Fred Durst was born Frederick Allen Mayne III on  August 20, 1970. He was only twelve years old when he found a very strong interest in hip hop, punk rock, heavy metal and breakdancing. After graduating High School in 1988 he decided that he was going to join the Navy but only stayed enlisted for two years because he simply didn’t like their rules.  He was twenty years old at that time. After leaving the Navy, he worked as a tattoo artist for a short time. 

The Iconic band Limp Bizkit formed in 1994. Band members include Wes Borland the guitarist, Sam Rivers the bassist, John Otto the drummer and DJ Lethal on the Turntables. A fun fact about Wes Borland is that he actually met Fred Durst at Limp Bizkit’s first ever show.

Their debut album called “Three dollar bill Y’all” was released in 1997. When this album came out, they changed the game of what nu metal was becoming. Limp Bizkit provided something new and different for a genre that was starting to sound the same with every other band. Their biggest song in 1997 was a cover of George Michael’s “Faith” which is actually on the album.  They released an album called “Significant Other” in 1999 after touring for 2 years. “Significant Other” sold 16 million records during that time period.  

“Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water” was released in 2000.

“That record was our titan. We’ll never play a show without drawing heavily from Chocolate Starfish and that’s the way it should be.” said Wes Borland. 

Limp Bizkit’s biggest song in the 2000s was “Break Stuff.” Fans still react to this song and lose their minds to this day as soon as they hear this song start. “My Generation” helped launch their follow-up “Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water.”

While it was in 1999 that Fred Durst started an infamous trend–the “Famous” backwards red baseball cap–it really exploded in 2000. 

“There were red caps everywhere,” said Durst. 

At every Limp Bizkit show, there were seas of red backwards baseball caps everywhere. 

Durst spoke about this insane time period about the red cap.

 “I always had to have that red cap. Every time I’d step off the bus or do an interview, it was for that red cap guy. I never put me out there. People were feeding off that persona, and it was a frenzy. People hated it, but people needed it. Everyone wanted something out of that guy.” Durst recalled to Rock Sound. 

In 2001, Guitarist  Wes Borland left the band for a little while, which was a shock to everyone.  While “Faith” was huge for the band, the attempt with The Who’s “Behind Blue Eyes” did just as well in 2003.

Original and beloved bassist Sam Rivers took a hiatus from the band in 2015. 

He revealed the reason why he left the band. “I got liver disease from excessive drinking,” said Rivers.  

While he didn’t leave until 2015, he was diagnosed in 2011 and returned in 2018.

On March 5, 2019 Limp Bizkit played a show that cost $3 in support of the anniversary of their debut album called Three dollar bill Y’all’. It also consisted of the original lineup. They started to tease fans at live shows with clips of new music back in 2019. Fred Durst’s house completely burned down and he lost everything that he owned in the Universal fire surfaces which took place in 2019.  

Limp Bizkit started to make headlines again back in 2020 after announcing that they were playing at a festival called Inkarceration in July. The event went on to be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Right in the middle of their tour, in August 2021, the remaining dates were canceled.

Durst said “In short, the system is still very flawed.” 

I was at one of their concerts last August and the concert was canceled 1 hour before showtime. The concert prior was the final one that was played for this tour. Fans were extremely angry. They waited hours and traveled from different states. 

Fans stood along the fences by the tour buses, just to get a glimpse of Durst. He came out, met the fans that were still there and apologized for what happened. He worked his way down the line signing things and taking some pictures. I was standing there wearing my “‘Famous’ backwards red baseball cap” which he signed and I was extremely nervous. We talked for a little bit and took a few pictures. He was very calm, soft spoken and was one of the nicest celebrities that I have ever met.

Limp Bizkit has 3 albums in the Top 50 Nu-metal albums of all time. Their top streaming songs include  “My Way” (134 million), “Take a Look Around” (152 million), “Break Stuff” (183 million), “Behind Blue Eyes” (192 million) and “Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle)” (206 million).

After 10 years of being in the studio trying to complete the album that they just put out, Durst was not satisfied with the album and this is the reason it took so long. Towards the end of summer Durst deleted a majority of his Instagram account leaving only 1 new photo sparking interest with plenty of responses. They debuted a new song called “Dad Vibes,” explaining Durst’s updated look.

While Fred Durst has changed his look to fit his “Dad Vibes,”  still today, if you go to a Limp Bizkit concert, you will still see the sea of the “Famous” red backwards cap including young kids who weren’t even alive back then and people reacting to the music the same way that they did twenty years ago. The only difference is that there are generations of people and tons of families attending now versus twenty years ago.