‘Pure magic’: Limp Bizkit’s Sam Rivers dies at 48, leaving a void in the band’s soul
Sam Rivers, bassist and founding member of the metal band Limp Bizkit, passed away on Saturday, as announced by the band in a social media post. No cause of death was mentioned, although he had a history of alcohol-related liver disease; he was 48.
“Today we lost our brother. Our bandmate. Our heartbeat,” the band wrote. “Sam Rivers wasn’t just our bass player — he was pure magic. The pulse beneath every song, the calm in the chaos, the soul in the sound.”
Born in Jacksonville, Fla. 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 thought to be cousins, they initially believed they were related, but later discovered they were not.
Rivers later switched to bass and guitar and became friends with future Limp Bizkit singer/rapper Fred Durst. The pair formed a short-lived band called Malachi Sage, but soon reassembled with Otto to form Limp Bizkit in 1994, joining forces with the eccentric guitarist Wes Borland (who would leave and rejoin the band several times) and later, former House of Pain member DJ Lethal.
The band was associated with the rapidly growing “nu-metal” movement and, after a show in Los Angeles opening for Korn, were signed by Flip Records, whose founder, Jordan Schur, later made a distribution deal with Interscope for the band’s debut album. That 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 rapidly growing buzz culminated with their 1999 follow-up, “Significant Other,” driven by the single “Nookie” and a half-serious metal cover of George Michael’s hit “Faith.”
Limp Bizkit’s expletive-laden lyrics and hip-hop rock style dominated the 90s and early noughties
The album soared 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 1999 Woodstock festival was tainted by violence; many blamed Durst for the uproar, as he crowd-surfed on plywood that rioters had torn from festival fixtures and then shouted “It wasn’t our fault” as he left the stage, although opinions vary. The violence resulted in three deaths, dozens of injuries, and 44 arrests, amidst multiple incidents of rape, vandalism, and arson.
The band followed with the 2000 album “Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water,” but Durst’s unfiltered, often homophobic and sexist lyrics and comments, along with ongoing conflicts between him and Borland, resulted in Borland leaving the band in 2001. Rivers switched to guitar for the band’s 2003 album “Results May Vary,” but Borland returned 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 continued in after the band reunited in 2009. Limp Bizkit continued to tour and release albums sporadically in the following years, although Rivers left in 2015 due to health reasons related to liver issues from alcohol abuse.
“I got liver disease from excessive drinking ... I had to leave Limp Bizkit in 2015 because I felt so horrible, and a few months after that I realized I had to change everything because I had really bad liver disease,” Rivers told writer Jon Wiederhorn. “I quit drinking and did everything the doctors told me. I got treatment for the alcohol and got a liver transplant, which was a perfect match.”
He rejoined in 2018 and remained until his passing.
“He was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of human. A true legend of legends,” the band concluded in its post on Saturday. “And his spirit will live forever in every groove, every stage, every memory,” the band continued. “We love you, Sam. We’ll carry you with us, always. Rest easy, brother. Your music never ends.”
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