Limp Bizkit bassist Sam Rivers dies at 48

Sam rivers — the bassist of the rock-rap group Limp Bizkit — has died… according to an official press release published on the group’s Instagram.

The group announced the news Saturday night…revealing that Sam had passed away earlier in the day and calling it their “heartbeat.”

Sam wasn’t just a bassist, the band say: he “was pure magic. The pulse beneath every song, the calm in the chaos, the soul in the sound.”

Outside of music, the band writes that Sam was a unique person and a legend among legends.

The message ends with “Rest easy, brother. Your music never stops.” They did not reveal the cause of death.

Rivers grew up playing with drummer Limp Bizkit John Otto …and he met Fred Durst while working at Chick-fil-A in the early 1990s.

Rivers, Otto and Durst composed the original iteration of Limp Bizkit…then they added the guitarist Wes Borland And Deadly DJ to complete their group in 1996.

Over the next three decades – apart from a three-year hiatus between 2006 and 2009 – Limp Bizkit rocked stages around the world. They released six studio albums, including the critically acclaimed “Significant Other” and “Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water” in 1999 and 2000 respectively.

Among their best-known songs… “Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle)”, “Take A Look Around”, “My Way”, “Behind Blue Eyes”, “Nookie”, “Hot Dog” and “Break Stuff” – the last of which has been streamed nearly a billion times on Spotify.

Rivers temporarily left the group in 2015…later revealing it was because he developed liver disease from excessive alcohol consumption. He received a liver transplant and joined the group in 2018.

Rivers was 48 years old.

RIP