During an appearance on Let There Be Talk, LIMP BIZKIT guitarist Wes Borland talked the band’s sudden rose to fame and leaving the group in 2001.
When asked how was it like to suddenly explode to a level LIMP BIZKIT did, Borland responded: “Yeah, it’s just a weird thing. We were signed when I was 21, and I didn’t grow up with any money. I grew up scraping together a guitar amp and a guitar and was always trying to work jobs.
“From 12 to 13 I was mowing lawns and bagging ice for like an hour at the grocery store where they were illegally letting me work at, to make a little bit of money to buy an $80 guitar and an amp. And that was the best thing I ever got. I still have it, actually, that first guitar.
“I’ve sort of analyzed it a lot and I’m 42 now, so I’m twice the age I was when the band started, and it’s just an odd thing to revive yourself from arrested development,” he continued. “There were parts of me as a person that never matured as an adult, and I’m now having to play catch-up with some of those things.
“Just thinking about reality, what reality is, and everybody’s place in it, it’s like undoing a bunch of the stuff that I sort of did to myself or that whole experience did to me. I’m in no way a messed-up guy — I think I never had a drug or alcohol problem, I never was wild — that wild — on the road.”
Asked if there was a massive amount of money at some point, Wes said: “Yeah, like a ridiculous amount of money. And all of my money got really aggressively invested in the stock market — high-risk stocks. Because at that time, this is one of the things, this is one of the ideas of arrested development — because I was just like this you said, when you’re in it, you think it’s never going to end!
“Because people are just stroking your ego going, ‘You guys are the best thing ever, this ride is never going to end,’ and positive, positive, positive,” Wes continued. “The buzz is on, and then you’re like defeating boy bands on TRL — we felt like gods! And so I was just like, ‘Yeah, man, invest it all! If we lose it all, who cares? There’s more where that came from!’
When interviewer then asked, “And did you lose it?”, he replied: “All of it. 9/11 happened and I lost well over a million dollars in the stock market. Just gone — poof! And what’s crazy is — I was just like, ‘Whatever.’ But I had nothing! That was all my money! And I was like, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll make more money.’ And then I was like, ‘Actually, I don’t want to.’ And I quit.”
Borland then reflected at leaving the band with no money, saying: “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.
“They were like, ‘All the money’s gone, you lost all your money in the stock market,” he added. “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 a—s. 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.”
