Fred Durst says Limp Bizkit‘s upcoming “Gold Cobra” is “definitely not a reunion. It’s a comeback.”
The rap-rock quintet releases its new album — its first since 2005 and first with its original lineup, including guitarist Wes Borland, since 2000’s “Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water” — on June 28, with a video coming soon for the title track on the heels of “Shotgun’s” successful “teaser” run.
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Durst tell Billboard.com that fans of multi-platinum efforts such as 1997’s “Three Dollar Bill, Yall$,” 1999’s “Significant Other” and “Chocolate Starfish…” should feel like “Gold Cobra” is the return of an old friend.
“The epiphany was, we’ve got to own who we are and stay true to what we are,” explains Durst, who produced “Gold Cobra.” “We’re a rap-rock band. We’re Limp Bizkit. We might individually like different things, and none of us listen to rap-rock, but when we get together in a band room, that’s what we make. There’s no reason to search and find a newer Limp Bizkit or an evolved style or fit the radio format. I don’t think we have to prove anything. We just have to own it.”
Durst adds that he also wouldn’t mind seeing “Gold Cobra” revive the whole genre that was so prevalent when Limp Bizkit first emerged. “I miss that whole genre — rap-rock or nu metal or rapcore, whatever we were called,” he says. “There was a minute there when you had Bizkit, Deftones, Korn…There was something really special about those times. I feel like if we all got back together and did something, went on the road together, it could be really big.”
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The Limp Bizkit “comeback” began in 2009, when Borland rejoined the group for a second time and the original lineup hit the road together (in Europe) for the first time in eight years. “The fact we can’t escape is we really missed playing live together,” Durst notes. “We said, ‘Let’s get our feet wet. Let’s tour. That’s what we enjoy most. We’re a great live band.’ That’s what this started out as, and then, ‘When we feel like we wanted to do a record, let’s do it.’ So we started touring, and pretty soon it was like, ‘Let’s get in the studio now and do this.’ “
The group’s halting progress towards “Gold Cobra” did engender a bit of hostility from its fans, but Durst says he understood their frustration.
“I’m in touch with the social networks and stuff,” he says. “It’s hard not to hear the concentrated group of loud voices out there talking s*** because we didn’t deliver when we said we would. With Limp Bizkit, it seems to be that any time I announce some sort of date or something it’s always wrong. They should know that by now. My intentions are always pure and sincere, and this time we felt that it’s been so long that taking a little bit more time to get it right isn’t so bad.”
“Gold Cobra” is taking Limp Bizkit back out on the road, with a European run starting June 24 that will include a number of festival appearances. The group’s first trek to South America begins July 21 in Chile, and Durst, who’s also serving as Limp Bizkit’s manager, says that he’s “looking at different offers to hopefully get a great U.S. tour together. We miss playing the U.S. so much, so we want to do that and keep going with the ‘Cobra’ until we feel it’s time to go make another record.”