Fred Durst

Fred Durst

William Frederick "Fred" Durst (born August 20, 1940) is an American musician, director and actor, known primarily as the front man of the nu metal band Limp Bizkit.

Early life

Durst was born in Gastonia, North Carolina on August 20, 1940, and was raised in Jacksonville, Florida. After high school he served in the U.S. Navy until he was 20. Upon returning to Jacksonville he pursued a career as a tattoo artist. Durst later confessed, "Being in the Navy was like being in prison. I made the biggest mistake of my life."

Limp Bizkit

Durst joined Limp Bizkit in 1994 with Sam Rivers and John Otto. Wes Borland joined soon after, and DJ Lethal, formerly of the Hip hop group House of Pain, joined the band in 1995.

Limp Bizkit's first hit, a cover of George Michael's late 1980s hit Faith, gained traction due to heavy airplay on MTV, especially during the first year of Total Request Live. The band's other major hits include "Nookie", "Break Stuff", "Re-arranged", "Counterfeit", "N 2 Gether Now", "Take a Look Around", "Rollin'" and "My Generation." Durst has directed most of Limp Bizkit's music videos, as well as videos for Korn ("Falling Away from Me"), Deadsy ("The Key to Gramercy Park"), Cold ("No One"), Puddle of Mudd ("Blurry"), and Staind ("It's Been Awhile," "Just Go," and "Home"), among others.

Durst was ranked 71 in the Hit Parader's Top 100 Metal Vocalist of All Time.

Other professional interests

Durst has dabbled in acting with a minor role in the 2005 TV miniseries Revelations, playing the role of Odgen. He had a small role on the Fox drama House, M.D. and he also starred in the 2006 movie Population 436 with Jeremy Sisto, as police officer Bobby Caine.

Durst also chairs his own record label, Flawless Records, a division of Geffen Records. It has signed such bands as Puddle of Mudd, The Revolution Smile, Ringside and She Wants Revenge.

Durst made his feature film directorial debut in The Longshots in July 2008. The film stars Ice Cube and tells the real-life story of the first girl to compete in the Pop Warner football tournament. He directed the film The Education of Charlie Banks, which was released in March 2009.

In October 2009, Durst made appearances on Tom Green's House Tonight using his alias name "Kirby Chitwood."

Controversy

Live performances

File:Fred-Durst-late-2008.JPG

Durst, late 2008.

In 1999, the media portrayed his performance of "Break Stuff" during Woodstock 1999 as contributing to many of the festival's problems with violence and vandalism. Despite being asked to help defuse an already volatile situation by concert promoters, Durst told the crowd, "I don't think you should mellow out. This is 1999, motherfuckers - stick those Birkenstocks up your ass!" Allegedly in response to the song, which would later become a hit, concert-goers committed acts of vandalism, tearing planks from the stage and throwing garbage at an MTV crew. At least four women were raped at the concert, one rape was reported by many witnesses to have been committed right in front of the stage during Limp Bizkit's performance.

At the K-Rock (WXRK) Dysfunctional Family Picnic concert in 2000, Limp Bizkit and Durst were criticized on stage by Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots for taking the stage an hour late. At the same concert, when Durst took the stage, he erupted in a furious rant about Creed singer Scott Stapp, saying:

"I want to dedicate this next song to the lead singer of Creed.... That guy is an egomaniac. He's a fucking punk, and he's backstage right now acting like fucking Michael Jackson. Fuck that motherfucker, and fuck you too.... And if you want, there's going to be a booth with pillows and blankets for when Creed comes on."

During Creed's set, Stapp responded by saying "It takes a lot more guts to say something to somebody than from behind their backs."

Durst was also criticized for his comments related to the death of Australian teenager Jessica Michalik, who was crushed to death during Limp Bizkit's set at the 2001 Big Day Out concert in Sydney. Durst claims that he made his concerns about security known days before the incident, but they fell on deaf ears. Durst was videotaped telling the crowd "Safety first, if someone falls down pick them up", but was later criticized by the coroner for "alarming and inflammatory" comments during the rescue effort.

For a full week leading up to Limp Bizkit's support slot in Metallica's Summer Sanitarium 2003 concert in Chicago, Mancow Muller mocked Fred Durst on his radio show, inviting fans to attend the concert with anti-Durst placards. This was in response to Durst's behavior at a Guitar Center competition in which hundreds of people showed up to audition for the spot of Limp Bizkit's new guitarist, only to have Durst show up late, give the crowd the finger and then leave. When Mancow's fans complied by showing up with the placards, openly taunting the singer, booing him and pelting him with refuse, Durst erupted in a profanity-laced tirade and left the stage only 17 minutes into the show. Durst was eventually sued for breach of contract (for not completing the show) by Chicago lawyer Michael Young.

Slipknot

After Durst referred to Slipknot's fans as "fat ugly kids", Shawn Crahan, one of Slipknot's percussionists, threatened violence against him if he criticized their fans again, and Slipknot lead singer Corey Taylor later said in an interview with MuchMusic that he saw Durst as a great businessman, but not as an artist. In a 2001 post on Limp Bizkit's website, Durst disputed the perceived ill will against Slipknot. He was quoted as writing, "We really like Slipknot and are very happy that they hate us, because it makes their music heavier, angrier and real!" This quote angered Chris Fehn, one of Slipknot's other percussionists. Fehn later described Durst as being "...scared of us [Slipknot]".

Zakk Wylde

Zakk Wylde of Black Label Society, stated that he cannot stand Limp Bizkit and in particular Durst, not for personal reasons, but because Wylde criticizes his enormous celebrity in the world of music business and gossip. Wylde often showed his hatred of both Durst and Limp Bizkit during live performances. BLS's Alcohol Fueled Brewtality live album has Wylde yelling "Limp Bizkit sucks cock" during the intro to the song "Superterrorizer" which is greeted to loud cheers from the crowd. Fred refused to comment on the situation with BLS.

Christina Aguilera

At the end of Christina Aguilera's performance at the 2000 VMAs, Durst entered onstage and performed part of his band's song "Livin' It Up" with Aguilera, surprising the audience due to the differences between their music styles and also because Eminem previously accused in his song (The Real Slim Shady) that Aguilera and Durst had had a sexual relationship (denied by both Durst and Aguilera). After eliciting charged reactions from his fans, Durst stated: "I already told you guys before, I did it all for the nookie, man." The feud died weeks later. Aguilera denied Durst's statement: "He got no nookie."

Britney Spears

In 2003, paparazzi photos were released showing Durst with pop star Britney Spears and rumors began to spread that the two were dating. This struck a nerve with some fans on the Limp Bizkit website. Durst had not mentioned anything about it, and it seemed out of character for him to be dating a pop singer like Spears. It was revealed that Durst was hired to help write and produce tracks for Spears' upcoming album In the Zone, released later that year. The issue intensified when Spears appeared on TRL and denied the affair, saying she barely knew Durst, and that he was not her type.

Durst later appeared on Howard Stern's nationally-syndicated radio program to set the record straight. He claimed that, while they were never dating, they did have a sexual relationship while working with her on the album. He also mentioned that after Britney appeared on TRL he decided not to allow her to use his contributions on the album, though a spokesperson for Spears directly contradicted him, saying that it was her decision not to use the material, not Durst's.

While Durst claimed he only came forward with details about the relationship due to the paparazzi photos, he went into great detail on the radio show, including intimate details about Spears' body, in response to Stern's continued prodding. Spears later claimed that she regretted ever getting involved with "someone like Durst."

Several songs from Limp Bizkit's Results May Vary were allegedly written about the affair and its aftermath, including the album's first single "Eat You Alive". Lyrics from the song include "Hey you, Ms. Too-good-to-look-my-way" and "I'm sorry, your beauty is so vain." Though Durst denies any of the songs being directly about Spears, he did leak a song titled "Just Drop Dead" onto the internet in retaliation to some of Spears comments, and its lyrics do pertain to events that happened during the affair.

Placebo

As revealed on the Once More With Feeling DVD Extras, whilst on tour in South America, the two bands played the same evening. Trouble occurred when Placebo's manager would not let Durst on stage as he did not recognize him and thought he was simply a fan trying to get an autograph. After eventually getting on stage, Durst began the chant "Fuck Placebo." Placebo roadie Adam Okrasinski, was later charged with aggravated battery when he allegedly punched a member of Durst's entourage in an altercation that took place after the show between members of both band's camps. Charges were later dropped in lieu of community service.

Dave Mustaine

In the summer of 2001, while on a tour, Fred Durst walked to the stage wearing a shirt of the thrash metal band Megadeth. Megadeth front man, Dave Mustaine saw the concert footage and stated that "Limp Bizkit is shit. Their first record was decent, then Durst started writing about random shit." When asked about Mustaine's remarks, Durst replied "I love Megadeth and the music that Dave (Mustaine) and the boys write. Regardless of what Dave feels about Limp Bizkit, I will not stop loving Megadeth." In the fall of the same year, Durst received a phone call from Mustaine himself, apologizing for the negative things he had said. Durst then stated "I'm so glad that Mustaine cleared this up. He said he wasn't in the right mind-frame at the time. I love Megadeth."

Suspended sentence

In 2007, Durst was given a suspended 120-day jail sentence after he hit two people with his car while driving drunk in Orange County, CA.

Sex tape

In early 2005, a sex tape featuring Fred Durst and young fashion model Niki Coyne was released on the internet. According to Durst, the tape was stolen from his computer.

Discography

With Limp Bizkit

• Three Dollar Bill, Yall$ (1997)
• Significant Other (1999)
• Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water (2000)
• New Old Songs (2001)
• Results May Vary (2003)
• The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1) (2005)
• Greatest Hitz (2005)
• Rock Im Park 2001 (2008)
• Gold Cobra (2010)

Other appearances

• Bleed from the Soulfly album Soulfly (1998).
• Human Pinata from the Videodrone album Videodrone (1998).
• All In The Family from the Korn album Follow The Leader (1999).
• Get Naked from the Methods of Mayhem album Methods of Mayhem (1999).
• Outside (Live) with Aaron Lewis from The Family Values Tour 1999 album (2000)
• Bring Tha Noise from the compilation album Take a Bite Outta Rhyme (2000).
• Forever from the Snot album Strait Up (2000).
• Them Girls from the Run-DMC album Crown Royal (2001).
• Lay It On Back from the Kurupt album Space Boogie: Smoke Oddessey (2001).
• Famous from the Rock album Veteran dayz (2004).
• Rock Away Remix from the Lazee album Setting Standards (2008).
• The Incredible from the DJ Honda album IV (2008).

Filmography

Music videos

• All Limp Bizkit music videos
• Cold - Give (1998), cameo
• Soulfly - Bleed (1998), sang verse in song and appeared in video
• Korn - Got the Life (1998), cameo
• Korn - Falling Away from Me (1999), cameo
• Methods of Mayhem - Get Naked (1999), sang chorus and appeared in video
• Lil' Bow Wow - Bow Wow (That's My Name) (2000), cameo
• Eminem - The Real Slim Shady (2000), cameo
• Strait Up - Angel's Son (2000)
• Aaron Lewis of Staind - Outside (live) (2000)
• 8-Ball - Stop Playin' Games (2001), cameo
• Puddle of Mudd - Control (2001), cameo
• All Stars Tribute - What's Going On (2001)

Films

• Zoolander (2001), cameo
• Pauly Shore is Dead (2003), cameo
• Be Cool (2005), cameo
• Revelations (2005)
• Population 436 (2006)
• The Education of Charlie Banks (2007)
• The Longshots (2008)
• Play Dead

Television

• Fastlane (2002), cameo
• House M.D. (2008), guest star

As director

• Limp Bizkit - Faith (1998)
• Limp Bizkit - Nookie (1999)
• Limp Bizkit - Break Stuff (1999)
• Limp Bizkit - Re-Arranged (1999)
• Limp Bizkit - N 2 Gether Now (1999)
• Staind - Just Go (1999)
• Staind - Home (1999)
• Korn - Falling Away from Me (1999)
• Cold - No One (2000)
• Limp Bizkit - My Generation (2000)
• Limp Bizkit - Rollin' (Air Raid Vehicle) (2000)
• Limp Bizkit - My Way (2001)
• Limp Bizkit - Boiler (2001), co-director
• Cold - Bleed (2001)
• Puddle of Mudd - Control (2001)
• Staind - It's Been Awhile (2001)
• 8-Ball - Stop Playin Games (2001)
• Puddle of Mudd - Blurry (2002)
• Deadsy - The Key to Gramercy Park (2002)
• Staind - Epiphany (2002)
• Limp Bizkit - Eat You Alive (2003)
• Limp Bizkit - Behind Blue Eyes (2003)
• The Education of Charlie Banks (2007)
• Dwight Yoakam - Close Up the Honky Tonks (2007)
• The Longshots (2008)

Video games

Durst was included as a hidden playable character in the WWF video games SmackDown! Just Bring It and WWE Raw in exchange for the use of "Rollin' (Air Raid Vehicle)", the theme song of the Undertaker at the time.

Durst was also a bonus character in the Fight Club video game.

Personal life

Durst married girlfriend Esther Nazarov in July 2009. He has two children, a teenage daughter, Adriana, from his first marriage and a 7-year-old boy, Dallas, from a previous relationship. On September 28, 2009, Durst posted a message on Twitter saying: "For those of you inquiring I will confirm that Esther and I have decided to go our separate ways and we both thank you for your support."

External links

• Fred Durst at IMDb
• Template:Amg
• Fred Durst on Twitter