Times Online: FRED DURST's Time Is Running Out

September 6, 2003

John Mulvey of Times Online reports that LIMP BIZKIT frontman "Fred Durst may not be as stupid as he looks, but as the wheels come off the nu-metal bandwagon, time is running out for its foremost figure.

"When Fred Durst and his band LIMP BIZKIT were booed off stage at a Chicago festival in July, many music fans allowed themselves a satisfied laugh. Durst had it coming: a man who combined the worst aspects of a boorish thug and a cynical businessman to make a fortune out of the critically reviled genre of nu-metal. Finally, it seemed, the moshpit magnate was on the way down.

"Many of Durst's actions seem ill-advised, not least when he implored the crowd to 'break stuff' at the 1999 Woodstock Festival, and was blamed by many for inciting the riots that ensued. Yet one suspects much of his oafishness is calculated, a pragmatic way to maximise his appeal to teenagers. 'I'm not a rock star, I'm a businessman,' he has said, never averse to flaunting his cynicism. He knows, too, that his songs are ephemeral, admitting: 'In ten years, the people who are 15 today won't be singing 'Break Stuff'.'

"He even turns the masses of criticism thrown at the band to his own use. It is as if all the bile directed towards LIMP BIZKIT accords them an erroneous, if lucrative, outsider status. On a US tour in 1998, the group arrived on stage by climbing out of a 25ft-tall toilet Durst's explanation was as unsubtle as ever: 'We wanted them (the critics) to see us as the big pieces of s*** that they said we were.'

"Now, though, there are signs that his reasons to be obnoxious may be fading. Nu-metal is in decline, and Durst's indelible connection to the movement means that he has the furthest to fall. A vast American summer tour sought to capture a new audience by twinning LIMP BIZKIT with the old metallers METALLICA. At that Chicago show, the band were welcomed with a hail of bottles, banners reading 'Fred sucks' and a massed chant of 'F*** Fred Durst'. Durst left the stage after six songs." Read more.

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