Limp Bizkit bassist Sam Rivers dies at 48

Sam Rivers, bassist and founding member of the metal band Limp Bizkit, which was one of the best-selling nu-metal bands of the late 1990s and is credited with bringing a unique blend of heavy metal, hip-hop and punk to the mainstream, has died at age 48.

The group confirmed Mr Rivers’ death in a statement on social media on Saturday. The statement did not specify the cause or where or when he died.

The band described Mr. Rivers as “the pulse beneath every song, the calm in the chaos, the soul in the sound.”

Mr. Rivers was born on September 2, 1977. He began playing music as a teenager in Jacksonville, Florida, before being spotted at age 18 by Fred Durst, the lead singer of Limp Bizkit.

Mr. Durst, who was 25 at the time, had a vision for a band with a specific style and sound, he said in a video he posted on Instagram on Sunday.

He ran into Mr. Rivers at a bar in Jacksonville and was so impressed by his performance that “everything disappeared except his gift,” Mr. Durst said.

After the show, he introduced Mr. Rivers to his band. Mr. Rivers responded quickly, he recalled, saying, “Killer, I’m in.” Let’s do it. »

The two men began “messing around, messing around” before starting to look for other potential members, Mr. Durst said.

Mr. Rivers suggested they recruit jazz drummer John Otto. Wes Borland, guitarist, joined the band to form Limp Bizkit in 1994. DJ Lethal, who acted as both producer and disc jockey, joined two years later.

The group’s 1999 album, “Significant Other,” was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Album.

Mr. Rivers “had this ability to pull this beautiful sadness out of the bass that I’ve never heard,” Mr. Durst said on Instagram, adding that he had “gone through gallons and gallons of tears since yesterday.”

Information about Mr. Rivers’ survivors was not immediately available.

In an interview for “Raising Hell,” Jon Wiederhorn’s 2020 book about the lives of metal legends, Mr. Rivers said he had health problems because of excessive alcohol consumption.

He took a break from the group in 2015 and returned in 2018, ahead of the release of his sixth album, “Still Sucks”, in October 2021.

This summer, Limp Bizkit was on the bill at England’s Reading Festival, where British publication NME said the band proved they “can still recapture the intensity they had at the turn of the millennium.”

The band was scheduled to begin a South American tour on November 29.

“It’s so tragic that he’s not here right now,” Mr. Durst said on Instagram, at times fighting back tears.

The band, he said, “rocked stadiums together, we traveled the world together, shared so many moments together.”

He added: “I know that wherever Sam is right now, he’s smiling and saying, ‘Man, I did it, I did it.’ And boy, did he do it.