What Has Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst Said About Woodstock ’99 In The Past?

A new three-part Netflix documentary called Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99, dives deep into the chaos that ensued during the 30th-anniversary celebration of the iconic 1969 music festival. Over the course of the series, viewers will see riots, destruction, and instances of sexual assault, which, for several years, had been attributed to the performers. Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit was one of the infamous acts on the bill.

Specifically, Limp Bizkit’s song “Break Stuff,” which contains the lyrics, “It’s just one of those days when you don’t wanna wake up /
Everything is f*cked, everybody sucks / You don’t really know why, but you wanna justify / Rippin’ someone’s head off,” is often referenced when people talk about Woodstock ’99.

One moment of Limp Bizkit’s performance that often goes overlooked is when Durst says, ”We already let all the negative energy out. It’s time to bring some positive energy into this motherfucker.”

In a 2012 interview, Durst reflected on this statement, saying, “I don’t think [the crowd] understood what I meant. OK, let’s get rid of all that negative energy so we can bring positive in. That means start jumping — jumping and singing. It doesn’t mean start raping and burning the place down.”

Over the years, Durst has maintained that the destruction that took place was neither his fault, nor that of the other performers, but rather the festival organizers. A 50th-anniversary celebration of Woodstock was planned for 2019, but eventually cancelled. That year, Durst spoke with Variety, saying “It’s easy to point the finger and blame [us], but they hired us for what we do — and all we did is what we do. I would turn the finger and point it back to the people that hired us.”

Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99 is now streaming on Netflix.

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