\u201cWe shared so many moments \u2013 wild ones, quiet ones, beautiful ones \u2013 and every one of them meant more because Sam was there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rivers was one of the founding members of Limp Bizkit from 1994 onwards, through the peak of the band\u2019s noughties success with albums such as 2000\u2019s Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water and 2003\u2019s Results May Vary and hit singles like Nookie and Rollin\u2019.<\/p>\n
Limp Bizkit backstage at Lollapalooza 2021 at Grant Park on July 31, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois. Pictured (from left) are Sam Rivers, Wes Borland, DJ Lethal and Fred Durst. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
Rivers left the group for several years in 2015, returning to the fold in 2018. He later revealed that his prolonged absence was because he had developed liver disease because of excessive drinking. He rejoined the band after recovering from a 2017 liver transplant.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt got so bad I had to go to UCLA Hospital and the doctor said, \u2018If you don\u2019t stop, you\u2019re going to die. And right now, you\u2019re looking like you need a new liver\u2019,\u201d he later said of his struggles with alcohol addiction in an interview with Metal Injection.<\/p>\n
He rejoined the band after recovering from the liver transplant. \u201cI got treatment for the alcohol and got a liver transplant, which was a perfect match,\u201d he later revealed in the 2020 book Raising Hell (Backstage Tales From the Lives of Metal Legends). \u201cI\u2019m back, and I feel amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since his return to the band, Rivers regularly toured as part of Limp Bizkit. The band\u2019s most recent concert was a headlining slot at Leeds Festival in late August. Their next scheduled tour date is on November 28 (local time).<\/p>\n
His bandmates \u2013 singer Fred Durst, guitarist Wes Borland, keyboardist DJ Lethal and drummer John Otto \u2013 called Rivers \u201ca true legend of legends\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a comment under the band\u2019s post, band member DJ Lethal asked fans to \u201crespect the family\u2019s privacy at this moment\u201d and said that the group was \u201cheartbroken\u201d and \u201cin shock\u201d.<\/p>\n
Rivers\u2019 final Instagram post came just one day ago, when he posted about the 25th anniversary of one of the band\u2019s most successful albums with the caption \u201cnothing but love\u201d. His final appearance on social media was in late August, sharing a photo from the band\u2019s visit to London.<\/p>\n
As of yet, no cause of death has been publicly announced.<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe shared so many moments \u2013 wild ones, quiet ones, beautiful ones \u2013 and every one of them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3225,8239,23930,66429,66428,66427,3043,634,6179,156,49481,18087,66426,1614,57387,111,139,69,66425,18460,9343,165,8229,1865,102],"class_list":["post-87758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-according","tag-american","tag-band","tag-bandmates","tag-bassist","tag-bizkit","tag-call","tag-death","tag-died","tag-entertainment","tag-heartbeat","tag-issued","tag-limp","tag-metal","tag-mourn","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rivers","tag-sam","tag-statement","tag-their","tag-they","tag-today","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}