HARDY Reflects on Fred Durst Team-Up 'SOUL4SALE' and Dream Metal Collaborations
We're currently living in a world where country and heavy/alternative music have been boot-scootin' successfully thanks to the likes of Bearooth and HARDY's 'The Better Me' and more recently, Falling In Reverse's collab with Jelly Roll on 'All My Life'. We'd be stupid for not identifying longstanding acts such as Bilmuri and Gideon's Do-si-dos too.
But the main man himself, HARDY, has gone one further by bringing nu-metal icon Fred Durst into the country world for the latest single from his newly released new album QUIT!!. Now before you get your assless chaps in a knot, this isn't the first time Daddy Durst has dabbled with melancholy performances - see Limp Bizkit's cover of Led Zeppelin's 'Behind Blue Eyes' or 'Down Another Day' from 2003s Results May Vary album, or even 'Empty Hole' from 2021's Still Sucks record.
The new collab finds listeners greeted with HARDY drawing them in as he tries to sell his soul for a bargain so he can play guitar and collect cars, you know the usual country-themed messaging before Freddy joins in not long after talk of the devil. Coincidence? We'll let you decide.
Fred then proceeds to laydown a slow-jam rap verse talking about bringing back Jesus to save us from this hell we're living in. There's even a cheeky country bizkit rhyme thrown in for good measure. It's not your typical one verse team-up either, Durst is littered all throughout the ballad and really adds his own tone, instead of just being thrown in for the sake of it like many guest vocal spots.
During a pre-release album discussion at the legendary El Mocambo in Toronto, CA, Wall Of Sound asked HARDY how the collab with Fred Durst came about, the following was transcribed from that event.
"I’m a huge Limp Bizkit fan. If you're not you're a hater.
I wrote the hook to that song four years ago in July in Mexico, I was on a trip with my wife (girlfriend at the time) and her family, and we were on a boat coming back from fishing. I was sitting on the bow of the boat, and I have no idea where it came from, but I just started singing this idea in my head and then I went back to the hotel room and I wrote it down so I had that idea. From there, I took it to a producer/writer friend of mine (his name is Zach), and Zach built out a little bit of a track to put the idea in my head to a melody. We took it to the studio with no plans; there was no verses and there was no plan or idea of who was going to feature on it.
We only cut it like two months ago, it was one of the last songs we cut for the record and we had no idea who was going to sing on it. Joey [Moi] in the studio just laughed and said 'Do you wanna throw a Hail Mary and we’ll see if Greg [Thompson] can get Fred Durst on it?' And I was like 'Fuck Yeah'.
So I texted Greg and said 'I dare you to see if you could get this song to Fred Durst', and he had it to him in like two days! I was in Italy with my wife and I believe Greg texted me and said 'Hey, I think you're going to get a call today from Fred Durst' and sure enough man, he called me and he was just so cool.
Fred was like 'Dude, I love what you do, you know genre-blending', and he kind of did the whole thing and he was like 'I'm stoked!' So we just kind of talked through ideas, and first and foremost I was like 'I don’t care what it is, just do whatever you feel like you wanna do on the verse. Just do something, PLEASE.' And what made the final track was his first pass.
Fred was like 'Do you think that works?' and I was like 'Dude I think it's cool as shit. I wouldn't change anything about it'."
Not one to let the big fish go back into the lake without further examination, we also questioned about heavier/metal acts he'd love to work with, to which he cited Corey Taylor as his "dream collaboration". He also mentioned he's a "huge fan" of bands such as Sleep Token and Slaughter To Prevail and that he'd be keen to work with them as well.
Stream 'SOUL4SALE' here
HARDY - QUIT!! tracklisting
1. QUIT!!
2. ROCKSTAR
3. GOOD GIRL PHASE (feat. Chad Smith)
4. I DON’T MISS
5. PSYCHO
6. HAPPY HOUR (feat. Knox)
7. JIM BOB
8. WHYBMWL
9. TIME TO BE DEAD
10. SOUL4SALE (feat. Fred Durst)
11. LIVE FOREVER
12. ORPHAN
13. SIX FEET UNDER (Caleigh’s Song)
