Fred Durst
Durst at the premiere of Baby Mama at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival
Background information
Birth name	William Frederick Durst
Born	(1970-08-20) August 20, 1970 (age 41) Gastonia, North Carolina
Origin	Jacksonville, Florida, United States
Genres	Nu metal, rap metal
Occupations	Musician, film director
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Years active	1994–2006; 2009–present
Associated acts	Limp Bizkit

Fred Durst (born August 20, 1970) is an American musician and film director from Jacksonville, Florida. Durst grew up in Gastonia, North Carolina and played in a number of local bands in Florida while mowing lawns and working as a tattoo artist for financial support. Durst is best known as the vocalist of the multi-platinum rock band Limp Bizkit, formed in 1994, with whom he has released six studio albums.

Since 2006, Durst has also become known for his work in independent films. He costarred in the film Population 436, and made his directorial debut in 2007 with the film The Education of Charlie Banks. Durst directed a second film, The Longshots in 2008, and will direct another film, Pawn Shop Chronicles, which is currently in production.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Fred Durst was born and grew up in Gastonia, North Carolina, where he took an interest in breakdancing, hip hop, punk rock and heavy metal. He began to rap, skate, beatbox and deejay. After dropping out of United States Navy bootcamp, Durst returned to Jacksonville, Florida, where he mowed lawns and worked as a tattoo artist for money, and began developing an idea for a band that combined elements of rock and hip hop.^[1][2]

Durst played with three other bands, Split 26, Malachi Sage, which were unsuccessful, and 10 Foot Shindig, which Durst left to form a new band.^[3]

Formation of Limp Bizkit (1994–1998)[link]

Wes Borland and Fred Durst performing with Limp Bizkit at the Movistar Arena in Santiago, Chile on July 21, 2011.

In 1994, Durst, Malachi Sage bassist Sam Rivers and Rivers' cousin John Otto, jammed and wrote three songs together, and Wes Borland later joined their band as a guitarist.^[3] Durst named the band Limp Bizkit, because he wanted a name that would repel listeners.^[3] Limp Bizkit developed a cult following in the underground music scene, attracting crowds by word of mouth and covering George Michael's "Faith" and Paula Abdul's "Straight Up".^[3]

Later, when Korn performed in town as the opening act for Sick of It All, Durst invited Korn to drink beer and tattoo the band members. Although Durst's tattoos were unimpressive, he was able to persuade Reginald Arvizu to listen to a demo by Limp Bizkit, consisting of the songs "Pollution", "Counterfeit" and "Stuck". Korn added a then-unsigned Limp Bizkit to two tours, which gave the band a new audience.^[3][4] DJ Lethal, formerly of the hip hop group House of Pain, joined the band as a turntablist; Durst's disagreements with Borland led the guitarist to quit and rejoin the band.^[3]

In 1997, Limp Bizkit signed with Flip, a subsidiary of Interscope Records, and released their debut album, Three Dollar Bill, Yall$ to minimal response. However, despite the lukewarm response to his band's album, Durst was appointed Senior Vice President of A&R at Interscope.^[5] On October 23, 1997, Durst met the band Staind, and reacted negatively to their album's cover, attempting to get them thrown off the bill due to its offensiveness.^[5] However, Durst later praised the band's performance, telling them that they were "the best band he had seen in two years."^[5] Subsequently, Durst drove to Florida and recorded a demo with the band, helping coach vocalist Aaron Lewis.^[5] Durst also introduced producer Ross Robinson to the band Cold.^[5]

After Limp Bizkit finished a tour with the band Deftones, Durst and DJ Lethal were asked by Max Cavalera, formerly of the band Sepultura, to appear on "Bleed", a song from the self-titled debut of his new band Soulfly. Cavalera stated that producer Ross Robinson recommended that he work with Durst.^[6] Durst also made an appearance on Korn's album Follow the Leader. Jonathan Davis had intended to write a battle rap with B-Real of Cypress Hill, but the latter's label wouldn't let him do it, and Durst was tapped instead.^[6] Davis and Durst wrote the lyrics for "All in the Family", which featured the two vocalists trading insults. Davis and Durst would often offer suggestions for each others lyrics; a lyric written by Durst as "tootin' on your bagpipe" was changed to "fagpipes" by Davis, who stated "I helped him bag on me better".^[6]

Durst began to take an interest in directing, and directed a music video for Limp Bizkit's single "Faith" in promotion for its appearance in the film Very Bad Things, but was unsatisfied with it, and directed a second video which paid tribute to tourmates like Primus, Deftones and Mötley Crüe, who appeared in the video.^[6]

Mainstream success and controversies (1999–2005)[link]

Limp Bizkit achieved mainstream success with the albums Significant Other (1999) and Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water (2000). In the summer of 1999, Limp Bizkit played at the highly anticipated Woodstock '99 show in front of approximately 200,000 people. Violent action sprang up during and after their performance, including fans tearing plywood from the walls during a performance of the song "Break Stuff". Several sexual assaults, that included but were not limited to rapes, were reported in the aftermath of the concert.^[4][5][7] Durst stated during the concert, "People are getting hurt. Don't let anybody get hurt. But I don't think you should mellow out. That's what Alanis Morissette had you motherfuckers do. If someone falls, pick 'em up. We already let the negative energy out. Now we wanna let out the positive energy".^[5] Durst later stated in an interview, "I didn't see anybody getting hurt. You don't see that. When you're looking out on a sea of people and the stage is twenty feet in the air and you're performing, and you're feeling your music, how do they expect us to see something bad going on?"^[5] Les Claypool told the San Francisco Examiner, "Woodstock was just Durst being Durst. His attitude is 'no press is bad press', so he brings it on himself. He wallows in it. Still, he's a great guy."^[5]

In June 2000, Limp Bizkit performed at the WXRK Dysfunctional Family Picnic, but showed up an hour late for their set.^[8] An Interscope spokesman stated that there was confusion over the band's set time.^[8] During the band's performance, Durst criticized Creed singer Scott Stapp, calling him "an egomaniac".^[8] Creed's representatives later presented Durst with an autographed anger management manual during a later appearance on Total Request Live.^[8] In the summer, Limp Bizkit's tour was sponsored by the controversial file sharing service Napster. Durst was an outspoken advocate of file sharing.^[4]

During the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, Durst performed Limp Bizkit's song "Livin' It Up", as a duet with Christina Aguilera. In response to the performance, Filter frontman Richard Patrick called Durst a "pop-lovin' piece of frozen dog shit" and claimed that "Fred getting onstage with Christina Aguilera embarrassed us all."^[9] In response to the negative reactions to the performance, Durst remarked, "I already told you guys before, I did it all for the nookie, man."^[9] Aguilera, in response to Durst's remark, commented, "He got no nookie."^[10]

During a 2001 tour of Australia at the Big Day Out festival in Sydney, fans rushed the stage in the mosh pit, and teenager Jessica Michalik died of asphyxiation. In court, Durst testified he had warned the concert's organizers Aaron Jackson, Will Pearce and Amar Tailor and promoter Vivian Lees of the potential dangers of such minimal security.^[11] After viewing videotapes and hearing witness testimony, however, the coroner said it was evident that the density of the crowd was dangerous at the time Limp Bizkit took the stage, stating that Fred Durst should have acted more responsibly when the problem became apparent.^[12] Durst stated that he was "emotionally scarred" because of the teenager's death.^[13]

In 2002, Durst was tapped to write songs for Britney Spears, and later said that he was in a relationship with her. However, Spears denied Durst's claims.^[14] In a 2009 interview, he explained that "I just guess at the time it was taboo for a guy like me to be associated with a gal like her."^[14] In February 2005, a sex tape featuring Durst was released on the Internet. Durst filed a $70 million lawsuit against ten websites that posted the video.^[15][16]

In March, Limp Bizkit participated on the Summer Sanitarium Tour, headlined by Metallica.^[17] At the tour's stop in Chicago, IL, attendees of the concert threw items and heckled Durst from the moment he walked on stage. With the crowd chanting "Fuck Fred Durst" and continuing their assault on him, Durst threw the mic down after six songs and walked off stage, but not before heckling the crowd back.^[18] An article in the Sun-Times stated that the hostility was started by radio personality Mancow.^[19]

In May 2005, The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1) was released. Sammy Siegler took over drumming duties for the band for much of the album. At Durst's insistence, the album was released as an underground album, without any advertising or promotion.^[20][21] The album sold over 1,000,000 copies worldwide, peaking at number 24 on the Billboard 200.^[22][23] Durst later announced that despite the album's title, no sequel to The Unquestionable Truth would be produced.^[24] Later in the year, the band released a Greatest Hitz album.^[25]

Film career (2006 onward)[link]

While Limp Bizkit was on hiatus, Durst began working in independent films, earning higher acclaim for his film work than his music.^[24] In 2006, Durst costarred in the film Population 436. His directorial debut, The Education of Charlie Banks was released the following year. The film, which starred Jesse Eisenberg, Chris Marquette and Jason Ritter, received mixed reviews; Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggravate, assigned the film a "Tomatometer" score of 46%. The website's consensus stated, "Unevenness and earnestness mire this otherwise sweet, surprising coming of age drama."^[26] A second directorial effort, The Longshots, starring Ice Cube and Keke Palmer, was released in 2008. Rotten Tomatoes assigned the film a score of 39%, with the consensus indicating that the film was "a largely formulaic affair, rarely deviating from the inspirational sports movie playbook."^[27] The same year, Durst appeared as a bartender in the House, M.D. episodes "House's Head" and "Wilson's Heart".^[28] Durst will direct and produce Pawn Shop Chronicles, starring Paul Walker.^[29] Coproducer Jordan Schur described the film as "a hillbilly Pulp Fiction".^[29]

Limp Bizkit reunion (2009-present)[link]

In 2009, the original lineup of Limp Bizkit reunited and began touring. Durst announced that they had begun to record a new album, which would be titled Gold Cobra.^[30] The album was released on June 28, 2011, receiving mixed reviews.^[31] It peaked at number 16 on the Billboard 200.^[23] Durst has a nine year old son named Dallas from another relationship.^[32] In 2009, Durst married Esther Nazarov and split after three months.^[33] In 2012, Durst appeared on the Insane Clown Posse cover album Covered, Smothered & Chunked, appearing on the AMG cover "Bitch Better Have My Money".^[34] Durst resides in Los Angeles, California.^[35]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Fred Durst

	Biography portal
	United States Navy portal

• Official Limp Bizkit website
• Fred Durst at the Internet Movie Database
• Fred Durst at Allmusic
• Fred Durst on Twitter