Fred Durst facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Fred Durst
Durst in 2021
Background information
Birth name	Frederick Allen Mayne III
Also known as	William Frederick Durst
Born	(1970-08-20) August 20, 1970 (age 54) Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.
Origin	North Carolina, U.S.
Genres	Nu metal rap rock rap metal
Occupation(s)	Musician rapper singer songwriter director actor
Instruments	Vocals guitar
Years active	1990–present

William Frederick Durst (born Frederick Allen Mayne III; August 20, 1970) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, and director. He is the frontman and lyricist of the nu metal band Limp Bizkit, formed in 1994, with whom he has released six studio albums.

Since 2006, Durst has worked on a number of independent films. He co-starred in Population 436, and made his directorial debut in 2007 with The Education of Charlie Banks. He followed with The Longshots in 2008. His latest film, The Fanatic, came out in 2019.

Early life

Durst was born Frederick Allen Mayne III in Jacksonville, Florida, but soon moved to Orlando and then a farm in Cherryville, North Carolina, at one year old. In the fifth grade, he moved to Gastonia, North Carolina, where he would later graduate high school. At the age of 12, Durst took an interest in breakdancing, hip hop, punk rock, and heavy metal. He began to rap, skate, beatbox, and DJ. Leaving the Navy after two years (1988-1990), Durst moved back to Jacksonville with his father where he worked as a landscaper and a tattoo artist while developing an idea for a band that combined elements of rock and hip-hop.

Career

Formation of Limp Bizkit (1994–1998)

In 1994, Durst, Malachi Sage bassist Sam Rivers, and Rivers' cousin John Otto jammed together and wrote three songs. Guitarist Wes Borland later joined. Durst named the band Limp Bizkit because he wanted a name that would repel listeners. Limp Bizkit developed a cult following in the underground music scene when its covers of George Michael's "Faith" and Paula Abdul's "Straight Up" began to attract curious concertgoers.

Later, when Korn performed in town as the opening act for Sick of It All, Durst invited Korn to his house. He was able to persuade bassist Reginald Arvizu to listen to demos of the songs "Pollution", "Counterfeit", and "Stalemate". Korn added a then-unsigned Limp Bizkit to two tours, which gave the band a new audience. DJ Lethal, formerly of the hip hop group House of Pain, joined the band as a turntablist; Durst's disagreements with Borland led the guitarist to quit and rejoin the band.

In 1997, Limp Bizkit signed with Flip Records, a subsidiary of Interscope Records, and released their debut album, Three Dollar Bill, Y'all to moderate response. On October 23, 1997, Durst met the band Staind, but friction quickly emerged between the two over the cover art of Staind's album. Durst unsuccessfully attempted to remove Staind from a concert bill shortly before their performance, but after hearing the band play, he was so impressed that he signed them to Flip/Elektra, recorded a demo with the band, and co-produced their next album, Dysfunction.

After Limp Bizkit finished a tour with the band Deftones, Durst and DJ Lethal were asked by Max Cavalera, formerly of the band Sepultura, to appear on "Bleed", a song from the self-titled debut of his new band Soulfly. Cavalera stated that producer Ross Robinson recommended that he work with Durst. Durst also made an appearance on Korn's album Follow the Leader. Jonathan Davis had intended to write a battle rap with B-Real of Cypress Hill, but the latter's label wouldn't let him do it, and Durst was tapped instead. Davis and Durst wrote the lyrics for "All in the Family", which featured the two vocalists trading insults. Davis and Durst would often offer suggestions for each other's lyrics; a lyric written by Durst as "tootin' on your bagpipe" was changed to "fagpipes" by Davis, who stated "I helped him bag on me better".

Durst began to take an interest in filmmaking, directing the music video for Limp Bizkit's single "Faith" in promotion for its appearance in the film Very Bad Things; he was unsatisfied with it and made a second video which paid tribute to tour mates Primus, Deftones and Mötley Crüe, who appeared in the video.

Mainstream success (1998–2005)

Durst at the premiere of Baby Mama at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival

Limp Bizkit achieved mainstream success with the albums Significant Other (1999) and Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water (2000). In June 1999, Durst was appointed Senior Vice President of A&R at Interscope. Durst utilized his connections through the label and scouted numerous bands; landing record deals for Cold, Staind, Puddle of Mudd, and She Wants Revenge. Durst would also aid in attracting other bands such as 30 Seconds to Mars and Taproot, though Durst would pass on 30 Seconds to Mars, and he later engaged in a minor feud with Taproot after they rejected his original offer to sign the group to interscope in 1999.

In the summer of 1999, Limp Bizkit played at the highly anticipated Woodstock '99 festival in front of approximately 200,000 people. The concert was tarnished by violent behavior from the crowd, much of which occurred during and after their performance, including fans tearing plywood from the walls during the song "Break Stuff".

In June 2000, Limp Bizkit's tour was sponsored by the file sharing service Napster. Durst was an outspoken advocate of file sharing. During the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, Durst performed Limp Bizkit's song "Livin' It Up", as a duet with Christina Aguilera.

In 2002, Durst was tapped to write songs for Britney Spears, and later said that he was in a relationship with her. Spears denied Durst's claims.

In May 2003, it was reported that Durst was working on a New Wave side-project alongside Limp Bizkit's Results May Vary album. The band, named Pacifica, was reportedly in its "very early stages" and had a sound reminiscent of Duran Duran and Soft Cell. News about the band stopped quickly and no releases ever surfaced.

In July 2003, Limp Bizkit participated on the Summer Sanitarium Tour, headlined by Metallica. In the days preceding the tour's stop in Chicago, local radio personality Mancow Muller mocked Durst and suggested that listeners who were attending the concert should heckle the singer and throw debris. Angered by the crowd's reception, Durst erupted after six songs, threw the microphone down and walked off stage. Durst was eventually sued for breach of contract (for not completing the show) by Chicago lawyer Michael Young in a class-action suit.

In May 2005, The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1) was released. Sammy Siegler took over drumming duties for the band for much of the album. At Durst's insistence, the album was released as an underground album, without any advertising or promotion. The album sold over 2,000,000 copies worldwide, peaking at number 24 on the Billboard 200. Durst later announced that despite the album's title, no sequel to The Unquestionable Truth would be produced. Later in the year, the band released a Greatest Hitz album.

Having been bullied while growing up, Durst disliked seeing people "using my music as fuel to torture other people"; feeling that his music was being misinterpreted, he would later cite this as the reason for the band taking a hiatus.

Durst also said that he created a character for his music, but that he was also misunderstood by the public: "I always knew the guy in the red cap was not me. I'm Dr Frankenstein and that's my creature. Being a breakdancer, a graffiti artist, a tattoo artist and liking rock and hip hop was too much; it was a conscious effort to create Fred Durst and eventually I had to bring that guy out more than I wanted to. It took on a life of its own. I had to check into that character – the gorilla, the thing, the red cap guy. It's a painful transformation, but I do it 'cos that's what I was taught to do when you have people pulling at you".

Start of film career (2006–2009)

Durst with Limp Bizkit at Sonisphere 2011

While Limp Bizkit was on hiatus, Durst began working in independent films. In 2006, Durst costarred in the film Population 436. His directorial debut, The Education of Charlie Banks, was released the following year. The film, which starred Jesse Eisenberg, Chris Marquette and Jason Ritter, received mixed reviews; Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, assigned the film a score of 46%. The website's consensus stated, "Unevenness and earnestness mire this otherwise sweet, surprising coming of age drama." A second directorial effort, The Longshots, starring Ice Cube and Keke Palmer, was released in 2008. Rotten Tomatoes assigned the film a score of 39%, with the consensus indicating that the film was "a largely formulaic affair, rarely deviating from the inspirational sports movie playbook." The same year, Durst appeared as a bartender in two episodes of the television medical drama House, M.D.

Limp Bizkit reunion (2009–present)

In 2009, the original lineup of Limp Bizkit reunited and began touring. Durst announced that they had begun to record a new album, Gold Cobra. The album was released on June 28, 2011, receiving mixed reviews. It peaked at number 16 on the Billboard 200.

In February 2012, Lil Wayne announced in a radio interview that Limp Bizkit had signed to his label, Cash Money Records, which Durst confirmed on his Twitter page. A few months later Durst was featured alongside Lil Wayne and Birdman on the Kevin Rudolf song "Champions", which peaked in the top 10 on iTunes.

Originally, Durst was to direct and produce the film Pawn Shop Chronicles, starring Paul Walker; but Wayne Kramer was later chosen to direct the film. In 2014, Durst shot three commercials for the website Eharmony, In February 2018, Durst began filming The Fanatic, starring John Travolta.

Personal life

While serving in the Navy, Durst was stationed in Oakland, California, where he married his first wife Rachel Tergesen in 1990. They had a daughter named Adriana Durst, born on June 3, 1990. Durst and Tergesen divorced in 1993.

Durst has a son named Dallas born August 30, 2001, with his ex-girlfriend, actress Jennifer Thayer.

In 2009, Durst married Esther Nazarov and split after three months. Durst married his third wife, make-up artist Kseniya Beryazina, in 2012. They filed for divorce in September 2018 and finalized it in 2019. Durst married Arles Durst in 2022.

In 2015, Durst stated his interest in obtaining a Russian passport and spending half of the year in Crimea. On October 8, 2015, the Russian newspaper Izvestia reported that Durst responded positively to Sergey Aksyonov's call to settle in Crimea. He wrote a letter stating that Vladimir Putin is "a great guy with clear moral principles and a nice person". Additionally, at a concert in Voronezh, Russia, he picked up a flag thrown on stage, which he did not realize had an anti-Ukrainian slogan on it. Because of these controversies, he was banned by the Security Service of Ukraine from entering Ukraine for five years starting in November 2015 "in the interests of guaranteeing the security" of the country. In an official statement, Durst denied reports of asking to acquire Russian citizenship.

During the 2018 California wildfires, Durst's house burned down and he lost a majority of his possessions. His bandmate, Wes Borland, also lost several pieces of equipment in the fire due to them being stored in Durst's home in anticipation of a scheduled recording session.

Durst is known for regularly wearing a red New York Yankees baseball cap.

Selected discography

Filmography

Key

Denotes films that have not yet been released

Awards and nominations

See also

In Spanish: Fred Durst para niños