[Jacksonville, FL] At one time, Jacksonville’s Limp Bizkit could do no wrong. The band’s powerhouse album Significant Other debuted at #1 on Billboard‘s “Top 100 Albums” and sold in excess of 16 million copies around the world.

Even Limp Bizkit‘s poorly received (and horribly titled) 2000 effort Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water is in the record books as the all-time fastest-selling rock album.

Now the one-time  rap-rock heroes are music industry goats: the band’s latest studio album – Gold Cobra, released over the summer – has only managed to sell a measly 63,000 copies (according to Nielsen SoundScan and reported by Blabbermouth.net) prompting a parting of the ways with Interscope, Bizkit’s longtime major-label imprint.

What’s even more shocking is the fact that Cobra was the first to feature the group’s original line-up since Starfish and it still failed to make even a pebble-sized dent.

For their part, the band is acting like this is good news.

“… Finally we have been able to get off our label and become independent,” frontman Fred Durst offered last month during an appearance on the Poolside With Dean Delray podcast.

Limp Bizkit’s Gold Cobra

Durst continued: “One of the things with Gold Cobra was that that was a record, for us, to do for ourselves, for the core fans, for some of the people that we know in the industry – it wasn’t our step forward to make a big pop, smash radio record.”

Obviously.

So what’s next for the group? Touring in other countries where the band’s legacy is better appreciated, according to Durst.

“We do very, very good on our touring, and we mainly tour outside the United States,” said Durst. “It seems like in the United States, man, they’re waiting on a song, they’re waiting on a hit, and the rest of the world doesn’t necessarily operate that way; they’re, sort of, career people.”

A check of the Limp Bizkit‘s website reveals no scheduled concert appearances.

To listen to the complete interview, click here (it is the 11/22 show). Download the HQ mp3 here.

***CORRECTION*** In the previous version of this post, the man in the picture wearing an Iron Maiden shirt was incorrectly identified as Fred Durst, when in fact he is show host Dean Delray. We apologize for the error. The current picture IS of Fred Durst performing live with the band during the Gold Cobra tour.

By: Mark Christopher/Sunshine Slate

Limp Bizkit

[United Kingdom] Fred has a thing for Kurt, I guess. On a bonus track (“My Own Cobain”) from Jacksonville-based Limp Bizkit’s forthcoming studio album Gold Cobra, lead singer Fred Durst talks about depression, and recognizing, perhaps, what drove the Nirvana frontman to suicide in 1994.

He talked to UK heavy-music mag Kerrang! about it in the issue on newsstands now.

“I try not to elaborate too much on the metaphors, but here’s something I haven’t told a lot of people,” Fred tells Kerrang!. “We have an older song called “It’ll Be OK” [from 2000's Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water]. It’s directly about me fantasizing inside of the depression of someone with a tortured mind, like Kurt Cobain. I really connect with him. I have my own torture.”

Durst continued …

“I’ve been impacted by his poetry, his philosophies and music, obviously,” he adds. “On this new song, it’s another way into my depression and expression of that turmoil.”

Still not convinced? Durst has a tattoo of a portrait of Cobain on his chest.

Gold Cobra, Limp Bizkit’s fifth studio recording, drops June 28.

Listen to samples here. Peek Limp Bizkit’s official website here.

- Mark Christopher

Image: Fred Durst at the premiere of Baby Mama in New York City at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival (by David Shankbone)

Related links:

Limp Bizkit’s ‘Gold Cobra’ Now Available For Pre-Order On iTunes. Last week the band released a lyric video for the single, “Gold Cobra”, which featured Fred Durst sporting a Imperial Scout Trooper helmet from Star Wars. Gold Cobra in-stores on June 28th. Listen to a preview of the entire album here. …

The Essential Kork The thirteenth song, “All In The Family,” features Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst, while the rap/rock closing track, “Cameltosis,” has Tre Hardson singing along with Jonathan Davis. Disc two once again features many popular tunes such as “Falling Away …

Interscope Records has confirmed that Jacksonville, FL-based rap-metal outfit Limp Bizkit, led by mega-mouthpiece Fred Durst, will release the highly anticipated (and much delayed) Gold Cobra on June 28 of this year.

It will be a make or break release for the bruising bad boys.  The platinum-selling act, notorious for soundtracking the violence at the Woodstock ’99 festival with mosh-pit inducing anthems such as “Break Stuff,” has not moved a lot of units in recent years.

Gold Cobra will be the groundbreaking band’s sixth studio effort and first since 2005′s The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1). That 7-track effort was a critical and commercial flop that sold slightly more than 100,000 copies in the U.S. Expect a little more fire in the band’s belly this time out as they look to re-establish Limp Bizkit as a brand name and introduce the act to the next generation of hard-edged fans.

Expect to hear the first track “Shotgun” later this month, as the Durst-confirmed artwork (above) as already been leaked and, when asked by a fan via Twitter, Durst responded with an emphatic, “they say the singles come soon in May.”

Durst did the logo and bandmate Wes Borland did the art, which was apparently turned in just last week. Borland’s involvement is welcome to fans, who have witnessed the firebrand guitarist quit the band twice, including after releasing the 2005 greatest hits package to which Borland likened to “a piece of shit” and declared it “a waste of money.”

The band plays Sonisphere Festival in the U.K. in July.

- Mark Christopher

More Info:

Limp Bizkit: New Single Previews Online The original Limp Bizkit line-up with guitarist Wes Borland reunited in 2009 for a series of festival dates, including the UK’s Sonisphere. Fred Durst recently indicated that a follow-up to “Gold Cobra” has already been written. …