garyrozanski

Now before I start, Fred, I have to say that this letter may come across like from a fan boy with far too much time on his hands, oinked up on Cherry Coke, and in some ways you’d be correct & unfortunately I am very unapologetic about that.

However, this story is quite far from a pissed off Three Dollar Bill fan boy, continuously craving the sick beats of Pollution – but at Three Dollar Bill is where we start my story….

….the year is early 1999, I’m in my local record store after school (I’m only a wee 16yr old at this chapter), I hear a familiar sound coming from the sound system – I recognise the lyrics but it’s not George Michael spitting venom from the speakers, it’s some american dude. I’m hooked.

At the counter, I’m informed that the sound – still beating in my young ears – is Fred Durst. His band Limp Bizkit had just burst on to the nu-metal scene with their debut album Three Dollar Bill, Y’all! I knew instantly that TDB,Y! was the album I would take home that day. Paying the server I now had this shiny new album in my grubby little hands.

I’m home in a shot, to jam this cd in to my hi-fi system, ready to experience something that would alter my life forever. The first crackly beats of the Intro and into Pollution have their claws deep within my ear lobes, there is no way I am escaping this, this was setting my life path.

For the next year or so, my life evolved around Limp Bizkit. This was helped by the release of Significant Other later in 1999. Limp Bizkit literally exploded on to the main stream with your extensive touring and ferocious gigs. Yeah, you had your haters, but that’s what haters do – they hate. They drive you on to bigger & better things. The haters helped Limp Bizkit to prominence just as much as us, fans.

Years passed, I moved away from home, new bands came on the scene – I had a passion for the music that developed from my hearing Faith that one day in my local record store. Things change – locations, girlfriends, jobs – but there was always one constant in my life – Limp Bizkit. Even through the lean years, and Wes leaving, coming back, leaving, coming back, I still had my Bizkit CD’s – always eagerly anticipating the next album drop.

I was never one of the fans that would listen to the new shit & instantly diss it because it wasn’t a clone of Sour. I embraced every Bizkit album, wearing out the CD as I played it so much (thankfully in this day & age, my media player of choice doesn’t get worn away with the constant playing of Gold Cobra).

I’ve seen the band go through thick & thin, members struggle, members grow, develop in to some of the most awed musicians on the planet. Fred, there is no denying that you have grown in to an awesome director – The Education of Charlie Banks is a masterclass film!

But all this I’ve seen from the sidelines – from the pages on the web, from videos on youtube etc – in the 12 years of knowing that Limp Bizkit exists – I have never seen you in the flesh & playing live. It’s not without trying though.

Had tickets to see ya at Download 10 years ago but you guys couldn’t play, had tickets to see you play you’re free gig in Finsbury Park but things transpired against me & I couldn’t make it down to London.

When you’ve played gigs in europe I was in London, when you played gigs in London I was in New York, when you played gigs in New York I was in London. I’ve missed you at festivals, free gigs, intimate gigs. It’s a chase to see Limp Bizkit live….

…and this is really the point of my open letter to you, Fred. I, along with thousands more, want…no, need…to see you live at some point in our lives. I think it’s time for Limp Bizkit to wake this music world up and get back on that road to play bat shit crazy shows, Wes dressed up like an alien, Otto pounding his drums, Lethal dropping those funky ass beats, Sam working his magic on bass & you, Fred, spitting venom over the masses gathered to watch you guys do what you guys do best – perform.

I’d like to refer you back to an earlier point I made, Limp Bizkit made their name by extensively touring and playing ferocious shows. Why not go back to that? Destroy the shitty music world we live in. Show ‘em what ya got, Fred?

Maybe, just maybe, the recent separation between the Limp Bizkit & your label is a good thing, step away from making a new album & get out there to the cities again. Blow the new kids away, show the old kids that ya still got it – it never went away.

When the world is toured, torn down & destroyed you survey the damage and go on to make another killer album, but right now, the world is ready for another round with the Bizkit…

Here ends my open letter.

Thanks, Fred.

G