It was sadly reported earlier this weekend that co-founding Limp Bizkit bassist Sam Rivers passed away at the age of 48. The band’s singer and other co-founder Fred Durst posted a video tribute to Rivers via Instagram.
“Sam Rivers, the legend. Truly. Such a gifted, unbelievably sweet and wonderful person,” Durst said. “How I met Sam is I put a couple of iterations of an idea of a band I was trying to make happen in Jacksonville, Florida. I had this idea and vision for this particular type of style and sound, and I just couldn’t get it together right. And so I decided, ‘I’m gonna go out and find the right players to do this and bring this thing together.’ And I’d gone into this little tiny bar/pub where this band was playing at Jax Beach called Pier 7. And there Sam was on the stage with his band, killing it on the bass. And I went, ‘Oh my gosh, this guy’s amazing.’ In my mind, you had to start with the rhythm section, the bass and the drums. And I didn’t know who I was gonna meet first to put this idea together — I didn’t know if it’d be the drummer or the bass player — but it was the bass player. I saw Sam play and I was blown away. He was playing a five-string bass too. I’d never really seen someone using a five-string bass. And he was so smooth and good and he stood out, and I could hear nothing else but Sam. Everything disappeared besides his gift. And I went up to Sam after the show and I said, ‘Hey, man, you’re unbelievable. I got this idea for this band I wanna do’ and kind of threw it out there and told him what I wanted it to be. And he looked at me and he says, ‘Killer. I’m in. Let’s do it.’ I was, like, ‘Oh my God. Well, let’s do it.’ And uh, you know, that’s kind of how things started to come together. I had a bass player.”
Durst continued: “Sam had this thing about him where anything I could spit out of my mouth — ‘try this’, ‘try this’, ‘do this’ or ‘this’ — Sam could do it and do it a thousand times better than I could hear it in my head. And also Sam and I shared an affinity, a love for grunge music. That’s something that we were both really on the same page about. Sam really loved Mother Love Bone and Alice In Chains and Stone Temple Pilots and the whole Seattle grunge movement. And he had this kind of ability to pull this beautiful sadness out of the bass that I’d never heard. I mean, he would play chords. He was just so talented. I can’t explain it. I know I’m all over the place here.”
“Just thinking about him, it’s so tragic that he’s not here right now,” Durst added. “And I’ve gone through gallons and gallons of tears since yesterday, and I’m thinking, ‘My god, Sam’s a legend.’ He did it. He lived it … I’m so grateful, so incredibly grateful to have shared part of this journey with Sam Rivers — a huge part of this journey, a huge part of my journey. I’m super, super grateful and I miss him terribly already. And all the support and love out there I’ve seen online, it’s overwhelming. He really did have an impact on the world, and his music and his gift is the one that’s gonna keep on giving. And I just love him so much.”
Durst’s full tribute can be viewed below.
