R.I.P. Sam Rivers, founding Limp Bizkit bass player

Sam Rivers, the founding bassist of influential nü-metal band Limp Bizkit, has died. Rivers played on all six Limp Bizkit albums, including 1999’s Significant Other, which sold more than 16 million albums and spent 103 weeks on the Billboard charts. The band confirmed Rivers’ death on Instagram; no cause of death was reported. He was 48.

In a statement, the band wrote:

Today we lost our brother. Our bandmate. Our heartbeat. Sam Rivers wasn’t just our bass player — he was pure magic. The pulse beneath every song, the calm in the chaos, the soul in the sound. From the first note we ever played together, Sam brought a light and a rhythm that could never be replaced. His talent was effortless, his presence unforgettable, his heart enormous. We shared so many moments — wild ones, quiet ones, beautiful ones — and every one of them meant more because Sam was there.

He was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of human. A true legend of legends. And his spirit will live forever in every groove, every stage, every memory. We love you, Sam. We’ll carry you with us, always.

Rest easy, brother. Your music never ends.

Born September 2, 1977, Rivers grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, home of future bandmates singer Fred Durst and drummer John Otto. Rivers was playing in the local band Malchi Sage when Durst told him, “You need to quit this band and start a band with me that’s like this: rappin’ and rockin’.” Joined by Otto, the trio founded the rap-rock band Limp Bizkit in 1994, eventually enlisting guitarist Wes Boreland and DJ Lethal. Three years later, the band released its first album, Three Dollar Bill, Y’all, an immediate success buoyed by a popular cover of George Michael’s “Faith.” They followed with the platinum-selling albums Significant Other, Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water, and Results May Vary. Significant Other‘s second single, “Re-arranged,” became the band’s only No. 1 single, with the introductory bass lick becoming a staple of guitar shops for years.

Following a brief hiatus, the band would make fitful returns to the stage. They released 2011’s Gold Cobra to mixed reviews and didn’t release another album until 2021’s Still Sucks. In the 2020 book Raising Hell: Backstage Tales From The Lives Of Metal Legends, Rivers revealed that he left the band in 2015 due to liver disease, which he developed from excessive drinking while in the band. He received a liver transplant in 2017.

“I had to leave Limp Bizkit in 2015 because I felt so horrible, and a few months after that I realized I had to change everything because I had really bad liver disease,” Rivers said in the book. “I quit drinking and did everything the doctors told me. I got treatment for the alcohol and got a liver transplant, which was a perfect match.”

Rivers rejoined the band in 2018 and played his final show with the group in August 2025.