Playboy Interview: Fred Durst

Fred Durst, lead singer of the rap-metal behemoth Limp Bizkit, is perched at the edge of the balcony of the Coliseum in Jacksonville, Florida, surrounded by clawing, pawing Bizkit heads. He's screaming Counterfeit, Bizkit's first single: "I should have never dropped my guard/ So you could stab me in the back." The crowd, high on the music and on whatever they may have ingested before the show, comes in for the crush. Durst's bodyguards do their best to hold back the throng, but there are fewer than a dozen of them versus thousands of fans. First, a feisty kid pushes his arm through and smacks Durst on the back. Then another snatches his trademark red baseball cap. Cornered, Durst contemplates his next move: He hoists his leg above the balcony railing and teeters over the edge. There's a 30-foot drop above the sweaty crowd.

Durst's management team watches nervously. Durst bounces up and down, waving his arm, and backs off. Kids risk black eyes and busted knees to chase him when he climbs over the railing and races back to the front of the Coliseum, where he jumps onto the stage again and breaks into a thrashy version of Nookie. "You guys are fucking killer!" he shouts. "Who says people from Florida suck ass?"

It's typical Durst, who is famous for rowdy shows that occasionally get out of hand. During Woodstock 1999, where Limp Bizkit made a memorable appearance, riots, injuries and rapes took place. Durst faulted money-hungry promoters while some observers, including MTV's Kurt Loder, blamed Bizkit's provocative lyrics: "It's just one of those days/Where you don't wanna wake up/Everything is fucked, everybody sucks/ You don't really know why/ But you wanna justify rippin' someone's head off."

Then there was the Big Day Out concert in Australia, where Bizkit was fingered when 30 fans were injured and a 16-yearold girl in a mosh pit suffered a heart attack and later died. Although some reports say Durst pleaded with the 55,000 fans to calm down and later blamed "shitty" security for the debacle, Big Day Out founder Ken West implicated Limp Bizkit's volatile fans, not lack of planning, for the problem.

These and other controversies—Durst also wound up in jail in 1999 for kicking a security guard in the head at a concert in St. Paul, Minnesota—have followed the band's commercial success. Bizkit hit the airwaves in 1997 and their first CD, Three Dollar Bill Y'all, went double platinum in 1999. In 2000 they snagged a My VH1 Music Award, cajoled Napster into paying $1.8 million to sponsor a free concert series, freaked out parents by touring with Eminem and were voted best band by Rolling Stone readers (Durst was named best rock artist). Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water sold more copies in its first week than any rock record in history. In 2001 they received a Grammy nomination for Take a Look Around, their contribution to the Mission: Impossible 2 soundtrack.

Despite Bizkit's commercial success, most critics have been vicious. The New York Times called the band's music "crassly sexist and most likely to make it onto a World Wrestling Federation soundtrack." Rolling Stone has said Durst "has all the articulate savvy of a meat loaf in a goalie mask." There have been attacks from other musicians, too. Marilyn Manson called Durst and his fans "illiterate apes." Rapper Mos Def went after Limp Bizkit on his album Black on Both Sides, charging that Durst and other white hip-hop and rock-and-roll musicians have cashed in on black music. Scott Stapp of Creed challenged Durst to a fight after Durst called him "an egomaniac and a fucking punk." Responding to Durst's comment that "Slipknot's fans are a bunch of fat, ugly kids," the band's Corey Taylor announced, "We will kill you." The longest running feud is with Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor, who says Durst "represents all that is wrong" with the music business. To retaliate, Durst's song Hot Dog is directed at and parodies Reznor.

"Whether it's Oscar Wilde, William Burroughs or Fred Durst, the bar is always going to be raised on how you evoke and provoke emotions in people," says Jimmy Io-vine, co-chairman of Interscope, Durst's label. "There will always be people condemning it."

Durst's love life has received almost as much ink as his feuds, particularly his highflying affairs with Carmen Electra and Playmates Jaime Bergman and Summer Altice. Lyrics on Eminem's The Real Slim Shady added fuel to the gossip fire: "Shit, Christina Aguilera better switch me chairs/So I can sit next to Carson Daly and Fred Durst/And hear them argue over who she gave head to first." He was married and divorced by the age of 20 and had a daughter, Adriana, now a Limp Bizkit fan. His on-again, off-again girlfriend Jennifer is a dancer in the show With her, Durst has a son, Dallas, who was born last August.

Nothing about Durst's life has been boring. He was born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1971, after his parents split up. As a child, he was a "small, weird dude" who kept to himself, the only white kid who was friends with the black kids in the neighborhood. He skateboarded, break-danced and dug all sorts of music, from Michael Jackson to the Treacherous Three. In high school, after Durst's family had moved to North Carolina, the jocks beat him up so often that he was reduced to hiding on house rooftops. At home, he got it from his father, a strict police officer who disapproved of his friends, his music, his earring and his tattoo. At 16, Durst discovered that his father was actually his stepfather, and four years later he skipped town to meet his real dad, a wealthy entrepreneur in Jacksonville. They tried living together, but Durst moved out after a week and lived on the streets. He later joined the Navy, used a skateboard injury as an excuse to get out, ran a skate park, got married, had a child, divorced, worked as a tattoo artist and finally formed Limp Bizkit, a band with the "dumbest fucking name" he could think of. One night, after a gig at Jacksonville's Milk Bar, Durst met the band Korn, lured them back to his house with an offer of free tattoos and slipped them his demo. It led to a record deal with Interscope.

Limp Bizkit's debut release was helped by some questionable practices on the part of Interscope—the company paid a Portland radio station to play the band's first single. Durst was unapologetic, capitalizing on the controversy that was blasted on the front page of The New York Times. The record was also boosted by some good timing. A quirky version of George Michael's hit Faith was released as a single just before Michael was arrested for masturbating in a public rest room.

In 1998, Bizkit toured with Ozzfest and joined Korn on the inaugural Family Values Tour. During Ozzfest, Bizkit responded to their critics by climbing out of a gigantic toilet to begin the show. "We wanted them to see us as the big pieces of shit that they said we were," Durst said. In an effort to woo female fans, Bizkit hosted Ladies' Night in Cambodia, in which the first 200 women to show up each night were admitted free. It worked, even though some critics continue to blast the band as misogynists. In 1999, Durst became a senior vice president of Interscope with his own label, Flawless. So far he's signed three acts, Staind, Kenna and Puddle of Mudd.

In the wake of Bizkit's hit albums, record-breaking tours and continuing controversies, Playboy sent Associate Editor Alison Lundgren and Contributing Editor David Sheffto talk with Durst. Here is their report:

"Fred is next to impossible to pin down. Everyone wants a piece of him, from his managers to his fans, whom he personally greets outside every concert before the show. When we finally sit down, first backstage in Jacksonville, and the next night at the China Grill in Miami, he is focused, sincere and surprisingly (for the author of a song called Nookie) thoughtful.

"A few minutes before going onstage, he contemplates whether he should change his T-shirt (no), shave (no) or take a shower (no). He cranks up the U2 song Beautiful Day, then grabs his girlfriend's head and playfully pushes it into his armpit.

"The Jacksonville show had special meaning for Durst, since he grew up there and his parents live in town. Afterward, when we asked if his parents had come, he said, 'My mom got mad at me, man, because I wouldn't give all her friends backstage passes. She got offended and didn't come.' Durst didn't seem too upset.

"When Durst isn't touring the country on a king-size tour bus (he's afraid to fly), he lives in Los Angeles. He says he has bought—and sold—more than one house in the past few years because he can't find one that suits him. The last house had a bad vibe so he never moved in. His current crib? The Chateau Marmont hotel on Sunset Boulevard. His Hollywood pals include Ben Stiller and David Spade.

"Since day one, Fred has been the mouthpiece of Limp Bizkit. The other guys—recently departed guitarist Wes Borland, drummer John Otto, bassist Sam Rivers and DJ Lethal—haven't complained that he gets all the attention. Why should they? Fred is a marketing whiz whose enthusiasm about his band is infectious. He turned the search for Borland's replacement into a major media event, although when we met, he had failed to find a new guitarist. Durst's bandmates know their front man will do or say something that will put them in the limelight. In our interview, Durst didn't disappoint."

[Q] Playboy: You've said Limp Bizkit is the band everyone loves to hate. Why?

[A] Durst: People are like, "Look at this fucking guy. He's got tattoos! He's dressed like a bum at the fucking Golden Globes!" I'm like, "I'm just here to meet Jack Nicholson." We don't conform to a stereotype. We're down-to-earth. That's why we can go out into the crowd during our show. I don't dress up for award shows because I don't want to be uncomfortable. The media loves to attack us. You know what? I'm happy to be alive. I'm grateful for everything. I don't give a fuck what anyone thinks.

[Q] Playboy: Some reviewers have questioned your sincerity. How do you respond?

[A] Durst: They have problems with themselves. I'm sincere. I'm genuine. I'm real. I swear to God. The only people who know me are the ones who get to meet me and hang out with me. I wear my emotions on my sleeve. It all comes from my life. I've learned in the past few years how to absorb what's thrown at me. I think about it and make sure I'm pissed off. I'm hurt or I'm happy. It's all part of it.

[Q] Playboy: Were you surprised by the criticism you got for Woodstock in 1999?

[A] Durst: Everybody says we premeditate controversy. We don't. We never have. I don't like drama. I have never deliberately tried to make people get hurt at any live show.

[Q] Playboy: Tell that to the kids at Woodstock who were injured or raped.

[A] Durst: Listen, there were 300,000 people at Woodstock with tons of different tastes and lifestyles. They were all in one place in terrible conditions. They were waiting to explode.

[Q] Playboy: But your song Break Stuff set them off.

[A] Durst: I told them it was time to dig deep and release all that negative energy. During the song, I didn't know they were actually tearing stuff down. I can only learn from my mistakes and maybe be more cautious at shows. I got a huge bad rap for that. Kurt Loder, that fucking asshole on MTV, was talking shit. What an asshole. He said I incited the riots. It's like those people who say that Ozzy Osbourne's music made people kill themselves. It's bullshit.

[Q] Playboy: Loder wasn't the only one who criticized you for Woodstock. Courtney Love and Sheryl Crow did, too. They took aim at the violence and misogyny of Limp Bizkit.

[A] Durst: Courtney supposedly said some roadies or one of the bands raped a girl at Woodstock. My roadies didn't and we didn't. I talked to her and said, "Did you say we did?" She said she never said it. I was like, "Cool, come and party." She came and she was real cool and we've become e-mail friends. Even if she did talk shit, she isn't now.

[Q] Playboy: How about Sheryl Crow?

[A] Durst: I can't believe she fucking said anything against us, because she hung out with me one night at Lenny Kravitz' party. She gave me her number so we can talk sometime. I don't think she said shit. I'm still a fan of hers. Listen, if people want to talk shit, they can talk shit. If you don't like our shows, don't come. I want to be clear. If you come, you're on your own, man. I'm not putting a gun to your head. If you don't want to come, I'd rather you didn't. If you don't like us and don't want to be here, you're going to be the guy throwing his fucking shoe in my face. Who needs that shit?

[Q] Playboy: When you're onstage, how much power do you have over the audience?

[A] Durst: I can turn the whole place against someone. If I saw a guy beating up a little kid or hurting a girl, he might get murdered. I usually go, "What the fuck are you doing? Leave that fucking girl alone." If that happens, everybody will turn on the guy and all of a sudden it's my fault. Yeah, we have more power than you think to make things happen at a show. When I say, "Everyone put your hands up," 98 percent of the crowd does. It's why promoters are scared of Limp Bizkit: They think we can start riots.

[Q] Playboy: On the other hand, can't you calm down a crowd and defuse violence?

[A] Durst: I think so. At Woodstock, I didn't know anyone was getting hurt. I just saw people surfing on plywood. It didn't look like anything was wrong. We'd stop a show if I saw someone getting hurt. During one show, the stadium security guard beat up my security guard and a little kid. I kicked the guy in the head to get him off the kid. I stopped the concert. The guy had to leave.

[Q] Playboy: But you were arrested for that.

[A] Durst: Yeah, I went to jail. The cops couldn't have been cooler, though.

[Q] Playboy: You've also gotten a lot of ink because of your feuds with other musicians. Your longtime guitarist Wes Borland quit the band, and rumor is you're not speaking.

[A] Durst: Wes decided he's not happy and that he made enough money so now he can go do what he wants to do. I take a lot of control. Most of Limp Bizkit is my doing. I think he wants to be doing his own thing, to be the man and be leading his own pack. You can't look down on anyone who wants that.

[Q] Playboy: Is it true that you're not speaking to each other?

[A] Durst: I haven't talked to him once. We don't need to talk much about it.

[Q] Playboy: How about Creed? What do you have against them?

[A] Durst: I'm a huge fan of their music. But I don't believe in acting like we're better than anyone. At Ozzfest, Creed roped off areas where no one could approach them. It was like, "Don't talk to the band." Fuck that! They roped off their tour buses and brought out their own Ping-Pong tables. I want privacy in our dressing rooms, but when a bunch of bands are at a festival, it's like we're all in this together. That set me off, man. As soon as I said something about it, Scott Stapp challenged me to a boxing match on TV. I'm not doing that shit. I only fight in self-defense. You come up and knock me, I'll defend myself. I was bullied in school. I'm not that guy. He's that guy. When you get into an argument with someone at your office no one gives a shit, but we're in the public eye, so everyone gives a shit. From what I understand, since I first talked about how poorly he treated people, a lot of fans and people who work closely with him have said there's a huge improvement, so I guess you could say I played a positive role in his life.

[Q] Playboy: During an Ozzfest concert, Ozzy Osbourne's wife, Sharon, pulled the plug during your performance. What happened?

[A] Durst: We were three hours late because our limo was stuck in traffic. The second we pulled up we were supposed to go onstage. But Wes still had to put on his alter ego [his costume]. We told them we couldn't go on until Wes got ready. Everyone thought we didn't want to go on because we didn't want to open for Creed. Onstage I said, "Scott Stapp from Creed thinks he's Michael Jackson. What the fuck." That pissed Sharon off, so she pulled the plug. We're good friends. I love her. She's good people. I've gone to Ozzy's house for dinner a few times. I sat in Ozzy's living room with him while he painted a picture. Fucking crazy.

[Q] Playboy: Another controversy is your relationship with Christina Aguilera. What's with the Eminem song?

[A] Durst: Nothing happened. She didn't suck my dick. It was just his thing.

[Q] Playboy: How did your problems with her come about?

[A] Durst: Shit, MTV wasn't gonna let that bitch play because they didn't have a slot for her. Britney Spears was playing. They told Christina, "If you do a song with Fred Durst, we'll let you play." So she calls me and goes, "Fred, MTV won't let me play the Video Music Awards. Will you do a song with me? Will you rap in the middle of my song?" I was like, "Hell, no. I've got an idea, though. How about you do your song and I'll come up afterward and do my own thing, a little piece off my new record. I ain't flicking doing no skit with you. I'll come up, size you up and get the hell out. I'll do it as a favor to you because you're so worried that Britney is going to perform and you're not." Her managers thought I was going to sabotage her, but I did it as a serious fucking favor because she is so competitive with Britney.

[Q] Playboy: Did Aguilera thank you?

[A] Durst: No. I didn't get a thank-you call or anything. She cried the day of the awards. She didn't even show up for the fucking rehearsal. I'm sitting in this hotel room with my managers the day of rehearsal and she ain't coming. She's fixing her hair. So I storm into her room, going, "What the fuck are you doing?" She goes, "Calm down." I go, "No, fuck you. I ain't fucking doing this damn song." So she starts crying hysterically, freaking out. I go, "Ok, I'll fucking do it." I did her a fucking favor, and all I got was a bunch of shit from my fans who were like, "What the fuck did you do that for?" Afterward she was on MTV going, "The worst thing that happened to me in 2000 was Fred Durst called me so many times I had to stop answering my phone." That's bullshit, man. Fucking bullshit.

[Q] Playboy: But didn't you date her?

[A] Durst: There was a time when we were talking on the phone, but we never hooked up. We went out for ice cream. She's an ungrateful, spoiled-rotten fucking asshole who has an amazing fucking talent. Her managers suck. They treat her like shit. She's in the wrong world. She's so talented, but she doesn't see what's in front of her because she's so young and dumb. And it makes me think, What the fuck was I thinking? But I did it, and I know that I have good karma coming. Fuck her, man. I don't respect her.

[Q] Playboy: You have said that you had a crush on her.

[A] Durst: Who wouldn't? All I have to say to any of my fans who said "Fred's a fucking punk going out with Christina" is this: If she came up to you in a fucking mall and said, "Hey," you'd be all about it. Richard Patrick from Filter was like, "Fred fucking ruined the credibility of rock and roll." Fucking asshole. I took his ass on the Family Values Tour when no one wanted me to. I believed in his record. I'm a huge Filter fan. That guy's an ungrateful sack of shit. Fucking put that in bold letters, man. It's bullshit the way some people are so two-faced. How did I ruin rock and roll?

[Q] Playboy: Another feud is with Trent Reznor. Why Trent?

[A] Durst: I'm a huge fan. Nine Inch Nails is one of my favorite bands. After Woodstock, where I had been surfing plywood in the crowd, he's all "Fred Durst can surf a piece of plywood up my ass." For a minute I was flattered, because out of everyone in the world, he was talking about me. Then he kept on and on. I'm going, "Man, what the fuck is this guy's problem?" We were recording one night and I just sang his hook over my song. I didn't do it to be against him. I did it because our song is a parody of the word fuck. But you know what? Fuck you, man, you fucking Nine Inch Nail. I'll fucking knock your ass out. I had to send him my song to get permission to use his. He gave it. If he hadn't approved it, I would have put that shit on Napster so fucking fast. Everyone in the world would have heard it anyway.

[Q] Playboy: You were one of the first bands to publicly support Napster. Why?

[A] Durst: As someone who's in the record business, I know that Napster never hurt the record industry. Technology is like medicine. You might as well not fight it. Let medicine do its thing and get to where it's going. Same with technology. Record sales are bigger than they've ever been.

[Q] Playboy: You also got flak for touring with Eminem.

[A] Durst: Yeah, the critics said going on tour with Eminem is the worst thing you can do. There'll be riots! Protestors! It will be the worst press you get! It's going to ruin record sales! But we knew it wouldn't. We're two of the most hated acts in music, so why not go on tour?

[Q] Playboy: What's your view about Eminem's controversial lyrics?

[A] Durst: All I can say without being a hypocrite is that he's doing what he wants to do.

[Q] Playboy: Do you think bands are responsible for the message they send out in their lyrics?

[A] Durst: I do.

[Q] Playboy: Should you be responsible for a song like Break Stuff?

[A] Durst:Break Stuff is about having one of those days when you want everyone to leave you the fuck alone. That's it. Have you ever felt like that? It's one of those days when the remote's not working so you throw it at the TV. I don't think that's a bad message.

[Q] Playboy: Are you misinterpreted?

[A] Durst: Yeah. But a lot of people aren't misinterpreting what we're saying. More people are identifying with my feelings than I ever imagined. I sing about common things.

[Q] Playboy: Like Nookie? What inspired that song?

[A] Durst: It's about me taking abuse from a girl. She was fucking my friend. Used me for my money. She took my heart and put it in a blender. Because I'm a chump. I did it all for the sex. Every time I found out she was fucking one of my friends, it would make me more insecure. I'd want her more. Imagining her with someone else sexually made me sick. I pictured me eating her pussy out and someone else eating her pussy out. I couldn't get over her. I couldn't believe she did that to me. I was tore up.

[Q] Playboy: Are you a jealous person?

[A] Durst: I'm always a little jealous, yeah. I like my girl to be classy enough to the point that she's friends with all my friends, but not too friendly. There is such a thing as too much physical interaction between your girl and your friends. Some of my friends' girlfriends have guys kissing and massaging them all day. Not me. I'm a passionate person, really intimate. It's all or nothing.

[Q] Playboy: Is it easier for you to get out of a bad relationship now?

[A] Durst: Yeah. Because it's not worth the emotional roller coaster.

[Q] Playboy: Might you miss out on a promising relationship?

[A] Durst: I'm a little bit scared that I'm not going to give someone a fair chance, yeah. I have only dated a few people. There hasn't been anything serious. I dated Jaime Bergman for two months, but we didn't see each other much.

[Q] Playboy: How about Carmen Electra?

[A] Durst: Carmen and I didn't date long. We barely saw each other. Dennis Rodman was still crazy about her. I realized I didn't need Dennis coming after me. She's beautiful and cool, but it just wasn't for me. Sometimes I feel scared. I think, I'm a workaholic who is only thinking about making killer music. Am I going to be single forever?

[Q] Playboy: What happened to your relationship with Summer Altice?

[A] Durst: She was killer at the beginning. Then I'm going, "This girl's a serious fucking problem." I don't know what to say. It was instantly over the top. She was talking about marriage and kids. All of a sudden, everyone's going, "Did you hear? They're engaged." I'm going, "Are you kidding me, man?" You could make a fucking movie about that situation.

[Q] Playboy: Are you interested in casual sex, or does it have to be serious?

[A] Durst: I humped my brains out when I was young. I still have a strong sexual side. I love women. I'm a heterosexual male who is going to be with a woman and lick her from head to toe. It's lust, it's love, it's romantic. I'm that person. Everything I do, whether I'm directing or dating or skating, is like that. It's almost a problem, because I go over the top. I'll meet a girl and go on a date. I'm open. I'm looking. I'm not the guy who can go out with someone for a year and then hold her hand and two years later she's my wife. When I sit down with a girl, she goes, "Why are you out with me? You're a rock star." Happens every time. I'm like, "Why are you out with me?" I always hope to meet my soul mate. I'm not a dater. I'm looking for that girl.

[Q] Playboy: How good are your long-term relationships though?

[A] Durst: I've met girls who are so sweet and killer, and I ruin it. I always think they're not going to end up that way. I'll turn off to them if they have bad breath or they smoke. Anything will do it. Maybe it's the way I make sure nothing serious happens.

[Q] Playboy: Gossip columnists have reported that you're engaged.

[A] Durst: They said that I got engaged to someone in Minneapolis. I'm going, "What the fuck are you talking about?" They don't fucking know. The fact that I'm newsworthy is fucking hilarious.

[Q] Playboy: Is any press good press?

[A] Durst: No. It's in the hands of the reader. One guy can read a bad thing and be stoked, that's cool. One guy can read a bad thing and be like, "I'll look more into this guy."

[Q] Playboy: Do you care what the critics say?

[A] Durst: I don't like to hear any negative things. I want to please everybody. When you hear nonstop negative things and rumors, it hurts. I take it to heart. It's crazy to be this popular. It's crazy to deal with the rumors that go along with it.

[Q] Playboy: What hurts more, the negative comments about the music or rumors about your personal life?

[A] Durst: Negativity in general. It seems like every few years a new band comes around that the media love to hate. We're that band. Our fans are like, "Fuck that." A lot of our fans rely on the media to get to know us. Some writers have a negative agenda from the get-go. That's part of the reason we did the free tour. We wanted to blow everyone away. So our fans responded, "I don't care what the critics say. They make good music. They're solid, they put on a great show and they're real."

[Q] Playboy: Your big tours are heavy on pyrotechnics. Are you inspired by Kiss?

[A] Durst: I wanted to do more than they did, so we got more propane.

[Q] Playboy: What inspired the toilet you climbed out of at Ozzfest?

[A] Durst: We were getting stabs from the press. Everyone thought we were big pieces of shit. So we decided it would be funny to make a 25-foot-tall toilet bowl and come out of it. We asked our label if they would pay for it. They were like, "A toilet?" I go, "Trust me, man, it's gonna be cool."

[Q] Playboy: Who creates your live sets?

[A] Durst: We create everything. I write our own video treatments, direct all our videos, market our CDs, do all our artwork, design our stage sets. It's all in-house. That's how I became senior vice president at Interscope. When we first signed, we let Wes Craven's son make the video for Counterfeit. It was the worst video ever. No one's ever seen it. They gave him $40,000. I didn't understand why he couldn't make a decent video with that much money. I've got all these ideas. I told them to give me $30,000 to make the video for Faith. They were like, "That's nothing." I shot the Faith video during our tour.

[Q] Playboy: Did you always imagine that you would make it as a rock star?

[A] Durst: You start out playing air guitar to Kiss in your friend's trailer. Then you (continued on page 136)Fred Durst(continued from page 64) make a band and you're playing for 20 friends. Then it turns into 100 people and you're like, "This is fucking awesome." Then 1000 people come and you think, We're the king of the bands in Jacksonville. Then it goes to 5000 people and you're going, "This is serious, man, Limp Bizkit can make it." After dreaming and hoping to make it, you're living it. Then it's like, "Let's do a demo and I'll produce it."

[Q] Playboy: You got the demo to Korn, who helped you.

[A] Durst: Korn came to one of our little shows and I was like, "You guys want tattoos?" So we went to my house and I did their tattoos and gave them a demo.

[Q] Playboy: We hear you misspelled Korn and tattooed Horn on one guy.

[A] Durst:[Sighs] It says Korn but the K sort of looks like an H. So fuck that.

[Q] Playboy: How did the tattoo lead to a record deal?

[A] Durst: Next time Korn was in town, they called and said they needed a place to wash their clothes. They came back and jammed with us in our jam room and realized we'd gotten better. I gave them another demo and they said they'd get us to open for them sometime. All of a sudden I got a call from Ross Robinson, who produces Korn. He said he loved our demo and wanted to work with us. A week later, we went on tour with Korn. We had no record deal, no money, no label, but we were like, "Fuck yes—no nothing" and we're like, "Fuck yes." We got a little tour bus and gave out samplers. Korn broke us.

[Q] Playboy: Is it true that Interscope paid radio stations to play your first single?

[A] Durst: We were on tour, but the stations wouldn't play us even though the fans wanted them to. So Interscope said, "We'll pay you to play the song this many times and then you can stop." They played it, and the fans loved it. It became number one at the station.

[Q] Playboy: There was a front-page article critical of that practice in The New York Times.

[A] Durst: Who cares? It was great marketing. I didn't know they did it until I read about it in The New York Times. I didn't ever think we'd be on the radio.

[Q] Playboy: You got another publicity boost when George Michael got busted for masturbating in a public bathroom. Your version of Faith had just been released.

[A] Durst: It was perfect, man.

[Q] Playboy: Why did you record Faith?

[A] Durst: I was like, "Let's think of a cheesy song that everyone knows and do it heavy." It was a goof. It was coincidental that he got caught doing whatever in the bathroom. I tried to get him to play the song with us during MTV's New Year's Eve shows. I was like, "Kids will think you're cool if you do this." He thought it would be making fun of him.

[Q] Playboy: When the song hit and Limp Bizkit took off, were you shocked?

[A] Durst: Fuck, yeah. I was like, "I can't believe my video is on MTV. I can't believe I met so-and-so. I can't believe I'm fucking in Hollywood. I can't believe I met Jim Garrey. I can't believe we sold a million records." I look into the crowd and see people who are fat, skinny, black, white, rednecks, preppies, hip-hoppers, grunge kids, metal heads, ravers. Dude, I see everybody out there, and they're all listening to Limp Bizkit. It's unbelievable. I can't believe I'm friends with Ben Stiller. We call each other on the phone. I can't believe I went to a party at Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell's house. Growing up, I couldn't have imagined it.

[Q] Playboy: How would you characterize your childhood?

[A] Durst: My father was a police officer in a small town in North Carolina. He wasn't racist, but he was against anybody who wasn't clean-cut. All my friends were black, redneck or trash and they had tattoos and smoked cigarettes. My black friends thought I was a cool white dude. I loved Michael Jackson. I had the white glove. You don't see colors when you are young, man. I loved music that told a story. The Devil Went Down to Georgia by the Charlie Daniels Band was such a story. I loved Led Zeppelin, Elvis, Donna Summer, Willie Nelson.

[Q] Playboy: Your dad was shot in the line of duty. Were you terrified?

[A] Durst: I didn't know about it until I saw it in the paper.

[Q] Playboy: How old were you then?

[A] Durst: I don't even remember. I do remember the time a Peeping Tom was looking into our house one night. My dad gets up, puts a gun in his tighty whities and confronts the guy. The guy swings at my dad, my dad knocks him out and the next thing I know, the cops are there. My dad's standing there with a gun in his underwear. Oh, my God. It was weird. There were always guns around the house, but I never became fascinated with them. I'm lucky. That's probably why I don't do drugs.

[Q] Playboy: Never?

[A] Durst: I've smoked pot but it made me so paranoid I thought I was going to the. Some people can do drugs and some people can't. I can't. I tripped on acid once when I was young. I freaked out of my fucking mind. Went insane. I can't stand anything I can't control. I don't have an addictive personality. I'm lucky.

[Q] Playboy: Did you rebel at all?

[A] Durst: Even though my dad thought earrings were a fag thing, I pierced my ear. I wore it when I left the house. One night I forgot to take it out. I got my ass beat. Then there was the time I gave myself my first tattoo with a pen and india ink. A little heart with a cross over it. He already couldn't stand me at that point. I'm not his real son. There was always distance between us. He was a military man. He was a Vietnam vet and a police officer, and I was an emotional little kid.

[Q] Playboy: What about your real father?

[A] Durst: I didn't even know I had another dad until I was 16 or 17. I was looking through my mom's closet when I found a book with a picture of my mom in a wedding dress getting into a car with a blond guy who wasn't my dad. Turns out it was my real dad. I fucking freaked out. Started crying.

[Q] Playboy: Did you confront her?

[A] Durst: She was in the room. She goes, "You know your Grandma Pat? That's your real dad's mother." I thought she was just some lady in Florida who I called grandma. When I was 20, I decided to meet him. I was living in North Carolina and he was in Jacksonville. We look alike, except for he's about 300 pounds overweight. He's artistic. He's rich. There were Porsches everywhere.

[Q] Playboy: Did he have another family?

[A] Durst: Yeah. I have a half brother named Hank. I decided to stay with him at his house. He gave me a job at one of his printing companies, but I was a skateboarder. I didn't want to work.

[Q] Playboy: Was he warm?

[A] Durst: He's funny and warm. We have the same personality. But I was into playing. Within a week of meeting him I was like, "Fuck this." I stole a guitar from him, pawned it and lived off that money. I haven't talked to him since.

[Q] Playboy: He hasn't tried to contact you?

[A] Durst: No.

[Q] Playboy: Do you resent him?

[A] Durst: Nah. I'm a kid he didn't mean to have. It happens.

[Q] Playboy: How do you get along with the man who raised you?

[A] Durst: He is killer now. I went into the military to try to please him. It was the only thing I knew that would make him happy. Dude, I was fucking excited. I watched the Navy commercials. My dad was pumped. I got off the airplane and it was freezing. It was near to the Great Lakes. They put us on this bus and as soon as we step off the bus, a hose is spraying us. It's the middle of the night. Freezing. Our clothes are soaked. This guy comes up to a guy near me and smacks him in the face: "Shut the fuck up!" You're thinking of the military movies you've seen. You're standing there in line, a guy's slouching and the officer is pulling him up by his hair. "Look at this faggot right here with the long hair!" The first thing you do is get your hair cut. It does help you with discipline.

[Q] Playboy: Did that stay with you?

[A] Durst: Yeah. But it's hell. It's like prison. The first time you get to the phone, you're calling home. You're crying. So I said, "Fuck this." My wrist was crushed from skating. I had crushed it a few months before I went in. I went in and said I did it loading bombs. They said they were going to do an operation. I knew right then what would happen. They have to do the operation and then physical therapy, and you say whether it's healed or not. Let's just say they did the operation, and it never got better. Give me my severance pay and my honorable discharge

[Q] Playboy: When you left the Navy, what did you do?

[A] Durst: I went back to North Carolina and opened a skate park. It was awesome, but we got shut down because we didn't have the money to put in handicapped bathrooms. Then I moved back to Jacksonville and worked for my dad's lawn business. I was just another crappy kid, a loser.

[Q] Playboy: Was your father disappointed when you were discharged?

[A] Durst: I guess.

[Q] Playboy: Is he proud of your success now?

[A] Durst: There's another level of respect. I told him that I'm not just a rock star, I'm a businessman. It changed his mind about everything. Now he lives vicariously through me.

[Q] Playboy: Does it bother you that it took success to bring him around?

[A] Durst: Shit, no. I'm just glad. Finally I have a relationship with the guy who raised me.

[Q] Playboy: You had a daughter when you were 20. Do you have a relationship with her?

[A] Durst: Yeah. Not with her mother. We were together forever. She ran away, met some other guy and had a baby with him. I begged her to be with me because we had a kid. I didn't care if she cheated on me or liked someone else. I was desperate. Things were falling apart. I get a record deal and all of a sudden my daughter's mother is reaching out. It's because of the money, but at the same time it's cool. It's brought my daughter and me closer. For a while, my daughter's mother told her that people with goatees or tattoos were bad. She'd tell her we were freaks. I couldn't say anything because she'd been raised by someone else her whole life. I was just a paycheck. Now we hang out. She knows we're not bad. I want to be a cool dad she can come to with questions or when she's upset. I'll be a cool-ass parent.

[Q] Playboy: If your daughter wanted to come live with you, would you let her?

[A] Durst: In a heartbeat. If she ever wants to come out and stay with me, I'm ready. I tried to get back with her mother so many times, begging, saying, "This is a family, we can do this. I know you're in love with that guy but ...." She's a weird lady, man. I don't know where her head's at. My daughter's cool, though. She looks just like me. She's supersmart.

[Q] Playboy: Tell us about Dallas, your son. Were you in the delivery room?

[A] Durst: I filmed the whole thing.

[Q] Playboy: Do you think you will be a different parent with him than you were with your daughter?

[A] Durst: I'll be around a lot more. I'm older and more mature and wiser now.

[Q] Playboy: Do you see yourself as a role model for your children or your fans?

[A] Durst: I can't think too much about it. I try to act like myself all the time. When you think too much about being a role model you start to change. The fact that I act like myself is why a lot of fucking people hate me. I don't want anyone to get hurt. When I hear about murders and hate crimes, that shit's terrible. But I don't think I'm ever gonna change. Being a role model is like being a president. Look how fake Al Gore was.

[Q] Playboy: In the last election, you said Ben Stiller would make a great president. Were you serious?

[A] Durst: Sure. He's cool. But when I saw Gore and those guys trying to be role models, they were faking the fucking funk.

[Q] Playboy: What's your opinion of W.?

[A] Durst: I'm not a political guy. I'd like someone to get up there and be the common man. Clinton lied his ass off. He got his dick sucked. He got busted and said, "I tried to beat around the bush to make the lie not such a lie." I would like someone who magically has it all. The realness, the smarts, the right answers, the right thoughts, the right plans. I bet that guy's out there, and he probably doesn't even like politics.

[Q] Playboy: Would you ever run for office?

[A] Durst: Fuck that. No way, dude. I tell you what, they would fucking like me, though. I only hang around with down-to-earth people.

[Q] Playboy: You're directing movies now. Why?

[A] Durst: I don't want to just direct videos, I want to direct films. I love Martin Scorsese and Francis Coppola. I love films that you watch every couple of years.

[Q] Playboy: What movies do you watch over and over?

[A] Durst:Boogie Nights, Apocalypse Now, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Lawrence of Arabia, Badlands. That's really inspiring on a directing level. Dumb and Dumber is a timeless movie. Fight Club is so deep. I love it.

[Q] Playboy: You have also become a record-company executive. What's a vice president like you do?

[A] Durst: I sign bands. It's not like they said, "Limp Bizkit's selling records. We have to give Fred a job to make him happy." It's not like that. I sign and develop my own acts.

[Q] Playboy: Can you sign whoever you want?

[A] Durst: If I like a band, I go to Jimmy Iovine, who runs Interscope. I don't play that middleman bullshit. I have a couple of killer acts that are going to be really big. They're nothing like Limp Bizkit. I believe in diversity for my longevity. If I go out and get all these rap-metal-mock-rocker-jock guys, it would be so shallow. But I'd love to find a band that does kind of what we do and was really real. That's like Dr. Dre going, "Man, I would love to find a white rapper who for real can rap better than anybody. There's the only way I would fuck with that." He did it with Eminem. Regardless of what Eminem talks about, he's a lyrical genius. He really is a good rapper. Contentwise, I'm not going there.

[Q] Playboy: What kind of music influenced you?

[A] Durst: In the early Eighties I liked everything. I love anything danceable, rock or hip-hop. I'm inspired by anything that touches me emotionally, whether it is happy or sad. Timeless music.

[Q] Playboy: Does Limp Bizkit make timeless music?

[A] Durst: No.

[Q] Playboy: What is your definition of timeless?

[A] Durst: A song from 10 years ago that still moves you. A song you can't deny. In 10 years, the people who are 15 today won't be singing Nookie or Break Stuff. Limp Bizkit is a stepping-stone for the great music that's about to come. I can't be singing "I did it all for the nookie" when I'm 40 years old. You can quote me. I will not be singing that song.

[Q] Playboy: Mick Jagger said he wouldn't be singing Satisfaction at 45 and he's singing it at 60.

[A] Durst: If I were Jagger, I'd have said I will be singing that song. Limp Bizkit is a different energy. It's physical. We're creating a standard for this genre. It's not something you want to see somebody older doing. It's vertebrae-damaging, hip-dislocating energy. I know I'm not going to be able to walk well when I'm older. My back already hurts. When you get older you don't want to fucking bust your jeans, man. Elton John can do it. He can get on that piano and fucking do it, man. Aerosmith. It's just the way it is.

[Q] Playboy: Does it bother you to understand that you're making music that won't last?

[A] Durst: I can make timeless music. I write it in my own studio. It's solo stuff. I can't go to Limp Bizkit and make it happen, force it, because that would be fake. I can't go, "Hey, man, we're going to try to make this kind of music." The reason our records are so up and down is because we're just jamming. Some days we'll come in all hyped and I'm rapping. We never make a conscious effort to try to write something. That's what's special about Limp Bizkit. So it's good for now.

[Q] Playboy: What's your prediction about the music coming down the road?

[A] Durst: I think we're headed for another period like the early Nineties. To me that was a timeless era. Pearl Jam's first album, Nirvana's Nevermind. Soundgarden, who came in with this beautiful voice over this rock. I love music from that period. I love radio songs where I can listen to the hook and the second time the hook comes around, I've got it. That to me is pop. We're going to get some bands bugging out. I would say Creed would be one of those bands if Scott Stapp wasn't so into being a superstar. The music is undeniable. Puddle of Mudd will be a part of it. Kenna is going to be a part of it. With the Internet, people's tastes are changing faster than usual. We've got to stay in touch as a band. I think that's where bands lose it, and I'm not saying we won't. Everything we do, we want to do better than our last hit track. What if we're not in the right mind-set for the next record? Then we'll be a band that had three killer records.

[Q] Playboy: Who would you like to collaborate with?

[A] Durst: Maynard Keenan from Tool. Elton John, as weird as that sounds. Bono. I'd like to do a cool acoustic song with him.

[Q] Playboy: Is part of the benefit of success that you've proved something to people who knew you back when?

[A] Durst: All the guys who beat my ass in school, tormented and tortured me, made me hide on rooftops for hours—those people! I know they know who I am now. They've got the record or they've heard it. They're going, "That little fucking guy." I almost went to my 10-year high school reunion. Maybe I'll go to my 20th. I don't think you ever think you're gonna become famous. I never thought I'd be so outspoken and want to accomplish so much.

[Q] Playboy: Did you feel like you had to prove all of those guys from high school wrong?

[A] Durst: I always think I've got to prove something to everyone. I proved something to the record industry, the critics. I'm that guy who's gonna die proving something to everybody. When I'm gone, that's when they're gonna look back and see what I've done. I document my life on digital video camera. I talk to people as if I'm gonna be gone. It's just me going, when somebody gets these tapes, here are the answers. I wish I'd had those about Elvis or Kurt Cobain, someone who knew nobody understood them. As long as you're persistent, and you're always telling the truth, you're good. On my first record I wrote, "Don't be afraid to feel fear, frustration, love, happiness, anger. It's Ok to be you, man." Some people don't think it is.

[Q] Playboy: How important is the money?

[A] Durst: We're very lucky. We come from normal parents, living paycheck to paycheck. I didn't wear name-brand clothes to school. We've got more than we ever imagined. A little bit of money is awesome for us. It's nice to hook your assistants up. If you're able to write a $1000 check for Christmas to everyone you're tight with, it feels good. But you have to be smart and think about the future. You have to think about longevity. I can count on two hands how many people have made timeless music and had people follow them for years. I have to be prepared to think I'm not going to be one of those handful, but I want to do something musically now and stop while it's still amazing. I've watched too many episodes of Behind the Music. I don't like it when bands fizzle out. I won't. Remember this: I'm not going to fizzle out on you.

She was fucking my friend. Used me for my money. Took my heart and put it in a blender. Because I'm a chump. I did it all for the sex.

Critics said Eminem is the worst thing you can do. We're the most hated acts in music, so why not tour?