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Fred Durst, the Limp Bizkit lead vocalist, was criticized for stirring up the crowd at Woodstock 99 in a festival that ended with fires, riots and three deaths. Durst was on tour in 2022 until he cancelled due to health concerns.
Durst has been blamed for much of the violent energy at the three-day festival since 1999 when a San Francisco Gate article pointed the blame not on the organizers, but on the performers – mainly Durst. The new Netflix docuseries, “Trainwreck,” placed much of the blame on the organizers.
Today, Durst is still performing with Limp Bizkit, and he still isn’t taking any of the blame for the violence at the festival. Durst and Limp Bizkit announced in July 2022 that they were postponing their tour on his doctor’s advice due to health concerns.
Here’s what you need to know:
Durst Directed a 2019 Film & Recently Announced Health Concerns That Postponed Limp Bizkit’s 2022 Tour
Durst was set to continue the European leg of Limp Bizkit’s 2022 tour, “Still Sucks,” in September, but was advised by his doctors to cancel due to health concerns. Durst made the announcement on the band’s Instagram page July 17, 2022.
“For personal health concerns and based on medical advice given by my personal physician to take an immediate break from touring, Limp Bizkit will sadly have to postpone their 2022 Uk and European tour. We truly apologise for any inconvenience this may cause to our loyal fans, promoters and support staff. Stand by for further news. Sincerely, Fred & Limp Bizkit,” he wrote.
Durst did not elaborate on the medical problems, but said in a video posted on the Limp Bizkit website that he visited his personal doctor. He said he was surprised that they told him to stay nearby so he could undergo further tests. The results of those tests have not yet been reported.
Fred Durst had also been trying his hand at directing in recent years. He wrote and directed thriller “The Fanatic,” a 2019 film starring John Travolta. In the movie, Travolta plays “a mullet-topped celeb stalker,” Variety writes.
Fred Durst Recently Reflected on Woodstock 99 & Said ‘Limp Bizkit Is an Easy Target So Bring It On’
Durst did not take any of the blame for the violence at Woodstock 99 in a 2019 interview with Variety, and shifted the blame toward the organizers.
“Limp Bizkit is an easy target so bring it on,” Durst told Variety. “It’s easy to point the finger and blame [us], but they hired us for what we do — and all we did is what we do. I would turn the finger and point it back to the people that hired us.”
Organizer John Scher has pointed most of the blame at Durst.
“Fred Durst, who, if I haven’t said enough times, is a complete a****** … a moron,” Scher said, according to Variety. “He was completely out of his mind.”
Korn’s Jonathan Davis stood up for Durst.
“I think Bizkit is being blamed for it because they were the heavy band … I don’t think it was their f****** fault,” he said, according to Variety.
Durst contended that he and the crowd were all having fun in his interview with Variety.
“We were there having a good time,” he told Variety. “Hey, everybody was having a good time as far as we knew. That’s the truth.”
In a San Francisco Gate article published in 1999, the author spent four paragraphs on Durst, while mentioning other performers who stoked the crowd only with a few sentences at most. The author wrote:
The worst perpetrator was Limp Bizkit, the huge metal-rap band. I witnessed the megalomania of singer Fred Durst in June, when he nearly caused a riot at Shoreline Amphitheater during the LIVE-105 show by encouraging the audience to rush the guards and get close to the stage. Stagehands, recognizing they were outnumbered by whacked-on-music kids, wisely stepped to the side and let nature take its course.
And it almost did, in a nasty sense. Kids in the front began to get crushed, and some on the Shoreline stairs were tumbling, not able to see where they were stepping. Durst, realizing what he’d done, entreated everyone to be nice, but he was lucky nothing terrible happened. This time, his irresponsibility was more costly.
At Woodstock ’99, as fans started moshing crazily to the ear-shattering screaming that passes for singing on his part, Durst told the crowd he’d been asked by promoters to calm the volatile situation. ‘But I don’t think you should mellow out,’ he was videotaped saying. ‘This is 1999, mother- – ers – stick those Birkenstocks up your a- !’
He took it a step further when the band played its song, ‘Break Stuff.’ ‘Ever have one of those days when everything’s f- -ed up and you just want to break stuff?’ he taunted the crowd. Shortly after, the crowd began destroying a tower and pelting the MTV crew atop it with garbage, and tearing planks from the stage. Durst, too, was videotaped coming off the stage with a huge grin on his face, elated at the response.
I hope they send him the bill.
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