They may have ditched the idea as an album title, but the pimp rock maestros of Limp Bizkit will still celebrate their "Limpdependence" with a month's worth of free concerts kicking off on July 4.

Limp frontman Fred Durst announced the tour Monday on MTV's "Total Request Live" via satellite from Los Angeles and noted that the band will hook up with Cypress Hill and one other act for the tour.

"We're going to give back to our fans what they've given us," Durst said from L.A.'s Westlake Studios, where the band is currently working on the new album.

The trek is aimed at getting fans geared up for the release of Limp's "Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water." Specific dates and venues have yet to be announced, but the band will play multiple nights at 3,000 to 5,000-seat locations in Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit, Boston, New York, Dallas, Denver, San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles before wrapping up the tour on August 6.

Admission to each show will be free, a point the band drove home on Monday. "There's no strings attached... it's really free," Durst told MTV News.

The trek will be sponsored by online music distribution aid Napster, placing Limp in the minority of artists who have publicly come out in support of the company. Napster has come under fire from many bands, including Metallica, who recently filed a lawsuit against the tech company charging Napster with copyright infringement and racketeering.

Durst himself addressed Napster's sponsorship in a statement announcing the tour, noting, "We could care less about the older generation's need to do business as usual. We care more about what our fans want, and our fans want music on the Internet."

Napster will help to offset any hit the band might take by giving tickets away, as the "Los Angeles Times" reports that the band will get close to $2 million for the tour.

Limp Bizkit notes that the sponsorship money will go directly to the tour's production costs (travel, venue rentals, lights, etc.), and that Limp and Cypress Hill will not make any money on the outing.

-mtv.com 4/24/99

Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst took a break from recording his band's new album to rub elbows with Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Stiller, Lauren Holly, and others at the Playboy mansion late last week.

Durst was one of many music notables (including rapper Xzibit and members of Korn, No Doubt, Hole, and Orgy) who turned out last Thursday for a party marking the release of the "Playboy" Sex & Music issue. The April edition of the magazine (which features cover girl Bijou Phillips) features the winners of the magazine's readers poll, including Limp Bizkit's Video Of The Year award for "Nookie."

At the party, Durst addressed Limp's progress on its new album and also revealed the band's DIY solution to its recent split with producer Rick Rubin. I decided to produce it myself," Durst told MTV News. "It's going really good. We've got like nine songs (written). We're going into the studio Monday to start recording, and hopefully we'll create like five or six more songs in the studio."

In addition to those revealing facts, Durst also joked that the new album will be called, "'Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water'...I'm Chocolate Starfish, and the band is the Hot Dog Flavored Water." A spokesperson for Limp's label, Flip/Interscope, noted that the album is still being assembled under the tentative title "Limpdependence Day," and it's tentatively slated for release on July 4.

-- Tina Johnson mtv.com 3/13/00