In the present day, it's hard to imagine a world where Limp Bizkit's 2001 classic Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavoured Water doesn't exist. A record that took Bizkit from stardom to superstardom, it is still as raucous, rowdy and really great fun now as it was then. But back in 2000, the record was still very much a secret that the band had, working away at it, unaware of what it was going to do for them.
That's where we find ourselves with this video footage of Fred Durst hanging out with Korn backstage at KROQ Weenie Roast, a line-up that also included Ozzy Osbourne, The Offspring, Creed, Godsmack, Cypress Hill, Stone Temple Pilots, Third Eye Blind and more. Fred Durst is playing a demo version of Hot Dog, the first proper track on the record, for Korn to gauge their reaction and show what they have been working on.
For the first verse, everybody is listening intently, taking in the riff as much as the bars. Then when you hear Fred utter, "Ain't it a shame that you can't say fuck? Fuck's just a word, and it's all fucked up", you can see Jonathan Davis start to smile. His smile gets bigger and bigger, all leading up to the chorus, taken from Nine Inch Nails' Closer, and he can't help but laugh with joy. Though the biggest laugh comes from, "If I say fuck two more times, that's forty-six fucks in this fucked up rhyme", a feeling we can all relate to from the first time we heard it.
It's a special moment in time considering what was to come, a moment shared between bands riding on the highest of waves. It's also an indicator of how much Fred appreciated the opinions of Korn, as both professionals and friends. And the rest, they say, is history.
Have a watch and transport yourself back 23 years.
Limp Bizkit are set to tour the UK and Europe this month. The trek will see the band head to mainland Europe for dates in Munich, Stuttgart, Vienna, Prague, Frankfurt and Tilburg, before coming to the UK for four dates in Manchester, Birmingham and London. Support comes from Wargasm and BLACKGOLD.
