Fred Durst

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Fred Durst

Background information
Birth name William Frederick Durst
Born August 20, 1970 (1970-08-20) (age 37)
Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.
Genre(s) Nu metal , Alternative metal , rapcore
Occupation(s) singer, songwriter, actor, director, rapper
Instrument(s) Vocals
Rapping
Guitar
Associated acts Limp Bizkit, DMX, Method Man & Redman

William Frederick Durst (born August 20, 1970 in Jacksonville, Florida An American musician, director, and actor, known primarily as the founder of nu metal band Limp Bizkit.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Fred Durst was born in Jacksonville, Florida. His biological father left when he was only a few weeks old, and he was raised solely by his mother, Anita, during his infancy. The two were very poor, his mother having no house, job, or money. They lived in the top of a church, and people brought them baby food, which they both lived on. Anita eventually met Bill, a policeman, whom she married when Durst was 2. Durst is also lactose intolerant[1]

Durst liked the same music as his parents, and enjoyed dancing and showing off. When Durst was young, he and his half-brother Cory (son of Bill and Anita) became fans of Kiss.

Eventually, the family moved from Jacksonville, Florida to Gastonia, North Carolina (where Durst attended Hunter Huss High School [1]) to where he became interested in hip hop music, forming a break dancing group known as the "Reckless Crew."[citation needed] He also became interested in the local music culture, and when his mother got him his first mixer, it started his interest in rapping. He taught himself how to mix, and how to scratch using turntables, and then began practicing writing lyrics for rap songs.

Soon, he began entering rap competitions. Later, as the break dancing scene was dying out, Durst and his friends became interested in skateboarding. Durst started listening to heavier music such as Suicidal Tendencies and Black Flag. Reflecting his change in scene, he started writing more lyrics that acted as a release for pent-up emotions.

Durst graduated from Hunter Huss High School in 1988. After, he briefly attended Gaston College. He began working several small-time jobs at fast food restaurants, DJing, and working at skateparks to earn money, but was unsuccessful at keeping a job. He decided to join the United States Navy.

During his time in the Navy, he married his first wife at the age of 20. They moved to California, and had one daughter, Adriana. The couple eventually divorced.

Next, Durst returned to Gastonia and to the hip-hop scene, forming a rap duo: a friend was the DJ and Durst styled himself as a rapper similar to Vanilla Ice. He gained contacts in the music industry and the duo put together a promo video showcasing their talents. The promo video was unsuccessful in obtaining a recording contract.

Durst finally moved to Jacksonville where he became a tattoo artist. Durst created the tattoo of the Korn logo on the back of Korn's guitarist Brian Welch.

[edit] Limp Bizkit career

Durst formed Limp Bizkit in 1994 with Sam Rivers and John Otto. Wes Borland joined soon after, and DJ Lethal, formerly of the Hip-Hop group House of Pain, joined the band in 1995.

Limp Bizkit's first hit, a cover of George Michael's late '80s hit "Faith", gained traction due to heavy airplay on MTV, especially during the first year of Total Request Live. The band's other major hits include " ", "Break Stuff", "Re-arranged", "Counterfeit", "N 2 Gether Now", "Take a Look Around", "Rollin'" and "My Generation." Durst has directed most of Limp Bizkit's music videos, as well as videos for Korn ("Falling Away from Me"), Deadsy ("The Key to Gramercy Park"), Cold ("No one"), Puddle of Mudd ("Blurry"), and Staind ("It's Been Awhile" and "Just Go"), among others.

[edit] Other professional interests

Durst has dabbled in acting with a minor role in the 2005 TV miniseries Revelations, playing the role of Odgen. He had a small role on the FOX drama House, M.D. and he also starred in the movie Population 436 with Jeremy Sisto, as police officer Bobby Caine.

Durst also chairs his own record label, Flawless Records, a division of Geffen Records. It has signed such bands as Puddle of Mudd, The Revolution Smile, Ringside and She Wants Revenge.

In recent years, He has also shown interest in directing films. He directed the film The Education of Charlie Banks, which was concluded July 25, 2006. Durst will make his feature film directorial debut in The Longshots in July 2008. The film stars Ice Cube and tells the real-life story of the first girl to compete in the Pop Warner football tournament.

[edit] Controversy

[edit] Live performances

Fred Durst is well known for his great use of energy on stage and getting large crowds of fans phsyced. His image made Limp Bizkit what they are today and is considered to be an icon to at least many lead vocalists. However, Durst's live stage presence has created controversy on multiple occasions.

In 1999, the media portrayed his performance of "Break Stuff" during Woodstock 1999 as contributing to many of the festival's problems with violence and vandalism. Despite being asked to help defuse an already volatile situation by concert promoters, Durst told the crowd, "I don't think you should mellow out. This is 1999, motherfuckers - stick those Birkenstocks up your ass!" In response to the song, which would later become a hit, concert-goers committed acts of vandalism, tearing planks from the stage and throwing garbage at an MTV crew. [2]

At the KROQ Dysfunctional Family Picnic concert in 2000, Limp Bizkit and Durst were criticized on stage by Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots for taking the stage an hour late. At the same concert, when Durst took the stage, he erupted in a furious rant about Creed singer Scott Stapp, saying:

"I want to dedicate this next song to the lead singer of Creed.... That guy is an egomaniac. He's a f***ing punk, and he's backstage right now acting like f***ing Michael Jackson. F*** that motherf***er, and f*** you too.... And if you want, there's going to be a booth with pillows and blankets for when Creed comes on."[3]

During Creed's set, Stapp responded by saying "It takes a lot more guts to say something to somebody than from behind their backs."[3]

Durst was also criticized for his comments related to the death of Australian teenager Jessica Michalik, who was crushed to death during Limp Bizkit's set at the 2001 Big Day Out concert in Sydney. Durst claims that he made his concerns about security known days before the incident, but they fell on deaf ears. [4] Durst was videotaped telling the crowd "Safety first, if someone falls down pick them up", but was later criticized by the coroner for "alarming and inflammatory" comments during the rescue effort.

For a full week leading up to Limp Bizkit's support slot in Metallica's Summer Sanitarium 2003 concert in Chicago, Mancow Muller mocked Fred Durst on his radio show[5], inviting fans to attend the concert with anti-Durst placards.[6] This was in response to Durst's behavior at a Guitar Center competition in which hundreds of people showed up to audition for the spot of Limp Bizkit's new guitarist, only to have Durst show up late, give the crowd the middle finger and then leave. When Mancow's fans complied by showing up with the placards, openly taunting the singer, booing him and pelting him with refuse, Durst erupted in a profanity-laced homophobic tirade and left the stage only 17 minutes into the show. Durst was eventually sued for breach of contract (for not completing the show) by Chicago lawyer Michael Young.

[edit] Slipknot

Durst was embroiled in controversy with the band Slipknot after lead singer Corey Taylor heard from a friend that Durst referred to their fans as "the fat ugly kids" in a Spin magazine interview. [7]

Shawn Crahan, one of Slipknot's percussionists, threatened violence against him if he criticized their fans again, and Taylor later said in an interview with MuchMusic that he saw Durst as a great businessman, but not as an artist. In a 2001 post on Limp Bizkit's website, Durst disputed the perceived ill will against Slipknot. He was quoted as writing, "We really like Slipknot and are very happy that they hate us, because it makes their music heavier, angrier and real!" [8]. This quote angered Chris Fehn, one of Slipknot's other percussionists. Fehn later described Durst as being "scared of us (Slipknot) and that he didn't know until then that Clown (Shawn Crahan) was being serious about what he implied".[citation needed]

[edit] Black Label Society

Zakk Wylde of Black Label Society often showed his hatred of both Fred Durst and Limp Bizkit during live performances. BLS's Alcohol Fueled Brewtality album has Wylde yelling "Limp Bizkit sucks dick" during the song Superterrorizor.

[edit] Britney Spears

In 2003, paparazzi photos were released showing Durst with pop star Britney Spears and rumors began to spread that the two were dating. This struck a nerve with some fans on the Limp Bizkit website. Durst had not mentioned anything about it, and it seemed out of character for him to be dating a pop singer like Spears. It was revealed that Durst was hired to help write and produce tracks for Spears' upcoming album In the Zone, released later that year. The issue intensified when Spears appeared on TRL and denied the affair, saying she barely knew Durst, and that he wasn't her type.[citation needed]

Fred Durst later appeared on Howard Stern's nationally-syndicated radio program to set the record straight. He claimed that, while they were never dating, they did have a sexual relationship while working with her on the album. [9] He also mentioned that after Britney appeared on TRL he decided not to allow her to use his contributions on the album, though a spokesperson for Spears directly contradicted him, saying that it was her decision not to use the material, not Durst's.

While Durst claimed he only came forward with details about the relationship due to the paparazzi photos, he went into great detail on the radio show, including intimate details about Spears' body, in response to Stern's continued prodding. Spears later claimed that she regretted ever getting involved with "someone like Durst."

Several songs from Limp Bizkit's Results May Vary were allegedly written about the affair and its aftermath, including the album's first single "Eat You Alive". Lyrics from the song include "Hey you, Ms. Too-good-to-look-my-way" and "I'm sorry, your beauty is so vain." Though Durst denies any of the songs being directly about Spears, he did leak a song titled "Just Drop Dead" onto the internet in retaliation to some of Spears comments, and its lyrics do pertain to events that happened during the affair.

[edit] Placebo

As revealed on the Once More With Feeling DVD Extras, whilst on tour in Southern America, the two bands played the same evening. Trouble occurred when Placebo's manager would not let Fred Durst on stage as he did not recognize him. After eventually getting on stage, Durst began the chant "Placebo Suck" and continued to make homophobic comments.

[edit] Sex tape

In February 2005, a three minute composite of video clips of Durst was leaked to the Internet after the video clip was taken from his computer's hard disk. Some fans suspect that he released these himself for publicity.[10]

[edit] Suspended sentence

In 2007, Durst was given a suspended 120-day jail sentence after he hit two people with his car. [11]

[edit] Internet fame

Durst had been an active blogger in recent years, first on Xanga and later on MySpace where he updated on projects in both the musical and film endeavors he wanted to pursue. In July 2006, Fred announced his engagement to Krista Salvatore, 20. They met Memorial Day weekend 2006.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Music videos

[edit] Films

[edit] Television

[edit] As Director

[edit] Video games

Durst was included as a hidden playable character in the WWF video games SmackDown! Just Bring It and Raw in exchange for the use of Rollin' (Air Raid Vehicle), the theme song of The Undertaker at the time.

[edit] See also

United States Navy Portal

[edit] References

  1. ^ Billboard, 05.06.98: p.93
  2. ^ Woodstock '99: The day the music died
  3. ^ a b News - Articles - 1427590 - 20000626
  4. ^ WholeNote - The On-Line Guitar Community - with guitar lessons OLGA guitar tab music chords scales and other goodies
  5. ^ http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1474912/20030728/limp_bizkit.jhtml?headlines=true
  6. ^ db Magazine Industry News. http://www.dbmagazine.com.au/315/industry.html
  7. ^ http://www.dragmedown.com/slipknot/dictionary.php
  8. ^ WholeNote - The On-Line Guitar Community - with guitar lessons OLGA guitar tab music chords scales and other goodies
  9. ^ Durst Dishes Alleged Britney Nookie On Howard Stern Show | News | VH1.com
  10. ^ Fred Durst Says Sex Video Stolen From His PC - News Story | Music, Celebrity, Artist News | MTV News
  11. ^ "Limp Bizkit star avoids jail term", BBC News, 2007-09-17. Retrieved on 2007-10-04. 
  12. ^ http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070827/COLUMNIST0501/708270356/1121/ENTERTAINMENT

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Limp Bizkit
Fred Durst · Sam Rivers · John Otto · DJ Lethal
Wes Borland · Mike Smith · Rob Waters · Scott Borland · Terry Balsamo
Albums
Singles
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