This morning (October 19th), Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst posted a video to his socials paying tribute to his fallen bandmate, bassist Sam Rivers, who passed away yesterday, October 18th at just 48 years old.
In it, Durst speaks off the cuff and from the heart about his friend and brother-in-arms, saying the following:
"Sam Rivers, the legend, truly. Such a gifted, unbelievably sweet, and wonderful person. You know, how I met Sam was I had put a couple iterations of an idea of a band I was trying to make happen in Jacksonville, Florida. I had this idea and vision for this particular type of style and sound, and I just couldn't get it together right. So I decided 'I'm gonna go out and get the right kinds of players to do this and bring this thing together.'
And I had gone into this little, tiny bar or pub where this little band was playing in Jax Beach called Pier 7 and there Sam was, on the stage with his band, killing it on his bass, and I was like 'oh my gosh, this band is amazing!' In my mind, it was that you had to start with the rhythm section, the bass and the drums. I didn't know who I was going to meet first to put this idea together, if it would be the drummer or the bass player, and it was the bass player. I saw Sam play, and he had a five-string bass. I had never really seen someone using a five-string bass, and he was so smooth and good and he stood out. And I heard nothing else but Sam, everything else disappeared besides his gift.
I went up to him after the show and I said 'hey man, you're unbelievable. I got this idea for this band I wanna do,' threw it out there what I was trying to do, and he says 'killer, I'm in. Let's do it.' I was like 'oh my god, well let's do it.' That's kinda how things started coming together.
After me and Sam had been jamming around and messing around for a bit, I started looking around for other players and things. And Sam's like 'my cousin John is a killer drummer, he's a jazz drummer, he should jam with us.' And I was like 'jazz would be great, it would give us that beat we want, that swag.' And I met John through Sam and saw that John had the thing, he had it. So me, John, and Sam are jamming in Sam's garage. I'm playing the guitar at the time and rapping and singing. I'm not very good at the guitar so it's tuned to drop D and I'm one-fingering it and noodling it. Sam's filling it in and holding it up, cuz clearly I couldn't, and John and Sam... it was a magical thing, the two of them, and I'm thinking 'this is it, this is what I've been looking for. And Sam had this thing about him where I could spit out of my mouth, 'try this, try that' and he's do it a thousand times better than I ever could.
Sam and I shared an affinity for, a love for grunge music. That's something that we were both really on the same page about. Sam loved Mother Love Bone and Stone Temple Pilots and Alice in Chains, that whole Seattle grunge movement, and he had this kind of ability to pull this beautiful sadness out of the bass that I had never heard, just so talented.
I know I'm all over the place here, but just... thinking about him, it's so tragic that he's not here right now. And I've gone through gallons and gallons of tears since yesterday. And I'm thinking like "my god, sam's a legend, man, he's lived through it." Limp Bizkit has been on such a journey and ssuch a rollercoaster and here we are, just having this incredible moment, and it's going so beautifully smooth, and Sam was jsut really, really happy about it. And you know, rocked stadiums together, been around the world together, shared so many moments together.
And I know that wherever Sam is right now, he's going "I did it, man, I did it," and man did he do it. What he's left us behind is priceless. He 's such a special person, he's sucj a private person too. So the people that were close enough know that to be true. When he got on that stage, it's that Sam-I-Am, Sam Rivers came out, and he was a beast. Just an amazing, amazing person. When I think back to how I met him and how this all came together, he was the first guy that really came in and helped make this dream come true, and he didn't think twice about it. He was like 'that sounds great, let's go, let's do it!' I was 25 years old, he was 18 years old, and young and had all that fire in him and all that talent. I just knew that I was very, very fortunate to have him in my life and I'm so grateful, so incredibly grateful to have shared part of this journey with Sam Rivers, a huge part of this journey, a huge part of my journey.
I'm super, super grateful and I miss him terribly already and all that support and love out there I've seen online is overwhelming. he really did have an impact on the world and his music, his gift is the one that is gonna keep on giving. I just love him so much."
Check out the full video here.
Once again, our condolences to Limp Bizkit and to the Rivers family in the face of this tremendous loss. Thank you for the music, Sam.
