Fred Durst Pays Tribute to Late Limp Bizkit Bassist Sam Rivers: ‘What He’s Left Us Behind Is Priceless’

Limp Bizkit continue to pay tribute to late bassist Sam Rivers. After the full band issued a statement announcing that the rap-rock group’s longtime bass player and founding member had passed away at 48 over the weekend, singer Fred Durst posted a personal memorial to his friend and rhythm section anchor.

“Sam Rivers, the legend,” began Durst in an emotional video remembering his compatriot that began with a long sigh. “Truly, such a gifted, unbelievably sweet and wonderful person.” Durst shared their origin story, explaining that he’d put together a few versions of a band he was trying to start years ago in his native Jacksonville, Fla. that he just couldn’t get quite right. So, he went out in search of the right players by going to a tiny pub where a band was playing when he stumbled on Rivers.

“There Sam was on the stage with his band, killing it on the bass. And I went, ‘Oh my gosh, this guy’s amazing,’” Durst recalled thinking of the musician who was playing a five-string bass, something the singer had never seen before. “In my mind, you had to start with the rhythm section, the bass and the drums… I saw Sam play, and I was blown away.”

Impressed by how “smooth and good” Rivers was and how he stood out among the other musicians on stage, Durst said he could hear “nothing else but Sam” that night. “Everything disappeared beside his gift. I went up to Sam after the show, and I said, ‘Hey man, you’re unbelievable, I got this idea for a band I wanna do.’ I kinda threw it out there, and I told him what I wanted it to be, and he looked at me, and says, ‘Killer, I’m in. Let’s do it!’… That’s kinda how things started to come together.”

Once he and Rivers began jamming, the bassist suggested his cousin, jazz drummer John Otto and the group started coming together. “It’s so tragic he’s not here right now,” said Durst, apologizing for his thoughts being a bit scattered as he attempted to speak coherently though his grief. “I’ve gone though gallons and gallons of tears since yesterday and I’m thinking, ‘my God, Sam’s a legend,’ you know? He did it. He lived it.”

With the band recently returning to form and playing to large crowds around the world, Durst lamented that Rivers’ death came just as things were heating up again for the nu-metal group who first broke through in 1997 with their debut album, Three Dollar Bill Y’all, which featured their breakthrough hit, a rocked-up cover version of George Michael’s “Faith.”

“Here we are just having an incredible moment, and it’s going so beautifully smooth, and Sam was just really, really happy about it,” Durst said of playing arenas, stadiums and festivals around the world together. “I know wherever Sam is now he’s smiling and feeling like, ‘I did it. I did it.’ And man did he do it. What he’s left us behind is priceless.”

The band — which also features guitarist Wes Borland and DJ Lethal — posted a group tribute to Rivers over the weekend in which they said, “Today we lost our brother. Our bandmate. Our heartbeat,” of Rivers, who was born in Jacksonville, Fla., in 1977 and was one third of the original lineup of Limp Bizkit that formed in 1994 alongside Durst and Otto.

“Sam Rivers wasn’t just our bass player — he was pure magic,” the band said. “The pulse beneath every song, the calm in the chaos, the soul in the sound. From the first note we ever played together, Sam brought a light and a rhythm that could never be replaced. His talent was effortless, his presence unforgettable, his heart enormous.”

At press time Rivers’ cause of death had not been revealed. Rivers was diagnosed with liver disease in 2011 and received a liver transplant in 2017, taking a short break from the group during his health issues and returning in 2018.