Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit and Dez Fafara of Coal Chamber/DevilDriver reflect on the rise and fall of nü-metal in a piece available over at Teamrock.com.
Speaking on the genre beginning to break through in the early 90’s, Fafara stated:
“In ’92 or ’93, the clubs weren’t happening, nobody was playing them. But then you started seeing all these bands creeping into these places – Coal Chamber, Deftones, System Of A Down. Korn would bring busloads of people up from Orange County. The thing is, everybody had to sound different and look different to stand out. We went from wearing Dickies and having our hair braided to getting way more in touch with our goth side. That’s why we dressed so crazy.”
Durst meanwhile said of his group:
“We were the black sheep – or the white sheep. We weren’t quite hip hop, we weren’t quite metal. But we just didn’t give a fuck, and we always tried to say that fairly blatantly. I think that was one of the things that became dislikeable about us.”
The article goes on to reflect on the early ‘Ozzfest‘ festivals, and the debauchery that ensued as the various bands reached new levels of success in the years that followed. Of that Durst shared the following tale:
“I’m a guy that couldn’t shake a stick at pretty girls and get them to date me. I went from that to roomfuls of people who would do anything for me. I definitely tried to enjoy myself as much as I could. There were moments of madness where I just couldn’t believe what was going on.
I remember one time there were, like, 15 girls bent over and there was this other girl with a bowl of strawberries, putting them in their butts. All of us were watching, going, ‘What the fuck is going on? This shit doesn’t happen outside of Mötley Crüe videos.’”
Speaking of the genre’s downfall, Fafara shared:
“It was definitely starting to play itself out. There was a certain band, and I won’t say which one, who put out a record, and when I heard it, I went, ‘This is it – the scene is dead.'”
There’s a lot more to be read from the pair over at Teamrock.com.
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