“My issues weren’t even with Limp Bizkit. They were with Fred.” Corey Taylor reflects on his 2000s feud with Fred Durst

Corey Taylor in 2023 and Fred Durst in 2000
(Image credit: Pamela Littky | James Devaney/WireImage)

Slipknot’s Corey Taylor has reflected on his turn-of-the-millennium feud with Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst.

The Slipknot vocalist touches on the beef in a new video interview with Hot Ones. During the discussion, Taylor is asked to rank three of the bands he’s previously feuded with in order of how much he likes their music: Nickelback, Machine Gun Kelly and Limp Bizkit. Of the three, the singer says Limp Bizkit are his favourite, saying his previous issues were not with the band but just with Durst.

“I love that this is coming up as I’m doing all this work on myself,” Taylor laughs (via The PRP). “If I were to answer with my current self, I would say that a lot of the things that I said were based off of my own ego, my own insecurities, my own arrogance. If I was gonna say it with that ugly ego, I would say at the top, I would put Limp Bizkit.”

He continues: “Because, creatively, there are so many factors to that band. And my issues truly weren’t even with Limp Bizkit. They were with Fred. You know, it wasn’t about the band. It was just about what Fred represented at the time, the things that were being said, and the people in the band that were actually saying things about us.”

In the early 2000s, Taylor gave a now-famous interview to Australian TV wear he tore into a member of Limp Bizkit, seemingly Durst, for branding Slipknot fans “nothing but a bunch of fat, ugly kids”.

“You know what I said to that?” Taylor responded. “1: I’m a fat, ugly kid. 2: Slipknot fans, for the most part, enjoy all kinds of music, like Limp Bizkit, maybe. So what you’re basically saying is that your fans are fat, ugly kids too? Is that what you’re trying to say to me… Is that what you wanna say? You wanna talk shit on the people who you care about?! We will come there and we will kill you!”

In the Hot Ones interview, Taylor proceeds to put Machine Gun Kelly in the middle of his musical ranking, saying his issues with the rapper stemmed from musical differences during a failed attempt at collaborating. He puts Nickelback at the bottom, deeming the band “just a musical echo”.

At the start of this year, Taylor cancelled a solo tour of North America, citing mental and personal struggles that brought him to the brink of a relapse. The musician altered his touring schedule to help take care of himself, and will not tour with Slipknot for more than two-and-a-half weeks at a time.

Slipknot will tour Europe in December, as part of a tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of their debut album. See dates below.

Slipknot 2024 European tour dates:

Dec 05: Amsterdam Ziggo Dome, Netherlands
Dec 06: Dortmund Westfalenhalle, Germany
Dec 08: Stuttgart Schleyerhalle, Germany
Dec 09: Leipzig Quarterback Immobilien Arena, Germany
Dec 11: Zurich Hallenstadion, Switzerland
Dec 12: Paris Accorhotel Arena, France
Dec 14: Leeds First Direct Arena, UK
Dec 15: Glasgow OVO Hydro, UK
Dec 17: Manchester Co-op Live Arena, UK
Dec 18: Birmingham Utilita Arena, UK
Dec 20: London O2 Arena, UK
Dec 21: London O2 Arena, UK

Matt Mills
Contributing Editor, Metal Hammer

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Prog and Metal Hammer, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Guitar and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.