Sam Rivers, the founding member and bassist of the American nu-metal band Limp Bizkit, which dominated the late ’90s and early 2000s metal scene, died on Saturday, October 18. He was 48 years old.Sam Rivers and frontman Fred Durst first met in Jacksonville and briefly played together in a band called Malachi Sage. When that project ended in 1994, the two teamed up with drummer John Otto, Rivers’ cousin, to form what would later become Limp Bizkit. Guitarist Wes Borland soon joined. The lineup expanded further with DJ Lethal, who completed the group.Since the band’s inception in 1994, Rivers has remained a core member and a creative force behind their music. In 2015, he left the band due to health issues initially believed to be degenerative disc disease. However, Rivers later revealed in the book Raising Hell: Backstage Tales from the Lives of Metal Legends that his health struggles resulted from liver disease. On October 19, the remaining members of Limp Bizkit, Fred Durst, Wes Borland, John Otto, and DJ Lethal, confirmed the news of Rivers’ passing. They shared a heartfelt post on Instagram, paying tribute to Rivers as both a bandmate and a brother, describing the immense impact he had on their music and lives.“Today we lost our brother. Our bandmate. Our heartbeat. Sam Rivers wasn’t just our bass player - he was pure magic. The pulse beneath every song, the calm in the chaos, the soul in the sound,” Limp Bizkit wrote.Reflecting on their early years together, the band described how Rivers’ talent shaped their identity from the very beginning.“From the first note we ever played together, Sam brought a light and a rhythm that could never be replaced. His talent was effortless, his presence unforgettable, his heart enormous,” they wrote.They also remembered all the moments they shared offstage, "wild ones, quiet ones, beautiful ones", emphasizing how Rivers’ warmth made every memory more meaningful.In the remainder of their tribute, the band called Rivers a “once-in-a-lifetime kind of human,” a “true legend of legends,” whose spirit would live on “in every groove, every stage, every memory.” They expressed that his “music never ends,” and promised to carry his memory with them always. View this post on Instagram Instagram PostLimp Bizkit released their debut album Three Dollar Bill, Y’all in 1997, but it was their 1999 follow-up Significant Other, driven by the hit single “Nookie”, that catapulted them to Number One on the Billboard 200. After a decade-long break, the band returned in 2021 with Still Sucks, and most recently, in September, dropped the new track “Making Love to Morgan Wallen.”More about Sam Rivers’ health struggles that made him leave Limp Bizkit in 2015Sam Rivers (Image via Getty Images) Limp Bizkit bassist Sam Rivers revealed that his departure from the band in 2015 stemmed from his battle with liver disease. His candid admissions appeared in rock writer Jon Wiederhorn’s book Raising Hell: Backstage Tales From the Lives of Metal Legends, shedding light on the toll of his years of excessive drinking.Explaining the beginning of his struggle, Rivers admitted that his health decline was directly linked to alcohol abuse.“I got liver disease from excessive drinking,” the musician divulged in Wiederhorn’s book (as per a Loudwire report dated January 7, 2020).Sam Rivers went on to describe how his deteriorating health forced him to step away from Limp Bizkit. He said that by 2015, he felt so "horrible" and physically drained that continuing to perform became impossible. His diagnosis became a turning point, pushing him to reevaluate his choices and prioritize recovery.“I had to leave Limp Bizkit in 2015 because I felt so horrible, and a few months after that I realized I had to change everything because I had really bad liver disease… I quit drinking and did everything the doctors told me. I got treatment for the alcohol and got a liver transplant, which was a perfect match,” Sam Rivers revealed in Raising Hell.Before his 2015 departure, Rivers said his health problems had begun years earlierHe was first diagnosed in 2011, but didn’t fully understand the severity of his condition. He managed to stop drinking and stay clean for "nine or ten months and went on tour." However, his "home life wasn't that great at the time." So as soon as he got off tour, he began to relapse. In his words, he “fell right back into being a horrible drunk again.”After battling the disease for several years, Rivers reached a critical point where medical intervention became unavoidable. He recalled that his condition had deteriorated so severely that doctors warned him of the consequences if he didn’t stop drinking immediately.“It got so bad I had to go to UCLA Hospital and the doctor said, ‘If you don’t stop, you’re going to die. And right now, you’re looking like you need a new liver… I fought liver disease for a couple years and it won. I had to get a liver transplant in 2017,” Sam Rivers explained in the book.Following his transplant and recovery, Rivers eventually returned to Limp Bizkit in 2018.After Sam Rivers’ passing, DJ Lethal commented on the band’s aforementioned Instagram post, stating that he was in “shock” and urging fans to “respect the family’s privacy at this moment.” The cause of Rivers’ death has not been disclosed by his bandmates or family members.