Limp Bizkit bassist Sam Rivers was hugely instrumental in helping singer Fred Durst create the band and lead it to multiplatinum success.
Following the announcement of Rivers’ death aged 48 on 18 October, Durst paid tribute to his bandmate in an emotional eight-minute-long video posted on Instagram.
Durst reminisced about how he had discovered Rivers in the early ’90s when the bassist was playing for a local group at a club named Pier 7 in their hometown of Jacksonville, Florida.
Durst recalled: “There Sam was on stage with his band, killing it on the bass. I went, ‘Oh, my gosh. This guy is amazing!’
“I saw Sam play, and I was blown away. He was playing a five-string bass too. I'd never really seen someone using a five-string bass.
“He was so smooth and good and he stood out. I could hear nothing else but Sam, everything disappeared besides his gift.”
Durst said that the Limp Bizkit story really began once he Rivers on board.
“In my mind you had to start with the rhythm section, bass and drums,” he said.
It was Rivers who recommended drummer John Otto to Durst, and as Durst said of this combination: ”John and Sam, it was a magical thing, the two of them. I felt: ‘This is it – this is what I’ve been looking for.’
Once the band line-up was completed by guitarist Wes Borland and turntablist DJ Lethal, Limp Bizkit achieved huge success with 1997 debut album Three Dollar Bill, Y’all and the following mega-hits Significant Other and Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water.
Durst commented: “Sam had this thing about him where anything I could spit out of my mouth - ‘Try this! Do this!’ – Sam could do it and do it a thousand times better than I could hear it in my head.”
The singer also went beyond the music to express his feelings about Rivers as a person.
“Sam Rivers, the legend, truly,” Durst said. “Such a gifted, unbelievably sweet and wonderful person.
“It's so tragic that he's not here right now, and I've gone through gallons and gallons of tears since yesterday.
“I’m super, super grateful and I miss him terribly already. All the support and love I've seen out there online is overwhelming. He really did have an impact on the world.
“His music and his gift is the one that's going to keep on giving. I just love him so much.”
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