Advertisement

Biography

Limp Bizkit formed six years ago in Jacksonville, an assemblage of visionaries brought together by frontman Fred Durst, a former Navy plebe turned tattoo artist who’d been writing raps since he was 14. The collision of sensibilities between Durst, Otto, Borland, bassist Sam Rivers and House of Pain DJ Lethal formed a synthesis that was entirely of its time, a sonic barrage of crunchy power chords, phat grooves and psychedelic loops that was without precedent- at least all under the same roof.

The 1997 the debut album 'Three Dollar Bill, Y’all$' ushered Limp Bizkit into the platinum house, thanks to an irreverent hit remake of George Michael’s “Faith” and an attention-getting spot on the 1998 OZZFest bill, with its famous giant toilet stage prop. But Limp Bizkit really ascended to the throne with 1999’s 'Significant Other', a ranting, raging masterpiece that debuted at No. 1 on Billboard Top 200, selling 634,874 copies during its first week of release and went on to sell more than six million copies.

As Durst notes on the new album, Limp Bizkit “crawled up you butt somehow/and that’s when things got turned around,” and what followed was a torrent of activity and accolades that left scorched earth and happily spent mosh pits. With the hits – “Nookie,” “Rearranged,” “Break Stuff” – as a soundtrack played at the WHFStival in Washington, D.C., and at Woodstock ’99 in Rome, N.Y., and it headlined the 1999 Family Values tour. Durst was named a Senior Vice-president at Interscope and started his own label, Flawless; he also signed on to direct the films “Nature’s Cure” and “Runt.” Rivers, meanwhile, was named the Best Rock Bass Player at the 2000 Orville H. Gibson Guitar Awards.

And as it set out to start work on what would become 'Chocolate St*rfish', Limp Bizkit was also tapped to record the theme song for Mission Impossible 2, scoring a summer hit with “Take a Look Around” which is also featured on the new album.

The keywords for Chocolate St*rfish were bigger, badder, harder, heavier, phatter, funkier…you get the idea. “There’s a lot of really good melody, and everything about every part is pretty catchy,” says Otto. “It’s new and really melodic. There’s all kinds of different hooks going on within the music. You could listen to the music by itself, really, but once the vocals get over and Lee does all his DJ stuff, it takes it up to that enormous, killer level.”