{"id":95905,"date":"2025-10-22T01:09:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T01:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/95905\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T01:09:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T01:09:08","slug":"thundercat-talks-obsession-with-limp-bizkit-and-sam-rivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/95905\/","title":{"rendered":"Thundercat Talks Obsession With Limp Bizkit and Sam Rivers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFollowing the death of Sam Rivers<\/a>, the founding bassist of\u00a0Limp Bizkit<\/a> who died on Oct. 18<\/a> at age 48, Thundercat<\/a> says talking about it in an interview feels \u201cnecessary.\u201d Rivers was just 19 when the band\u2019s debut album, Three Dollar Bill, Y\u2019all, was released in 1997, and was with the band during their most pivotal \u2014 and controversial \u2014 moments, including the massive success of their follow-up albums, Significant Other and Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water.<\/p>\n

\n\tConsidering all three records, Thundercat says there are no skips. \u201cEvery one of them that he played \u2014 every song that he played \u2014 those songs, for me, were special,\u201d says the bassist, born Stephen Bruner. Thundercat\u2019s own work spans hip-hop, R&B, electronic, jazz, and beyond. Following the musician\u2019s early gig with Suicidal Tendencies, he\u2019s gone on to collaborate with the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Flying Lotus, Erykah Badu, and more. But before there was It Is What It Is, Thundercat says he was a kid in high school, hearing Rivers\u2019 thunderous bass line on \u201cNookie\u201d for the first time.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cLimp Bizkit was groundbreaking, and it needed no proof,\u201d he tells Rolling Stone. \u201cYou could see it in people\u2019s reaction to it, and Sam was one of the mechanics of our childhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking via phone to Rolling Stone, Thundercat reflects on how Rivers and Limp Bizkit\u2019s fearless approach to traversing genres shaped his own sound, Rivers\u2019 uncanny ability to draw out the heaviest of emotions from his guitar, and how the band\u2019s work inspired a generation\u00a0to exist on their own terms.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen you said this interview felt needed, what were you thinking about specifically?
[Rivers\u2019] work in Limp Bizkit is very defining to a number of generations, and for me personally, I am a kid that grew up listening to Limp Bizkit. I loved the first album. I loved the second album. Between him and [the band\u2019s drummer] John Otto, it was a feeling to seek after as a musician. His music was defining to my early growing in music, too \u2014 From \u201cRe-Arranged\u201d to \u201cMy Generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tHow would you define that \u201cfeeling\u201d you chased?
I think that the line for pop music and rock \u2014 rock music growing up as a kid here in L.A., especially \u2014 there was not a lot of representation of live music that was allowed to touch pop culture, other than just rock. There\u2019s definitely moments, but to be able to listen to live music growing up as an instrumentalist, the moments that I would have would stick to me. And it would always be rock. Bands we all loved growing up \u2014 Rage Against the Machine, Korn, Slipknot \u2014 it defined musicality and ability for us as a at a young age, even Linkin Park, Blink 182. This is the era that we grew up in. [People like] Sam gave us examples of how to play.<\/p>\n

\n\tLimp Bizkit was a groundbreaking group. [They had] their own sound, their own entity. When it came to rapping and singing and screaming \u2014 and doing all of this \u2014 there was nobody doing that. No matter what anybody says, Limp Bizkit \u2014 they\u2019re fucking amazing. Throughout the throes of pop culture, where you try to find places for things, just put it in a box \u2014 they were out of the box for everybody.<\/p>\n

\n\tTrue, they helped popularize the \u201cnu metal\u201d era. But after what we just talked about, I hesitate to say that.
There we go. There\u2019s that box.<\/p>\n

\n\tEven \u201cpop-rock\u201d sounds weird.
It\u2019s weird that it exists in a manner like that, but it happens. It\u2019s a sign of the success of it, to be honest. It\u2019s the bittersweet reality of what comes with said pop culture and music and the selling of music. But like I said, Limp Bizkit was groundbreaking, and it needed no proof. You could see it in people\u2019s reaction to [the music] and Sam was one of the mechanics of our childhood, to say the least. My middle school and the high school experience was me listening to Limp Bizkit, for sure.<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you remember when you first heard Sam\u2019s work?
I feel like everybody heard Sam at the same time. It was \u201cNookie.\u201d We all heard that bass line. That was a combination of him and Wes. That was everybody\u2019s first moment hearing Sam and Wes and it was that album art cover done by Mear One. It was such a statement. It was hip hop, rock, rap \u2014 all of that.<\/p>\n

\n\tDid it evoke anything?
It reminded me of \u201cSly\u201d by Herbie Hancock<\/a>. [Mimics track\u2019s instrumentals.] For me, that\u2019s where it registered. And I\u2019m pretty sure if you ask Wes, and if you asked Sam\u2026 They probably loved Herbie Hancock. The lines for me\u2026 there\u2019s gaps in sound and time that when they show up it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh man, that feels like this,\u201d but when Limp Bizkit came out, nothing felt like Limp Bizkit. So, there\u2019s a special place in my heart for Sam.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs someone who blends genres and sounds, do you see any parallels between Sam\u2019s work and your own?
It\u2019s without a shadow of a doubt, influenced my music, for sure.<\/p>\n

\n\tLimp Bizkit would often get a mixed response, but the band\u2019s impact is undeniably pivotal. What do you think their work says about music in the Nineties and where music is today?
It felt like somebody cared about music. Sometimes it would be buried inside of rock, and they would hide the nutrition really well, so to speak. What their contribution to the music and culture said about us \u2014 and me at the time \u2014 was that everybody wanted to hear something different and new. That\u2019s what Limp Bizkit represented \u2014 and Sam. You can\u2019t have one without the other. Their influence. Sam\u2019s influence. It needed no question.<\/p>\n

\n\tEvery few generations has those artists where when you get too old, you don\u2019t get what it is. It happens to everybody. At one point it was jazz. Everybody thought jazz was the devil\u2019s music. And then at one point it was rap; rap was the devil\u2019s music. Every generation has their artists where people shit on them, or try to downplay their hard work. And I think that Limp Bizkit would show us what hard work was, too.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter Sam died, Limp Bizkit called him the \u201cheartbeat\u201d of the band. How do you interpret this idea of a bassist anchoring a group\u2019s identity?
Said roles as bassist and drummer: we\u2019re very locomotive parts of of music. When you think about it in terms of engines, you could have a V12 engine and you can cover a lot of ground really quickly with a big engine like that. The better your engine\u2019s running, the better the car is. That\u2019s what that represents. And again, Sam held it down. That\u2019s proof that you couldn\u2019t deny his contribution to the music, because he played the role of a bass player very musically. It would be like water, formless, and then crash, and then shape mountains. It takes a different type of musician to be able to do that, no matter what anybody says.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou can\u2019t discredit it. You can\u2019t overlook it. And this his death is a reminder of how great he was. And it\u2019s unfortunate that sometimes you only see it in that. But what if we didn\u2019t have Limp Bizkit? The world was better with him here. My best friends, all we do is scream Limp Bizkit lyrics at each other, like ironically and not ironically. It represents, my childhood, our childhood, my generation.<\/p>\n

\n\tCan you drop an ironic and un-ironic line?
The first line of \u201cChocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water\u201d \u2014 When things are getting a little too weird, you go \u201cCHOCOLATE STARFISH.\u201d From that to \u201cTake \u2019em to the Matthews Bridge!\u201d [from \u201cMy Generation\u201d] \u2014 it\u2019s something\u2019s about to change for the better or worse.<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tSo is that ironically or unironically?
See what I\u2019m saying? It vacillates. It could be the best thing or the worst thing ever.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen a band or artist becomes part of friendship lore, that\u2019s resonance.
The music is there for all of us. It\u2019s a big world. When it comes to it, you can change what you want, and I think that that\u2019s what Limp Bizkit represented to many people. Wes Borland would be out here, kicking ass. He was like Sonic the Hedgehog. And Sam, he held it down, he\u2019s just a legend. He had a distinct sound. You knew who he was. I\u2019m very blessed to have experienced Sam\u2019s music and his creativity while he was here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following the death of Sam Rivers, the founding bassist of\u00a0Limp Bizkit who died on Oct. 18 at age…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,57221,61,60,658,278,60185],"class_list":{"0":"post-95905","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-fred-durst","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-limp-bizkit","13":"tag-music","14":"tag-thundercat"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}