In a new episode of Disrespectfully Podcast, Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland discussed the band’s early years in the mid-90s and revealed that he quit the band just as they were getting signed and working on their debut album, ‘Three Dollar Bill, Yall$.’
“It wasn’t very long, It happened pretty quickly,” he admitted. “We did a couple of regional tours. Fred [Durst] 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,” the guitarist continued. “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 I’m not doing it.’ But, [we were] young and stupid, and just like knuckleheaded people not being adults.”
“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,” Borland added. “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.”
After losing well over a million dollars in the stock market, the guitarist decided to leave the band. Looking back at it now, he thinks it was a ‘stupid’ move. “Yeah, and I look back on this it’s just like, ‘God, you’re an idiot.’ And everyone listening to this will think I’m an idiot too, but this is how hard-headed I am and was at the time,” he told Ultimate Guitar at the time.
“They were like, ‘All the money’s gone, you lost all your money in the stock market. We have touring set up next year and you’re gonna net 5 million next year.’ And I said, ‘You can shove it up your f*cking ass. I’d rather be poor.’ And left. I was in the management office and they were just like, ‘Okay.’ Yeah, I’m like the most hard-headed idiot,” he added.
Borland has now been with the band for 21 years, and they are returning to the UK with their Loserville & Special Guests Tour in 2025. It will start on March 8th at OVO Hydro, Glasgow, heading to Birmingham’s BP Pulse LIVE on March 13th, the AO Arena in Manchester on March 15th, and wrapping it up at OVO Arena Wembley in London on March 16th.
