Sam Rivers, the founding bassist of Limp Bizkit, died on October 18, 2025. His bandmates remembered a musician whose contributions reached beyond his instrument, describing both his importance to their music and the generosity he showed the people around him.
On “Re-Arranged,” from 1999’s Significant Other, his melodic bass figure takes a central role. The song grew from the kind of spontaneous collaboration that Rivers valued throughout his career.
Rivers grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, and initially learned guitar as a teenager. He moved to bass when a group he was playing with needed someone to fill that position. Learning another instrument gave him a foundation he could carry into the new role, including an understanding of what guitarists were doing around him.
That ability caught Fred Durst’s attention before Limp Bizkit existed. In an Instagram tribute posted after Rivers’ death, Durst recalled watching him perform at Pier 7 in Jacksonville Beach. He had been trying to assemble a band around his ideas about combining different styles, but had struggled to find the right musicians. Rivers’ playing stood out immediately. Durst approached him after the performance, explained his idea and found an enthusiastic collaborator.
Rivers also helped establish the other half of the rhythm section. He recommended drummer John Otto, whose jazz background appealed to Durst. The three began playing together in Rivers’ garage, with Durst trying out guitar parts and vocals while Rivers helped develop the music around them. Durst remembered being able to suggest an idea and hear Rivers turn it into something more fully realized than he had imagined.
That instinct also shaped his work with Wes Borland. Discussing “Re-Arranged” in the January 2014 issue of Bass Guitar Magazine, Rivers explained that Borland started playing a tapped guitar figure during soundcheck. Rivers responded with the bass line, and the group developed the song before the session ended.
In the interview, later republished by Guitar World, Rivers described choosing between moving around Borland’s riffs and staying close to Otto’s drums. A busy guitar part could call for restraint on bass, with another section offering space for melody. “It’s all about finding the balance,” he said.
His versatility extended into the recording studio. Rivers appeared on Limp Bizkit’s first six studio albums and took on guitar duties as well as bass on Results May Vary following Borland’s departure. His role in the band involved helping songs take shape as its lineup and recording circumstances changed.
For Thundercat, those recordings became part of his own musical education. Speaking to Rolling Stone in October 2025, he described Rivers and Otto’s partnership as something he aspired to as a young musician. Songs including “Re-Arranged” and “My Generation” helped shape his early understanding of how a band could work.
Thundercat remembered hearing “Nookie” in high school and connecting its bass line with Herbie Hancock’s “Sly.” He credited Limp Bizkit’s willingness to cross musical boundaries with influencing his own work. “Sam gave us examples of how to play,” he said.
