Sam Rivers of Limp Bizkit performs on stage at KROQ Weenie Roast & Luau on Doheny State Beach in Dana Point, California on June 08, 2019.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images for KROQ
Hide caption
Toggle caption
Kevin Winter/Getty Images for KROQ
Sam Rivers, guitarist for the rock band Limp Bizkit, has died. He was 48 years old.
The band confirmed Rivers’ death, writing online on Saturday: “Today we lost our brother.”
“Sam Rivers was not just our bass player, he was pure magic. The pulse under every song, the calm in the chaos, and the soul in the sound,” Limp Bizkit said in a statement. Social media sharing Saturday. “He was a once-in-a-lifetime human being. A true legend. His spirit will live forever in every groove, every stage, and every memory.”
The band did not share any details about his death.
Rivers Latest post on social media It was Friday that he shared a “Save The Date” video of Limp Bizkit performing at the Rock for People festival in Hradec Králové, a city in the Czech Republic, in June 2026. Rivers and his bandmates last performed in August at the Leeds Festival in the UK.
In 2015, Rivers left the band after suffering from liver disease but rejoined the band in 2018.
“I developed liver disease from drinking too much,” Rivers said. “I had to leave Limp Bizkit in 2015 because I felt so bad, and after a few months I realized I had to change everything because I had really bad liver disease.” During an interview with diverse. “I quit drinking and did everything the doctors told me to do. I had alcohol treatment and had a liver transplant, which was a perfect fit.”
The nu-metal band’s popularity skyrocketed in the 1990s, where they were nominated for three Grammy Awards. Their songs, including “Rollin'” and “Nookie,” also reached the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.
Fred Durst, bandmate and frontman for Limp Bizkit, remembers the first time he heard Rivers play in a bar in Jacksonville, Florida while looking for bandmates to form the group. Rivers was playing in a band at the bar and Durst said he was “killing it on the bass.”
“I saw Sam play and I was blown away,” Dorsett recalled in a video. A video spread on social media on Sunday morning. “He plays a five-string bass, too. I’ve never seen anyone use a five-string bass… He was so smooth and so good and he stood out. I couldn’t hear anything else but Sam… Everything besides his talent was gone.”
When he approached Rivers after his performance and told him he wanted to start a band, Durst said the guitarist didn’t hesitate.
“He looked at me and said, ‘Killer. I’m here. Let’s do this,'” Durst recalled. “I’ve been through more tears since yesterday and… I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God, Sam is a legend… He did it. He lived it.’
Limp Bizkit’s new single, “Making Love to Morgan Wallen,” topped several Billboard charts in September.