Wes Borland Shares Why He and His Brother Left Limp Bizkit Right Before They Got Signed

Limp Bizkit’s influential guitarist Wes Borland joined the latest episode of the Disrespectfully Podcast, discussing his experiences with the band, his creative passions, love life, and more. During the chat, Borland opened up about key moments in the band’s early days, including his initial departure from the band when they were first getting signed in the mid-90s, and the unforeseen events that led him back to the group.

In 2001, Borland famously parted ways with Limp Bizkit amid tensions with other members, burnout, and trauma from the death of a fan at an Australian show. However, as Borland explained on the podcast, this wasn’t the first time he had quit the band. He revealed that he actually walked away just as the band was signing their first record deal and working on their 2x multi-platinum certified 1997 debut album Three Dollar Bill, Yall$.

Borland described what happened after he left:

“It wasn’t very long, It happened pretty quickly. We did a couple of regional tours. We actually… Fred [Durst, Limp Bizkit singer] and I have had an interesting history of trying to get along with each other, up until, like, the last seven years, and now we’re awesome. But it took us really growing up, because of egos and just like different ideas of what the band should be.

Right before we got signed, I was like, ‘No, I don’t want to do this.’ And I went back to working at a coffee shop. And they got different guitar players and sort of reformed the band. They got signed. I’m out. My brother Scott Borland was originally in Limp Bizkit too, on keyboards, and he was like, ‘If you’re not doing it, I’m not doing it.’ But, [we were] young and stupid, and just like, you know, knuckleheaded people not being adults.

They got signed, bought a van & trailer, drove out to LA to start making their record without me, without my brother, at DJ Lethal’s house, who was in House Of Pain at the time, he was going to produce. And the guy driving, one of their friends — I kind of knew him a little bit too — but in the middle of Texas, [he] flipped the van, went off the road, flipped the van.

Everybody, everybody… like Fred‘s feet went through a window, destroyed. Everybody was cut to ribbons. The guitar player flew out of the window. They showed up in LA… they were in the hospital, [the showed up] in LA on crutches to start recording. And the people in LA that were doing the record were like, ‘What is happening?’

Then the guitar players, in the middle of the night, stole all the gear — all the guitar gear — and rented a car and drove back to Florida. Then it was just like, they started calling me and going, like, ‘Do you want to do this again?’ And I was like ‘No. I don’t want, I don’t want any part of it,’ you know, being stubborn.

I think finally they went to New York, and were trying to record in New York with some people, and I finally just went, ‘Yeah, I’ll come up to New York and we’ll try’. And that’s when we started writing the first record. It’s been wild, like wild. When I think [back], I don’t think about like the old days, but how many terrible, weird things happened to get us where we were.”

Borland also shared insight on how the success of their cover of George Michael‘s “Faith” saved their debut album. Initially released as a last-ditch effort, Limp Bizkit’s rowdy take on Michael’s 1987 hit became a pivotal moment in the band’s mainstream success. Borland recalled the band’s struggles leading up to the release of “Faith,” revealing:

“So we had like two singles that came out that didn’t do well, that didn’t really hit. And then ‘Faith’ came out, and we made a terrible video for ‘Faith.’ And then Fred was like, ‘We’re trashing this. We’re gonna do like a Mötley Crüe-style tour video that shows us, like our footage on tour.’

And he brought a film crew out, and the video was just us on tour. I think, the combination of doing the cover of ‘Faith’ and people seeing actually what the shows were like, that’s when it really hit, and that’s the first time… We were recording our second record at the time when ‘Faith’ came out. That was just like, the last ditch to see if we could get any traction.”

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