The Fred Durst/TapRoot/System of a Down/Velvet Hammer controversy
That's a long title, eh? Well, at first I didn't think it was a huge deal, but now that I have "Gift", I feel a need to bring more attention to this subject, because TapRoot is now one of my favorite bands. Their CD rocks, and I would recomend it to anyone who likes music that is both heavy and emotional. Now, here's the story:
A couple years, Steve (the singer for TR) met Fred at a Limp Bizkit concert. He showed him their demo, and Fred was impressed. He became interested in producing them. Pretty cool, right? Wrong. He never got around to signing them until recently, after they lost interest in him. A lot of record labels noticed TR, and they went with Velvet Hammer (the same one that System of a Down is on). This really upset Fred. He left a really nasty message on Steve's answering machine:
"Steve Fred Durst hey man, you f*cked up. You don’t ever bite the hand that feeds in this business bro. And your fuckin manager so-called guy is a f*ckin idiot a loser mother f*cker goin nowhere. You have just chosen that path. Took you under my wing, brought you to my house, f*ckin talked about your *ss on radio, on press, and you embarrassed like me and Interscope family. Your association with Limp Bizkit does not exist. Your manager slings that name around, he’s gonna be blackballed and probably be erased, and you will to. He’s a f*ckin idiot. You’re gonna f*ckin learn from this time right here. I hope you let your band know that you just f*cked yourself. You need to be associated with somebody in this business. You need somethin to get you out there, put you out there, and believe in. Now you got enemies, and you’re f*ckin yourself already. Tell your friend that. Don’t f*ckin show up at my show, cuz, if you do, you’re gonna get f*cked. Alright? You and your f*ckin punk *ss, man. Y-you call yer f*ckin manager, David Manifestease-whatever ask him what he’s done and doin. Yer-yer a f*ckin dumb mother f*cker. Yer learnin right now exactly how to ruin your career before it gets started. All of the luck brother. F*ck you."
I didn't make that up, people. You can even go to ilovetaproot.com and download an MP3 of it. Well, that's not the end of the story. In order to punish Velvet Hammer, he kicked system of a Down off Family Values Tour '99, and apparently, anyone who shows up at a Limp Bizkit show in a TapRoot shirt gets kicked out. Since Limp Bizkit is putting on a bunch of free shows, I'll see if that's true about the shirts. *evil grin*