“I didn’t expect him to get busted in that bathroom. But his misfortune actually helped us. We couldn’t have asked for more of a buzz!”: How an unexpected arrest accidentally gave Limp Bizkit their big break

Limp Bizkit posing for a photograph in the late 1990s.

As their post-Dad Vibes schtick has proved, Limp Bizkit aren’t the most serious band in the world. That’s been obvious from the very beginning of their career, when these would-be superstars made an instant name for themselves with a hilariously obnoxious take on George Michael’s pop classic Faith.

Fred Durst always was a canny operator, and he knew that peppering his band’s live set with covers of well-known 80s songs in their early days would gain some attention. “We like to do aggressive versions of cheesy pop hits,” Durst told Billboard in 1998. “Songs from the 80’s make the best covers, which is why we also do J. Geils Band’s Love Stinks, Paula Abdul’s Straight Up and Beat It by Michael Jackson live.”