More than two decades removed from its release, Limp Bizkit’s 2000 blockbuster album ‘Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water’ remains a defining moment of the nü-metal era—for better and worse.
A newly published digital retrospective from Metal Hammer finds guitarist Wes Borland looking back on the record’s era-defining success, the backlash that followed, and the long road toward the band’s modern-day resurgence.
Arriving just one year after the band’s 7x platinum breakthrough ‘Significant Other’, Chocolate Starfish debuted at No. 1 and moved over one million copies in its first week. At the time, Limp Bizkit—and especially frontman Fred Durst—were inescapable, dominating MTV, soundtracks, wrestling crossovers, pop culture appearances, and even the music industry itself through Durst’s work as a label executive.
Borland admitted he never anticipated that level of success.
“I never thought Limp Bizkit was gonna be as large as it was. Then the record sold a million in the first week. It was just ridiculous. There was a point in which things got so big that I don’t remember them getting bigger.”
Despite the massive expectations placed on the band, Borland said there was little doubt internally when they rushed back into the studio after only months on the road.
“We had this huge record to follow up. There was pressure, but we didn’t feel insecure or like we couldn’t follow it. We felt really confident going in, and I knew what I wanted to do. I knew it was gonna be different from ‘Significant Other’—and better.”
From Cultural Peak To Public Backlash
While Chocolate Starfish marked Limp Bizkit’s commercial peak, it also coincided with a sharp shift in public sentiment. The band’s reputation took major hits following their infamous 1999 Woodstock performance and the tragic death of a teenage fan during their 2001 Big Day Out set in Australia.
At the same time, tensions with peers—including Deftones, Incubus, Creed, and Rage Against The Machine—became increasingly public, while nü-metal itself began to collapse under the weight of overexposure and imitators.
Borland explained that the band found themselves stranded between genres.
“We weren’t accepted by rock any more, we weren’t accepted by pop. [But] we were accepted by the hip hop world because the hip hop world got the hip hop side of us, but had never really experienced rock like that before.
Without tooting our own horn, we’re the band that does that best—representing both sides equally.”
Excess, Burnout, And A Financial Reality Check
Behind the scenes, excess took its toll creatively, emotionally, and financially. Borland recalled that the band’s massive touring production during that era left them barely breaking even.
“Everything just seemed excessive. We had our own stage built, there was this giant robot… and [the label] told us, ‘If you have this production, none of you are gonna make a penny on this tour.’
And we went, ‘That’s fine!’”
Internal fractures followed. Borland exited the band in 2001, returning in 2004 after ‘Results May Vary’ underperformed and 2005’s ‘The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1)’ failed to reignite momentum. By then, metalcore and the New Wave of American Heavy Metal had taken center stage, leaving Limp Bizkit largely sidelined.
Why The Comeback Took So Long
According to Borland, the band’s extended exile wasn’t about the music—it was about cultural fatigue.
“I just think it took a lot of people time to get over how annoyingly in everyone’s face we were for that period. When you’re that overexposed, where no one can get away from you, people get sick of seeing you.”
That perception finally shifted in the 2020s, as nostalgia, reassessment, and a more relaxed version of the band brought Limp Bizkit back into the fold.
“Now, people can enjoy the band for what it is. I love being in Limp Bizkit so much now. I love every show, I love going on tour, I love everybody in the band.
But it took all these years for me to look back and go, ‘God, I love this—and I love playing those songs.’”
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Meh. You can say that. But there were and still are a lot of gatekeepers when it comes to the metal / rock community. You guys were a serious band with some corny cheekiness to them. They were full of angst and have something to prove. Now they don’t need to prove shhhhit! They’re having a blast now. One of the best bands to see live . I have seen them 5 times 🤘🤘
It took time for them to come out with some good music.
Let’s be real here, their first 3 albums were amazing.
Then they followed that up with 3 very boring albums.
Still Sucks had some decent songs on it as they werent taking themselves too seriously again. The post-Covid touring helped this as well.