian Lees of the potential dangers of such minimal security.[16] After viewing video and hearing witness testimony, the coroner said it was evident that the density of the crowd was dangerous at the time Limp Bizkit took the stage and Durst should have acted more responsibly when the problem became apparent.[17] Durst stated that he was "emotionally scarred" because of the teenager's death.[18]

In 2002, Durst was tapped to write songs for Britney Spears, and later said that he was in a relationship with her. Spears denied Durst's claims.[19] In a 2009 interview, he explained that "I just guess at the time it was taboo for a guy like me to be associated with a gal like her."[19] In February 2005, a sex tape featuring Durst was released on the Internet. Durst filed a $70 million lawsuit against ten websites that posted the video.[20][21]

In July 2003, Limp Bizkit participated on the Summer Sanitarium Tour, headlined by Metallica.[22] In the days preceding the tour's stop in Chicago, local radio personality Mancow Muller mocked Durst and suggested that listeners who were attending the concert should heckle the singer and throw debris.[23] With the crowd chanting "fuck Fred Durst" and pelting the stage with garbage, Durst erupted in a profane, homophobic tirade after six songs, threw the microphone down and walked off stage.[24] Durst was eventually sued for breach of contract (for not completing the show) by Chicago lawyer Michael Young in a class-action suit.[25]

In May 2005, The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1) was released. Sammy Siegler took over drumming duties for the band for much of the album. At Durst's insistence, the album was released as an underground album, without any advertising or promotion.[26][27] The album sold over 2,000,000 copies worldwide, peaking at number 24 on the Billboard 200.[28][29] Durst later announced that despite the album's title, no sequel to The Unquestionable Truth would be produced.[30] Later in the year, the band released a Greatest Hitz album.[31]

Having been bullied while growing up, Durst disliked seeing people "using my music as fuel to torture other people"; feeling that his music was being misinterpreted, he would later cite this as the reason for the band taking a hiatus.[32]

Durst at the premiere of Baby Mama at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival

While Limp Bizkit was on hiatus, Durst began working in independent films. In 2006, Durst costarred in the film Population 436. His directorial debut, The Education of Charlie Banks, was released the following year. The film, which starred Jesse Eisenberg, Chris Marquette and Jason Ritter, received mixed reviews; Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, assigned the film a score of 46%. The website's consensus stated, "Unevenness and earnestness mire this otherwise sweet, surprising coming of age drama."[33] A second directorial effort, The Longshots, starring Ice Cube and Keke Palmer, was released in 2008. Rotten Tomatoes assigned the film a score of 39%, with the consensus indicating that the film was "a largely formulaic affair, rarely deviating from the inspirational sports movie playbook."[34] The same year, Durst appeared as a bartender in two episodes of the television medical drama House, M.D.[35]

Fred Durst performing with Limp Bizkit at Quebec Agora Fest 2019.

Fred Durst performing at The Roxy on December 3, 2019

In 2009, the original lineup of Limp Bizkit reunited and began touring. Durst announced that they had begun to record a new album, Gold Cobra.[36] The album was released on June 28, 2011, receiving mixed reviews.[37] It peaked at number 16 on the Billboard 200.[29]

In 2012, Durst appeared on the Insane Clown Posse cover album Smothered, Covered & Chunked on a cover of AMG's "Bitch Betta Have My Money".[38] In February 2012, Lil Wayne announced in a radio interview that Limp Bizkit had signed to his label, Cash Money Records, which Durst confirmed on his Twitter page.[39] A few months later Durst was featured alongside Lil Wayne and Birdman on the Kevin Rudolf song "Champions", which peaked in the top 10 on iTunes.

Originally, Durst was to direct and produce the film Pawn Shop Chronicles, starring Paul Walker;[40] but Wayne Kramer was later chosen to direct the film.[41][42] In 2014, Durst shot three commercials for the website Eharmony,[43] In February 2018, Durst began filming The Fanatic, starring John Travolta.[44]

Durst was accused of insulting fans of the band Slipknot in 1999 by referring to them as "fat, ugly kids". Slipknot singer Corey Taylor responded during a concert in New York by claiming that the fans of Slipknot "for the most part, enjoy all kinds of music, like Limp Bizkit, maybe." Taylor went on to claim that insulting the fans of Slipknot could also be insulting the fans of Limp Bizkit themselves.[56] In a later interview, Corey mentions Durst is a good business man, but he is not an artist.[57] Corey also mentioned that it is not because of him as a person but it was because of what he was doing, which he claimed was because he was "processing music that other kids feel."

A feud between Limp Bizkit and Placebo began at a show Durst was compering at Irving Plaza in December 1998.[58] A sidestage spat with Placebo singer Brian Molko led to Durst asking the crowd to chant "Placebo sucks!" prior to Placebo's performance.[58] Molko later commented that nobody had told him that Durst would be compering the show and that Placebo would have to follow opening act Kid Rock.[59] The feud was reignited during Big Day Out 2001, on which Placebo were billed below Limp Bizkit.[58] By 2004, the feud had ended.[60]

Durst also fell out with rapper and former friend Eminem regarding Eminem's feud with Everlast. This resulted in Eminem creating a diss track against Durst called "Girls" released on his D12 group's 2001 album Devil's Night.[61]

On October 6, 2018, Shaggy 2 Dope from the band Insane Clown Posse attempted to dropkick Durst during their performance of the song "Faith". DJ Lethal from Limp Bizkit responded on Instagram Live calling Shaggy a "clout chaser".[62]