Limp Bizkit bassist Sam Rivers recently tragically died at 48 years old, stunning his friends, family, and bandmates. Former MTV host Matt Pinfield, who spoke to us yesterday about Soundgarden, had a close personal and professional relationship with Rivers and Limp Bizkit during the band’s late 90’s and early 2000’s prime. Pinfield spoke to Alternative Nation in a new interview about Limp Bizkit and Rivers.
Greg: What were your first impressions of Limp Bizkit when you heard them, and how did you first meet them?
Matt: My first impression of Limp Bizkit was that they were doing something that was kind of on the edge of what was happening with new rock at that period of time. I was doing a TV show, MattRock, which was a new version of Headbangers Ball, which I was hosting. As things started to happen, and we debuted “Counterfeit” and early video stuff off Three Dollar Bill Y’all, it also turned out that my youngest daughter Maya’s mom, my second wife, was from the same town as Limp Bizkit, Jacksonville.
So I spent a lot of time down there, plus I ended up meeting the guys because they were obviously fans of all the rock stuff. We got introduced in Jacksonville through that music scene and Fred and I hit it off — and all the guys in the band, really. I just loved their attitude and everything that they were doing at that period of time. And I also thought it took balls to cover their face. I thought it was cool, like these guys were having fun in their life.
Also, it’s because of the Korn guys — I was friends with Korn. They ended up having the same management with Peter Katsis. And Peter Katsis and I have been friends for 37 years, when he first started managing bands out of Chicago. So there was a long friendship, there was this succession of different people that were involved, and then I was one of the earliest supporters of the band at MTV.
I remember when I started at MTV, I wasn’t just a VJ, I was actually one of the people picking music for the channel, which was fantastic. I started doing that, I got hired managing music programming — and I filled in Depeche Mode, I met Oasis and a bunch of people. It was that kind of thing.
It made sense because there was a real crossover of what was happening in rock and the new hard rock and nu-metal, and that there was enough of a crossover that this stuff was getting played on 120 Minutes, and getting played on the new version of Headbangers Ball, which was called MattRock, which is my show. Where I’m on there with Ozzy Osbourne, Eddie Van Halen — and it was also like with Korn and Limp — so that was what was happening at that period of time.
So that’s where that friendship started. And, you know, the whole thing — but I don’t know if we ever talked about this before for any books — but that friendship, I was very early because I was such an early supporter. We had become such great friends. Fred had flown me down — the band had flown me down to Atlanta — to cut that track, the bonus track on Significant Other, where I do my whole rant at the end of the album. We had a blast doing that.
Fred had asked me, ‘Hey man, I want you to go on the end of our album, I want you to be the last track on our record.’ And the guys were excited about it, and so they flew me to Atlanta, to Southern Tracks, to Brendan O’Brien, where the producer was working, mixing the record. And I came up with that thing that I did on the end of that Limp Bizkit record — part of it in the cab in New York City. Like, I’m coming around in New York City. I’ve lived in Jersey, but I was working at MTV, so I was commuting. I remember writing a lot of that crazy shit that I do in that rant on that record.
There were a lot of things in that rant, like when AOL was a thing — and it became people’s favorite quotes. I was just having a blast, having a go. Fred wanted me originally to rip on Limp Bizkit, but I said, ‘Dude, Fred, you and Korn already did that to each other on Follow the Leader.’ So I was like, instead I’m gonna rip on, people that don’t like you — now it’s kinda funny because now so many people like real fucking music and it’s always been that in pop — but you know what I mean. So I’m just fucking riffing and having a blast.
And dude, Fred and I together did the whole thing where we were in front of mic stands and shit around the studio, so it sounds like I’m breaking the fucking place up — but of course it’s bullshit, we were fucking around.
Greg: I was gonna ask too if you have personal stories about Sam Rivers, and how key do you think he was to Limp Bizkit’s sound?
Matt: Oh yeah, that’s the most important thing to touch on. I had great relationships with the guys. I knew every single member of that band. They were all my friends. In fact, the last couple of years whenever I went to Jacksonville, I would get together with my friends with Sam — get dinner with Sam, get lunch with Sam, hang out with him and my buddies from down there in Jacksonville. My friends Damian and Bobby — that were still very close to him. They had that Free Killers band with my friend Damian. That was a side band he had.
So he was so important to the sound of Limp Bizkit. His bass playing — the thing about him and John Otto and why they are such a great rhythm section is they’re always in pocket. Their groove was unbelievable. That’s one of the things at DWP festivals — out of Tampa or Aftershock or Welcome to Rockville Daytona, all the festivals I was working at the last bunch of years — of course this year because of my stroke I wasn’t there.
When Limp Bizkit started playing and doing shows again, it was extremely obvious to me as I stood on the side of the stage — because our friendships go back years — I sat there and watched and I went, ‘Oh god, these guys are incredible — such a great live band!’ They were always a great live band.
The band — and Sam and John — are one of the most powerful in-pocket groove machines as the rhythm section. So Sam was essential to the sound of the band. I think there’s no real way to say that any one guy doesn’t make an incredible contribution, you know what I mean?
It’s so wild when you think about the fact that Lethal came out of House of Pain — House of Pain with Everlast and fucking Danny Boy.
Sam was essential for the band. I mean, he’s a fucking incredibly funky, cool, edgy bass player. As a rhythm section, he and John Otto were really unstoppable. I think he’s an amazing human being — I love him very much. He’s a good guy. Friends for years. Still friends with all those guys. And it broke my heart — I was so fucking sad when I found out Sam had died. I’m absolutely not over it, I’d known him for a long time. We had a lot of great hangs. I remember when they were playing the KROQ New York show and I was bringing them on stage. There were numerous times like that.
I remember getting on the fucking Universal jet with those guys. I remember flying with those dudes. And I remember — before anybody knew, like before Jackass — those guys, like Bam, had that kinda ‘kill yourself’ stunt energy.
I remember watching that with those guys. The video — like Fred showing me that — and all of us sitting on the plane watching it. I was there while they were remixing “Break Stuff”, and I was there for the video shoot of “Re-Arranged”. I played the judge who sentences Sam to death after Woodstock. There’s a lot of fun moments — I had a lot of great moments with the guy.
The relationship lives on, but I will miss Sam in a big way. I love Sam very much. He was a great guy, he really was. An incredible bass player. He could really bring the groove.
