Sam Rivers, bassist and founding member of the metal band Limp Bizkit, died Saturday, the band announced in a social media post. No cause of death was given, although he had a history of alcohol-related liver disease; he was 48 years old.
“Today we lost our brother. Our bandmate. Our heartbeat,” the group wrote. “Sam Rivers was not only our bassist, he was pure magic. The pulse beneath every song, the calm in the chaos, the soul in the sound.”
Born in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1977, Rivers began playing music in middle school, starting with the tuba because his friend, future Limp Bizkit drummer John Otto, played jazz drums. While Rivers and Otto are often considered cousins, the two initially thought they were related, but it turned out that was not the case.
Rivers later switched to bass and guitar and became friends with future Limp Bizkit singer/rapper Fred Durst. The duo formed a short-lived band called Malachi Sage, but quickly regrouped with Otto to form Limp Bizkit in 1994, joining forces with crazy guitarist Wes Borland (who would leave and rejoin the group several times) and later, former House of Pain member DJ Lethal.
The band aligned themselves with the burgeoning “nu-metal” movement, and after a gig in Los Angeles opening for Korn, they were signed by Flip Records, whose founder, Jordan Schur, later struck a distribution deal with Interscope for the band’s debut album. This album, “Three Dollar Bill Y’all”, was released in 1997 and the band toured extensively with the Deftones, Helmet and on the Warped tour. The quickly building buzz peaked with their 1999 follow-up, “Significant Other,” driven by the single “Nookie” and a semi-serious metal cover of George Michael’s hit “Faith.”
The album shot to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and Limp Bizkit quickly became one of the biggest rock bands in the country. However, their set at the disastrous Woodstock festival in 1999 was marred by violence; Many blamed Durst for the uproar, as he surfed on plywood that rioters had torn down from festival facilities, then shouted “It wasn’t our fault” as he left the stage, although opinions vary. The violence left three dead, dozens injured and 44 arrests, amid multiple incidents of rape, vandalism and arson.
The band followed with the 2000 set “Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water,” but Durst’s unfiltered, often homophobic and sexist lyrics and comments and ongoing conflicts between him and Borland led the latter to leave the band in 2001. Rivers switched to guitar for the band’s 2003 album “Results May Vary,” but Borland rejoined the group the following year.
Limp Bizkit went on hiatus in 2006 and Rivers worked as a producer with Jacksonville bands Burn Season and the Embraced, a role he would continue after the group reunited in 2009. Limp Bizkit continued to tour and release albums sporadically over the next few years, although Rivers left in 2015 for health reasons which he later revealed to be liver illnesses due to alcohol abuse.
“I got liver disease from excessive drinking…I had to leave Limp Bizkit in 2015 because I felt terrible, and a few months later I realized I had to change everything because I had really bad liver disease,” Rivers told writer Jon Wiederhorn. “I stopped drinking and did everything the doctors told me. I went through alcohol treatment and had a liver transplant, which was perfect.”
He returned in 2018 and remained there until his death.
“He was a once-in-a-lifetime human being. A true legend of legends,” the group concluded in its Saturday message. “And his spirit will live forever in every groove, every scene, every memory,” the band continued. “We love you, Sam. We will always carry you with us. Rest in peace, brother. Your music never stops.”
