Fred Durst Biography

Durst was born in Gastonia, North Carolina, and spent his formative years in Jacksonville, where he played in a variety of local bands while mowing lawns, working as a record executive, and tattooing for a living. Durst is best known as the lead singer of the multi-platinum nu metal band Limp Bizkit, with whom he has recorded six studio albums since 1994. Durst has also been well-known for his work in indie cinema since 2006. He co-starred in the film Population 436 and made his directorial debut with The Education of Charlie Banks in 2007. Durst's second picture, The Longshots, was released in 2008. Durst is placed #71 on Hit Parader's list of the Top 100 Heavy Metal Vocalists. Fred Durst grew raised in Cherryville, North Carolina, until the fifth grade, when he relocated to Gastonia, North Carolina. Durst discovered breakdancing, hip hop, punk rock, and heavy metal in Gastonia. He started rapping, skating, beatboxing, and deejaying. Durst moved to Jacksonville, Florida, after dropping out of the United States Navy bootcamp, where he mowed lawns and worked as a tattoo artist for money while formulating a concept for a band that blended parts of rock and hip hop. Durst was a member of three previous bands: Split 26, Malachi Sage, and 10 Foot Shindig, all of which failed to achieve their aims. Durst departed 10 Foot Shindig to create a new band. Durst played and composed three songs with Malachi Sage bassist Sam Rivers and Rivers' nephew John Otto in 1994, while Wes Borland subsequently joined their band as a guitarist. Durst called the band Limp Bizkit because he wanted a moniker that would turn people off. Limp Bizkit established a cult following in the underground music industry by spreading word of mouth and covering George Michael's Faith and Paula Abdul's Straight Up. Durst later asked Korn to drink Pepsi and tattoo the band members while they were in town as the supporting act for Sick of It All. Despite his mediocre tattoos, Durst was able to persuade Reginald Arvizu to listen to a Limp Bizkit demo, which included the songs Pollution, Counterfeit, and Stuck. Korn invited an unsigned Limp Bizkit to two tours, introducing the band to a wider audience. DJ Lethal, previously of the hip hop group House of Pain, joined the band as a turntablist; Durst's disputes with Borland caused him to leave and then rejoin the band. Limp Bizkit signed with Flip, an Interscope Records subsidiary, in 1997 and released their debut album, Three Dollar Bill, Yall, to mixed reviews. Despite the poor reception to his band's record, Durst was named Senior Vice President of A&R at Interscope. Durst met the band Staind on October 23, 1997, and responded adversely to their album cover, seeking to have them removed from the bill owing to its offensiveness. Durst, on the other hand, subsequently lauded the band's performance, telling them they were the greatest band he had seen in two years. Durst then traveled to Florida and recorded a demo with the band, assisting vocalist Aaron Lewis with his coaching. Durst also introduced Cold to producer Ross Robinson. After Limp Bizkit concluded a tour with the band Deftones, Max Cavalera, formerly of Sepultura, invited Durst and DJ Lethal to perform on Bleed, a song from his new band Soulfly's self-titled debut. Cavalera claimed that Durst was suggested to him by producer Ross Robinson. Durst was also included on Korn's album Follow the Leader. Jonathan Davis had planned to compose a fight rap with B-Real of Cypress Hill, but the latter's label refused, so Durst was chosen instead. All in the Family's lyrics were written by Davis and Durst, and featured the two vocalists trading insults. Davis and Durst would frequently make recommendations for each other's lyrics; for example, a line penned by Durst as tootin' on your bagpipes was altered to fagpipes by Davis, who said that it helped him bag on me better. Durst developed an interest in directing and directed a music video for Limp Bizkit's single Faith to promote their appearance in the film Very Bad Things, but was dissatisfied with it and directed a second video that paid tribute to tourmates such as Primus, Deftones, and Mötley Crüe who appeared in the video. Limp Bizkit found widespread popularity with their albums Significant Other (1999) and Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water (2000). (2000). Limp Bizkit performed in front of 200,000 people at the highly anticipated Woodstock '99 concert in the summer of 1999. Fans ripped plywood from the walls during a performance of the song Break Stuff, sparking violent activity during and after their performance. Following the performance, several sexual attacks, including but not limited to rapes, were reported. During the show, Durst remarked, "People are being harmed." Allow no one to be harmed. But I don't believe you should relax. That's what Alanis Morissette ordered you to do, motherfuckers. Pick someone up if they fall. We've already expelled the bad energy. Now it's time to release some positive energy. In a subsequent interview, Durst claimed, "I didn't witness anyone getting harmed." That's something you don't notice. How can they expect us to see something horrible going on when we're gazing out over a sea of people and the stage is twenty feet in the air and we're playing and experiencing our music? According to Les Claypool of the San Francisco Examiner, Woodstock was just Durst being Durst. Because he believes that "no publicity is bad press," he draws it on himself. He sulks in it. Nonetheless, he's a wonderful person. Limp Bizkit played at the WXRK Dysfunctional Family Picnic in June 2000, but arrived an hour late. According to an Interscope representative, there was some misunderstanding over the band's set time. Durst slammed Creed vocalist Scott Stapp, labeling him an egomaniac, during the band's performance. Durst was then gifted with an autographed anger management handbook by Creed's reps during a later appearance on Total Request Live. Limp Bizkit's summer tour was sponsored by the contentious file-sharing service Napster. Durst was a vocal supporter of file sharing. Durst performed the Limp Bizkit song Livin' It Up as a duet with Christina Aguilera at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. Filter vocalist Richard Patrick responded to the concert by saying, "Fred going onstage with Christina Aguilera humiliated us all." Durst responded to the unfavorable comments to his performance by saying, "I told you guys before, I did it all for the nookie, buddy." In reaction to Durst's comments, Aguilera said, "He got no nookie." During a tour of Australia in 2001, during the Big Day Out event in Sydney, fans rushed the stage in the mosh pit, and Jessica Michalik, a teenager, died of asphyxiation. Durst said in court that he cautioned the concert's organizers Aaron Jackson, Will Pearce, and Amar Tailor, as well as promoter Vivian Lees, about the risks of such lax security. However, after reviewing videotapes and witness evidence, the coroner concluded that the crowd density was unsafe at the time Limp Bizkit entered the stage, and that Fred Durst should have responded more responsibly when the situation became obvious. Durst said that the death of the adolescent had left him mentally traumatized. Durst was hired to create songs for Britney Spears in 2002, and he subsequently revealed that he was in a relationship with her. Spears, on the other hand, disputed Durst's accusations. In a 2009 interview, he stated, "I think at the time it was taboo for a person like me to be linked with a girl like her." Durst's sex tape was leaked on the Internet in February 2005. Durst sued 10 websites that hosted the video for $70 million. Limp Bizkit took part in the Summer Sanitarium Tour, which was headlined by Metallica, in March. Attendees during the tour's stop in Chicago, IL, hurled things and heckled Durst from the time he stepped on stage, motivated by Durst's apparent shift. Durst put down the mike after six songs and went off stage, but not before heckling the audience back. According to a Sun-Times report, radio personality Mancow sparked the animosity. The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1) was released in May 2005. For majority of the record, Sammy Siegler stepped over on drums for the band. The album was released as an underground record, with no advertising or marketing, at Durst's request. The album sold over one million copies worldwide and reached number 24 on the Billboard 200. Durst subsequently stated that, despite the album's title, there will be no sequel to The Unquestionable Truth. Later that year, the band issued a greatest hits CD, Greatest Hitz. Durst began working in indie films when Limp Bizkit was on sabbatical, gaining more praise for his cinematic work than his music. Durst appeared in the 2006 film Population 436 as a co-star. The Education of Charlie Banks, his directorial debut, was released the following year. The film, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Chris Marquette, and Jason Ritter, garnered mixed reviews; Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, gave the film a Tomatometer score of 46%. According to the website's opinion, "unevenness and earnestness muddie this otherwise lovely, unexpected coming of age tale." The Longshots, starring Ice Cube and Keke Palmer, was his second directorial attempt and was released in 2008. The film received a 39 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the majority stating that it was a mostly predictable affair that rarely deviated from the inspirational sports movie script.

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