The untold feud of Limp Bizkit and System Of A Down

The year was 1999 and nu metal was one of the most popular music genres on planet earth. Limp Bizkit had just released their multi-platinum record “Significant Other” and System Of a Down were making huge waves with their debut record released the year before. So, it’s not surprising that two of the most famous alternative metal bands at the time joined forces to embark on a massive tour around the United States of America. The Family Values tour was also a big thing at the time. Previously headlined in 1998 by Korn, it had featured several acts like Ice Cube, Ram stein and Limp Bizkit. Now, one year later, due to their massive success with songs like “Nookie” and “Break Stuff”, Limp Bizkit was the headliner of the 1999 edition. Besides Bizkit, other artists who played at Family Values Tour 1999 included Primus, Staind, Method Man, Redman, Ja Rule, Korn, The Crystal Method and Filter. It was around this time that Fred Durst, Limp Bizkit’s lead singer and front man, invited System Of a Down to join the tour.

The band accepted Fred’s invitation to go on tour with Limp Bizkit but things didn’t go as expected. System Of a Down was to meet up with Family Values on October 16 and play the remainder of the tour. However, the band was dropped from the tour and as is often the case, the reasons for what happened were up for debate. System Of a Down's management claimed that the band was dropped from the tour by Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst, whose band was ruling the Family Values roost. Velvet Hammer Management – which handled System - told MTV that Durst was courting another Velvet Hammer band, the Michigan rapcore outfit Tap Root, as part of his A&R duties at Flip/Interscope Records. Velvet Hammer claims that Durst was eager to sign the band, but Tap Root had hoped to play a few showcase gigs for other labels to test the market. The management company claims that Durst then took out his dissatisfaction with Tap Root and Velvet Hammer by dropping System from the Family Values tour.

The Firm, the management company that handled Limp Bizkit and Family Values, confirmed that System was off the bill, but offered no comment on the reason for the move. At the time Fred told the press his side of the story: "System Of a Down is no longer on the tour," Durst explained. "We love System Of a Down, but we can't stand their manager, he's the piece of sh-- that got them off the tour." The Family Values filled the slot vacated by System by extending Staind's run on the tour. Shortly after these unexpected series of events, both bands found common ground and apparently solved their issues. Durst invited System Of a Down to join Limp Bizkit, Method Man and Redman for a post-Family Values tour, the "Billionaire Pirates" tour, that launched November 4, 1999, in Tampa, Florida.

"We just want to bring good music to the kids," Durst wrote in a statement on the band's official Website at the time. "It really came as a shock to us. this drama," System drummer, John Dolmayan, told MTV News at the time. Dolmayan said that System and Limp were able to get beyond management level hang-ups when the two bands spoke directly to hammer out their problems. The two acts, who struck up a friendship while touring with Ozzfest '98, were able to set the management issues aside and line up the tour. "A lot of it is misunderstanding," Dolmayan said of the situation. "There's no reason to have enemies in this world, especially over something so trivial." System ended up heading to Europe in mid-December for a string of dates that concluded with the band opening for Black Sabbath on that group's two shows in Birmingham, England. The news came as System was seeing its 1998 self-titled debut album begin to gather steam on the chart. Their record had sold total of 180,000 copies.

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