antiMUSIC is pleased to welcome industry insider Jake Brown to give us his perspective on topics involving the music business. Jake comes to us with an impressive resume that not only includes heading his own record label, but also as an established music biographer with several books under his belt. 

Things haven't been going very well for Fred Durst lately, and most of the record industry seems to be pretty happy about that.  Whenever Metal Sludge asks one of Durst's peers in their 20 questions series "Who Deserves A Smack in the mouth?", its probable the answer will most times be Fred Durst, perhaps beaten out only by Axl Rose.  Ironically, both singers' bands have several important things in common, the first being that once each lost a guitar player vital to the band's creative backbone, in the case of Limp Bizkit, that being Wes Borland, and with Guns N' Roses, Izzy Stradlin, the band thereafter went downhill quickly.  In the case of G n' R, Axl made the wise decision to drop off the planet for almost a decade, while young Fred has remained too much of an ego-maniac to be so strategic, or merciful on those of us in the industry who could use a break.  Let's face it: Fred Durst is ANNOYING.  His ego is larger than any record sales his band has experienced in the last few years, and is the most annoying of any rock frontman's since Scott Stapp from Creed, and at least Stapp really can sing and his band still sells millions of records, which makes his conceit tolerable.  Perhaps the most immediately annoying thing about Fred Durst is his penchant for claiming personal involvement with every woman he collaborates with professionally (a claim they all emphaticly deny)- Britney Spears, Halle Berry, and  Thora Birch of American Beauty fame to name a few.  More fundamentally however, Durst represents everything I HATE about rock bands when they've long past their prime creatively (and commercially without yet knowing it), but still have one last big budget album allocation left on their contract, so choose to operate from the delusion that they're still on top of the world commercially.  In the case of Axl Rose and the rumored $25 million advance he has controlled since assuming ownership to the Guns N' Roses' name, he has spent the past 6 years in the studio writing and rewriting, recording and re-recording new material for what is likely to be the last G N' R record, at least reflecting an apprehension or anxiety on Rose's part in terms of how fans will receive the material.  

 With that awareness in mind, Rose has been taking his time, debuting the new band line-up via select live gigs, and introducing new material in small doses so fans can take the new sound in a little at a time.  Durst, conversely, prefers the shove-it-down-our-throats approach, to the point where we get more exposure to his annoying, winey personality than the most avid and rabid Bizkit fan could ever want to stomach at any one time, let alone in such a large over dosage.  One example of the latter was the grossly self-indulgent MTV Album Launch last fall the week prior to the release of Bizkit's first new album since Borland's departure, which gave viewers a candid glimpse into the pampered world in which Durst lives and works, surrounded by Yes-Men, inflated budgets to match his ego, and delusions of grandeur about sexual encounters with famous women (all of which have been denied or outright disproven to date by each lady's camp).  Attempting a weak Tommy Lee-rip off in one of the Album Launch episodes, Durst went as desperately far, with cameras rolling, as to claim that he had whisked Britney Spears away on a helicopter to a romantic weekend getaway.  That claim her management quickly and successfully refuted by producing video and related receipts and related evidence which showed Spears was on the other side of the country that weekend playing a concert.  In another pathetic scene, Durst showed up at the Sundance Film Festival amidst his alleged affair with Spears, and actually ran into her on screen randomly, where he was met with a quick kiss on the cheek and a blow-off, and after which he was shown quickly leaving the festivities to return to LA to worsen his situation by working on his band's sad follow-up to 2000's "Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water".  Upon release, the album quickly flopped at retail, but that didn't stop Durst from making a further ass of himself by claiming that he and actress Halle Berry were involved in a sexual affair because they shared brief on-screen kiss during the video shoot for "Behind Blue Eyes" as part of the Gothika Motion Picture Soundtrack.  Berry, married at the time, simply burst out laughing when asked by the press whether Durst's rumor had any truth.  

 Limp Bizkit could not sustain a headlining arena tour in support of the record, so they took opening (oops, sorry "co-headlining") slots with Metallica and Korn to stay playing in front of big audiences.  Durst was so arrogant and flippant during his band's live shows that in one case, he was actually sued by 172 Chicago fans who claimed they were ripped off because Bizkit played only a 17-minute set before Durst stormed offstage in an Axl-esque tantrum.  Reportedly, Durst lodged anti-gay and sexually explicit insults at the crowd before storming off stage to boos, and continued to insult the fans and the city of Chicago offstage, not knowing the microphone was still active.  At press time, Limp Bizkit's latest release had barely been certified platinum, selling only 1.2 million copies, a sad performance for an ego and sense of self-importance as large as Fred Durst's, not to mention the fact that Limp Bizkit came nowhere near recouping the money that Interscope Records spent recording and promoting it.  

As recently as May, 2004, rumors were swirling wildly, excitedly, and credibly that Limp Bizkit had been dropped from Interscope as a result of the loss the label took on the band's poor album sales.  Of course, Durst quickly denied it on his band's website, but the rumor came from well-placed sources, and therein sounds both credible and logical.  The fact is it happens to everyone, even rock legend Van Halen was dropped from Warner Bros. formally in 2003 before biting the bullet and reuniting with frontman Sammy Hagar for a reunion tour and second Greatest Hits album, and in that case, the deal was a one-off.  Limp Bizkit doesn't even have enough hits accrued for one Greatest Hits album, but that doesn't stop Durst from behaving like he's on that level.  The bottom line as it relates to Fred Durst is that in Rock n' Roll, egos must be qualified by record sales, period.  And Fred Durst doesn't measure up anymore- perhaps he did when the rap-rock trend was at its peak, but that sun set long ago, and Limp Bizkit's potential for creative evolution beyond that novelty died with Wes Borland's departure from the group.   The only gain from this massive failure is a big fat write-off for Interscope Records against the loss, and perhaps a long-overdue relief on the part of the record industry and fans alike from Fred Durst as he slowly wakes up to the reality that NO ONE CARES anymore!  Frankly, they haven't for a long time.  The only reason Durst's record label did this last time out is because they were contractually obligated to, and without major label support, and that of much of Limp Bizkit's now-grown fanbase, I and many rock fans just like me may finally get what we have been wishing for for years, and what Fred has been asking for equally- A BREAK!!!  

Leave us all alone Fred, GO AWAY, take a cue from Axl and disappear for at LEAST A DECADE!  Honestly, if you stayed away longer, that would be even better, because the record industry needs a LONG vacation from you!  You've got a beautiful kid, Austin, that was born recently, so spend some time at home raising him, instead of abandoning him like you did your now-teenage daughter in pursuit of another professional ego boost.  Its over!  You have spent enough time finding yourself as a person and artist, and at the expense of everyone around you.  I know what you're going to say too, "People are just jealous because I'm so successful."  You know what Holmes, you're not anymore, that's just the point.  And PLEASE, whatever you do, DON'T go off and try to make a solo album, because let's face it, that's what the last Limp Bizkit album was, and it SUCKED!  No one cares about your pain because, like Billy Corgan or Eddie Vedder, you have NOTHING legitimate to complain about, you've had every opportunity most musicians only dream about, and you blew it dude!  And the most important point in this rant is to point out that you're NOT Axl Rose, or Eddie Vedder, or Billy Corgan, who could afford to rant and complain about the personal challenges that accompanied their popularity because they were the cream of rock's crop- legitimate icons in the making, wherein fans were willing to tolerate it because their music was consistently top notch, and they all outlasted their first wave of popularity on that basis only.  You were given that chance with your most recent album, and you BLEW IT!  In this business, there is one universal truth, you're only as big as your last project, and following that logic, you make no sense to the music business right now!  So do one of two things: either GO AWAY for a while, or swallow your pride and go throw yourself at Wes Borland's feet and do some sincere begging, and maybe he'd come back and your band would then have ONE MORE SHOT.  The bottom line is we're not willing to give it to you alone!
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About the author: Jake Brown is owner/operator of Nashville-based Versailles Records and a biographer who has published several books. Click here to more details.