Limp Bizkit bassist Sam Rivers started disappearing from the band's live shows in 2015 and didn't come back until 2018. Rivers and the band never really addressed the situation until now. In Jon Wiederhorn's new book Raising Hell: Backstage Tales From The Lives Of Metal Legends, Rivers reveals he left Limp Bizkit in 2015 due to severe liver disease that resulted in him getting a new liver.
“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.”
Rivers was originally diagnosed with liver disease in 2011 and unsuccessfully tried to battle his addiction problems.
“I was diagnosed in 2011. I didn’t really get what was happening back then. I stopped drinking and battled the liver disease for a bit. I got clean for about nine or ten months and went on tour. I was super clean, but my home life wasn’t that great at the time and as soon as I got off tour I started drinking, and then drinking more. I fell right back into being a horrible drunk again.”
“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.”
Raising Hell: Backstage Tales From The Lives Of Metal Legends is out now.
