Channel: Rock N' Roll True Stories

Category: Music

Tags: rockvoice mail fred durstmusicrock n' rolllimp bizkitinterviewtaprootdocumentaryfred durst limp bizkitmtvstory

Description: Limp Bizkit: The time Fred Durst threatened Taproot after trying to sign the band to Interscope. SIGN UP for 10 of the Craziest Stories in Rock N' Roll [Secret Playlist]: bit.ly/3vVPAEF Check out our Top 25 Favourite Albums Here rockandrolltruestories.com Have a video request or a topic you'd like to see us cover? Fill out our google form! bit.ly/3stnXlN -----CONNECT ON SOCIAL----- Instagram: instagram.com/rocknrolltruestories Facebook: facebook.com/RNRTrueStories Twitter: twitter.com/rocktruestories Blog: rockandrolltruestories.com #freddurst #limpbizkit #taproot I cite my sources and they may differ than other people's accounts, so I don't guarantee the actual accuracy of my videos. I want to thank Marcus and a few of my subs for suggesting this story. The rock band Taproot would emerge out of michigan in the mid 90’s. By the later part of the decade things were looking pretty exciting for the band as they courted major record labels. Former Taproot Drummer Jarred Montague (mont-agew) would release a book a few years ago called True Rockstars: 12 Guiding Principles For Success And Happiness. In the book Montague recalls attending college and playing with Tap Root on the weekends in and around the college town of ann arbourt, michigan. He would write in his book Dozens of my friends were coming to Taproot shows and buying our homemade demos and T-shirts. Taproot was also building a following on the internet. In early 1999, there were only two unsigned bands that were marketing themselves well in that relatively new medium: Taproot and Juice who would become Adema. We found small pockets of fans were developing outside of Michigan. Across the country one or two people would order a CD, send us cash or a check, and then we would ship them a CD with a hand-written “Thank You” note. Apparently they would listen then tell their friends about Taproot because we would obtain subsequent orders from quite a few other people in the same city. The band became so successful out side of michigan that their fans offered hotel and gas money for them to play their cities which they did. Tap Root frontman Stephen Richards would tell Loudwire about the band’s early days and how they caught the attention of fred durst revealing “Mike [DeWolf] and I saw Korn with Limp Bizkit before Limp Bizkit was actually releasing a record, so we had the drop on that. We were fans, we loved it and we knew their record was coming out and where we grew up it was in Ann Arbor, college town.” Richards would go on to reveal that he and his bandmates got their hands on Limp Bizkit’s debut record before it came out because the local studnet paper reviewed it and it was normal for the student writers to sell albums after reviewing them for beer money. When the members of Tap Root got their hands on an advance copy of limp bizkit’s first album they noticed an address on the record asking for demos. They would send their demo to the address nearly two weeks before before the record came out giving them a jump on the competition. Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst took a liking to the band and got intouch with Tap Root with Richards recalling to CMJ magazine what came next saying “we started hanging out and he promised us the world.” Richards would add telling loudwire Every time they’d come through town we’d hang out and he was really good to us (referring to fred durst and limp bizkit), I’d sing with him onstage and stuff. We were itching to go and he was getting really busy. He was cool though, I went to L.A. and stayed with him and got to sit through Interscope meetings about their second record coming out at the time.” Not only did Durst hang out with the band but he started giving shoutouts to the Taproot in various press interviews and wearing their shirts on stage. Montague would write in his book He told us that we were the “next big thing” and he wanted to make a deal with us. It frankly seemed too good to be true given that we had become such adoring fans of Limp Bizkit. It was during this time the band was putting out independent releases and cutting new music. It was around the time that limp bizkit was promoting their second album significant other that they started to garner attention outside of Fred durst and company with Montague writing in his book Soon after this epic 24 hour hang we got a call from a representative from Arista Records, and he asked to have lunch with us to discuss our aspirations. This was definitely an indicator that things were now escalating to a new level for Taproot. Here was someone from out side the Bizkit crew expressing interest in our band. By this point the band had sold around 10000 albums through their own efforts. It was around this time Fred Durst appeared on an MTV show called diary which profiled celebrities daily life. Fred Durst would appear on one episode and gave taproot another shoutout as you can see here