Staind frontman Aaron Lewis praised Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst during a live appearance in Virginia Beach, VA this past Friday, February 22nd. Durst of course helped give Staind their big break back in the day when he helped get them signed to the Flip Records imprint. During the aforementioned show, Lewis performed an acoustic rendition of Staind‘s “Epiphany“, after which he remarked of the band’s Fred Durst directed music video for that track.

“How crazy is it that Billy Zane is the lead character in that? [“Epiphany” video] You know we spent—well, we didn’t. Well we did—but Fred spent like a million and a half dollars on that fucking video. Dumb shit. There’s so many ways I could have spent that money…” - Advertisement -

When a fan in the audience later remarked “Fred‘s an asshole.” Lewis replied:

“No, Fred‘s the whole reason I’m sitting in front of you tonight. And I gotta say that that at this point in my life I call Fred when I need like Dalai Lama advice, for real. Fred is fucking awesome, he really is. He blows my mind every fucking time I talk to him. He does. I’m very thankful. I’m thankful that after… Honestly after I offended the fuck out of him, cause I did; The first time we ever met I offended his ass bad. And I’m very grateful that he was able to get past that… Every time I hear someone yell something bad about Fred I want to just like screech to a halt and be like ‘What?’ That is the reason I’m here… [Without Fred] I’d have given it up a long time ago I think and I probably would have written songs that made my kids laugh and I would have been okay with that. But Fred is the reason that I’m here. So any fucking hate that you may harbor in your heart for no reason whatsoever, because you don’t even know the boy, let it go. He’s alright in my book.”

Lewis then began to briefly strum his guitar while singing “I love Fred.” Afterwards he continued to speak of him:

“So this is what kind of motherfucker he is. Did any of you know that he lost everything in that West Coast fire that just happened? Everything. Everything. He drove his Harley Davidson away from his house because he couldn’t even get his car out of the garage. That’s what kind of motherfucker he is. You don’t know that. Nobody knows that. He lost everything in that fire. So, don’t hate on a motherfucker.”

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[via Rock Feed]