According to Ultimate Classic Rock, a friendly jam session between iconic guitarist Eddie Van Halen and Limp Bizkit reportedly wound up with the guitar icon putting a gun to Fred Durst’s head around 2001, a video director recalled.
In his new photobook Eruption in the Canyon: 212 Days & Nights With the Genius of Eddie Van Halen, Andrew Bennett presents pictures and anecdotes from the period he spent filming Van Halen at work in their studio between 2004 and 2007. The band was unhappy with his results and a dispute over ownership ended up in court in 2018.
The incident with Durst allegedly took place after guitarist Wes Borland had quit Limp Bizkit and the band held auditions to find a replacement. Durst and Eddie Van Halen were introduced at a party where a record-label executive suggested they work together. Bennett said Durst responded, “That would be hilarious. The greatest guitar player ever plays with the worst band ever.” But Van Halen responded with, “F–k it, let’s jam.”
The session went ahead at a house in Beverly Hills, but Van Halen, who’s not a fan of weed, left abruptly after people began smoking it, leaving guitars, amps and other equipment behind. Bennett said afterward the guitarist described the jam as “like being a scholar amongst kindergartners.”
The following day, Van Halen contacted Durst to recover his gear, according to Bennett. The guitarist was still upset about the experience, and after not hearing back from Durst after 24 hours, he decided to take matters into his own hands.
“Eddie once bought an assault vehicle from a military auction,” Bennett writes. “It has a shine gun mount on the back and is not legal. Eddie drove that assault vehicle through L.A., into Beverly Hills, then parked and left it running on the front lawn of the house Limp Bizkit was rehearsing in. He got out wearing no shirt, his hair in a Samurai bun on top of his head, his jeans held up with a strand of rope and combat boots held together by duct tape. And he had a gun in his hand.”
“That a–hole answered the door,” Bennett recalled Van Halen explaining. “I put my gun to that stupid f–king red hat of his, and I said, ‘Where’s my s–t, motherf–er?’ That f–king guy just turned to one of his employees and starts yelling at him to grab my s–t. … Eddie Van Halen stood on the front lawn of a residential home in Beverly Hills in broad daylight, smoking a cigarette while holding a gun on Fred Durst as he went back and forth from the house to the assault vehicle, lugging amps and guitars.”
Bennett said the Van Halen-Limp Bizkit summit remains a head-scratcher to this day: “Katy Perry could join Slipknot and I would be less shocked.”
To order Eruption in the Canyon: 212 Days and Nights with the Genius of Eddie Van Halen, click here.
15 Responses
Wow! What a great story. I guess we know why Valerie left, and just in time. I wonder what stories there are about Eddie and Alex that are similar to this. Fuk’n Rambo Van Halen!
I guess I am the only one, who finds some humor in this story.
While I recognize that Van Halen clearly had addiction issues, which led to some very questionable behavior, Durst, from what I recollect, does not have the greatest reputation. I commend Eddie for standing up for himself and retrieving his own gear. Was this the appropriate way to do so? Probably not, but visually, it must have been hysterical.
That is what Durst gets for ghosting the mighty VH. Had he played nice, who knows? I have heard stories about Eddie being very generous, maybe he would have let him have a guitar or an amp? Instead, he got a military vehicle, a gun, a pissed off icon and a man bun-LOL!!
I totally agree, the entire scene is comical and something out of National Lampoon & a Tarantino film. Fred Durst was considered and may still be a a tool, not really sure. I love the brazen, cavalier and impulsive actions of Edward Van Halen. How the hell did he make it through LA into Beverly Hills and never get cited let alone go unobserved? I thought the story about the brothers at the Japanese Steakhouse was wild when Alex fell on the grill on his back. The way Sammy tells that story in Red is well described.
Oh God-LOL!!! Alex Van Teriyaki.
BTW, great call with National Lampoon, that’s exactly right. 🙂
Guess it was Eddie’s take on My Way (or the Highway) 🙂
Dana, I do see the humor in it too but based on stories of Eddie’s health at the time – one never knows.
Maybe EVH took the term “gunslinger”, sometimes used to define a great guitarist, too literally? :0)
🙂
this has to be true too crazy to be made up – Could you imagine the amazing rock n roll movie Tarantino could make if he took 20 or so of the craziest rock stories he could find attributed them to a fictional band and turned that into a film , and of course the soundtrack…….
Nobody gives a s–t about Eddie anymore unless it is VH w/Mike.
I am not so sure about that, Eddie is currently battling cancer.
I think the intrigue of his being an innovative musician will always be there, and the fact that he was constantly tinkering with his guitar, and amps, to create his own sound, makes him very interesting.
I got so excited seeing “Frankenstein” in person, as well as his whole gear set up, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://eddietrunk.com/my-experience-at-the-the-metropolitan-museum-of-arts-play-it-loud-instruments-of-rock-n-roll-exhibit/