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Guitar World, Aug. 1999
Hit Parader, Nov. 1999

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Guitar World, March 2000.
Guitar World Readers Poll 200 - Best Metal Guitarist

SKIP DOWN TO THE INTERVIEW

Guitar World - Were all of the shows on last year's Family Values tour taped?
Wes Borland - Yeah. We're in the process of sorting out different tracks for a live album and video. The first step is to simply separate what sounds good from what sounds like complete garbage. [laughs] Sometimes, it's like, "Wow, what were we doing? Everybody's completely out of tune!"
GW - When will the live record and video be released?
BORLAND - Soon. This one will be like the one that come out last year, meaning it will include three or four songs from each band. So each band has to come in and pick what they want influded.
GW - What's up with Limp Bizkit's forthcoming home video, Poop?
BORLAND - We were going to put it out sooner, but at the last minute we decided that we needed to freshen it up. The last thing on the video now is when we finished recording Significant Other, so we really need to add a "postscript." A lot has happened since then.
GW - What's your take on the "new metal" label that has been attached to bands like Limp Bizkit and Korn?
BORLAND - There is a serious movement taking place in rock now, just like there was in the early Nineties with grunge, and in the late Eighties with thrash and hair metal. It's always exciting when that kind of breakthrough takes place. But there's a downside, too, and I'm starting to see it happen.
Whenever something that was underground breaks into the mainstream, other bands automatically try to make a fromula out of it. And pretty soon you start hearing pop groups co-opting the look and sound. This tricks the audience at first, but after a while they get wise and say, "Hey - wait a minute! What happened there? What is this crap!" [laughs] Then there's nothing but crap for a long time, and you have to go back underground to find the really good bands.
GW - Are we at the beginning or the end of this cycle?
BORLAND - I don't know if we're at the beginning or in the middle of it, and I don't know how long it's going to last, but the new metal movement feels as strong as the Seattle scene ever was.
GW - Which new metal bands do you like and respect?
BORLAND - Korn, of course, and Rage Against the Machine. The Deftones have always been awesome. In my book, the Deftones should be as successful and popular as Kid Rock. I don't think they've gotten enough support from their label, Maverick.
Skunk Anansie and the Guano Apes are interesting, but I'm not totally sure how I feel about them yet. We seem to be walking the same area of the woods. I'm curious to see how they develop.
GW - Much has been written in the press and on television about Limp Bizkit's "responsibility" for the excessive violence at Woodstock '99, which, some say, was sparked by the song "Break Stuff." In Guitar World's cover story on Limp Bizkit [August 1999], singer Fred Durst admitted to harboring some concern about the song, stating, "I don't think it's going to make people in a crowd hurt eachother. I think it's just going to be that little feather on the camel's back, that one little push that thurns it into, 'Wow, things are really intense now.' But still, I'm kind of scared what's going to happen with that song live." What's your take?
BORLAND - Well, the Woodstock people sure got to hold that quote over Fred's head, didn't they? In defense of the band, there was noting we could do about the activities of the crowd at Woodstock. We just played our show.
GW - What sparked the riotous behaviour?
BORLAND - Part of the problem were the overall circumstances. At those shows, Ozzy's fans had bought all of the seats right in front of the stange, and many wouldn't show up until Ozzy was about to go on. So we would always play to rows and rows of empty seats, and our fans would be stuck miles away. For the first three bands on the bill, there was nobody in the orchestra section. If anything is going to make you tense, it's stuff like that.
So, at this one show, Fred said to the audience, "If you don't like where your seat is, come on down front," and then all hell broke loose! Sharon Osbourne was fine about it, becuase Ozzy has pulled shit like that in his career, but she said, "Look, I'm going to be your friend because I love you guys, but you're going to get into some major trouble if you keep doing it this way."
GW - What do you think was behind the violent behavior at Woodstock?
BORLAND - The bad conditions. I happened to criticize the promoters of Woodstock at one of the Family Values shows. Unbeknowst to me, the person I was talking to was on the the promoters of the Woodstock show! Needless to say, I was embarrassed. I backpedaled, thinking, "I wish I could swallow my face right about now." But now I'm glad I said what I said.
The promoter's explanation was, "We wanted to creat a very free environment for everyone," but that shit just will not fly. They treated Woodstock like a concert when the should have treat it like a city. 250,000 people - that's a small city. And to have no law enforcement and barely any security is insane. It was their responsibility to have that in place, and they didn't.
Woodstock, overall, was relatively problem-free, considering how bad it could have been, with so many people in one place. There were a lot of legitimate reasons for the frustrations of the people who were there. The bathroom were atrocious, and the ATMs ran out of money, so people couldn't even buy water, - which was for sale for five dollars a bottle - if they wanted to. A plate of food was 10 or 15 dollars!
If I was a concertgoer there, I would have said "fuck this!" and left at the beginning of the second day. I'm sure tons of people did leave.
I don't know what else to say about it. We got up and did what we normally do, even holding back a little bit in light of the situation. I'm upset by the violence, and by the alleged rapes that took place but, from our perspective, it was just a big, sprawling mess. Fred was saying to the crowd, "If people are hurt, pick 'em up, help each other out." He said helpful words onstage, but no one ever mentions that.
GW - What else can you tell us about your solo project?
BORLAND - I'm always composing, and anything that doesn't really fall under the Limp Bizkit umbrella will go into this side project.
GW - How would you determine what falls under the Limp Bizkit umbrella?
BORLAND - It's not that there's a Limp Bizkit "formula," but there's a definite sound. I don't really know for sure; it's interesting to think about. Actually, Fred will play a big part in determinding that. I'm going to make a tape of everything that I'm writing and have him listen to it and see what he likes and what he hates. What he hates will probably go on my solo album. [laughs]
GW - Are you going to sing on your solo record?
BORLAND - Oh yeah; I'm going everything. All of the vocals are totally distorted, either high pitched or... whatever. It's terrible - it's a tragedy! It's a travesty, as well. I'm going to call it Big Dumb Face.
GW - Do you look at the side project as a total free-for-all?
BORLAND - Oh, yeah; it's whatever the hell I want to do. It's like that hidden drawer with all kinds of wild shit in it. Most of it is really funny, like Ween, who I love, and They Might Be Giants, with a much broader feel, stylistically. There is a lot of death metal, with really funny lyrics. I parody everything from southern rock to hip-hop. More than anything else, I'm really making fun of myself.