Gannett News Service
Limp Bizkit is shopping for a replacement for the recently departed Wes Borland (third from left).

The Associated Press

Wanted: One good guitarist

Limp Bizkit the latest band to be left without a six-stringer

ROSS RAIHALA, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Friday, January 11, 2002

The same October day that Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland publicly declared he was "amicably" leaving the rap-metal group, band leader Fred Durst announced he hoped a Limp Bizkit fan would take Borland's place.

At the time, Durst said Bizkit would hit the road to audition potential replacements: "It's just a great chance for us to be with our fans. We could be at a club, at your house, at the mall, at your high school, who knows."

The guitarist-search tour, which stops in Seattle on Monday, will not take place at a club, a house, a mall or a high school. Instead, it is happening at Guitar Centers across the country. And, when you think about it, a Guitar Center is sort of like someone's house, if that person sells guitars for a living.

But it makes perfect sense for Limp Bizkit, a band that has raised corporate synergy to near KISS-like heights.

The group first made news when its record label bought time on radio stations to play Limp Bizkit songs. Despite the negative press the paid airplay brought the band, it soon ascended to the top of the charts and sold 14 million records in this country alone.

In the years since, Durst was promoted to a vice-president position at his record label and has helped acts such as Staind and Puddle of Mudd become stars as well. At the height of the Napster controversy, Limp Bizkit launched a free tour sponsored by the file-sharing service.

Details for Monday's stop in Seattle remain sketchy. The band's Web site provides a toll-free information number that was out of service and two Web links that did not work.

Several calls to Seattle's Guitar Center revealed that the staff also is a bit in the dark as to just how it will all work.

This much is clear. The first round of auditions kicks off at noon. Potential guitarists should bring a guitar, although they may not have the opportunity to actually play it. Throughout the day, band management will narrow down the field of candidates. A group of five to 10 people will be selected for a final audition late in the evening, supposedly in front of actual members of Limp Bizkit.

According to Limp Bizkit's Web site: "You will be expected to demonstrate proficiency and originality ... in other words, sharpen your chops and bring along your most inventive material."

The entire process, save for the final audition, is open to the public.

Whatever comes of Limp Bizkit's guitarist search -- beyond plenty of free publicity, of course -- it is hardly the first band to hire on a new six-stringer. Here's a look at some other acts that have lost guitarists, and how both parties fared afterward.

The Rolling Stones

- What happened: Brian Jones bowed out of the group in June 1969, claiming "artistic differences." The band hired Mick Taylor and went on to record a string of albums now considered to be among rock music's finest: "Let it Bleed" (which included some of Jones' playing), "Sticky Fingers" and "Exile on Main Street." Taylor himself was later replaced by Ron Wood.

- Life after the band: Less than a month after he left the Stones, Jones was found dead in his swimming pool.

Public Image Ltd.

- What happened: During stormy sessions for PiL's fourth album, Keith Levene (who also played in an early version of the Clash) left the famed post-punk group headed by former Sex Pistol John Lydon. Levene went on to release his own version of that album as 1984's "Commercial Zone." Lydon put out a revamped take on the same songs, with all of Levene's input erased, as "This Is What You Want ... This Is What You Get." Lydon continued to record with various musicians (including, at one point, metal guitarist Steve Vai) under the Public Image Ltd. moniker. He found increasing commercial success, although it's generally accepted that PiL's most artistically satisfying efforts happened during the Levene era.

- Life after the band: Levene recorded a series of mini-albums in the late '80s (featuring guest work from various Red Hot Chili Peppers) and eventually left the record business altogether. In recent years, he announced an Internet-based comeback that has garnered little interest from anyone.

The Replacements

- What happened: After the tour for the Minneapolis band's 1985 major-label debut "Tim," they sacked Bob Stinson because of his drug and alcohol indulgences -- a questionable move given that the Replacements were all such notorious drunks they often could barely finish sets. Slim Dunlap played on the next two Replacement albums, which were clearly aimed at the mainstream: "Pleased to Meet Me" and "Don't Tell a Soul." Neither was particularly successful, and the blatant careerism alienated many of the band's longtime fans. The Replacements split after 1990's "All Shook Down."

- Life after the band: Stinson died in 1995 from a drug overdose.

The Smiths

- What happened: Johnny Marr -- perhaps the most respected British guitarist of the '80s -- walked out of the band shortly before the release of 1987's "Strangeways Here We Come." Marr later claimed in interviews that had domineering lead singer Morrissey only allowed him a quick vacation, he would not have left. Morrissey briefly considered replacing Marr, but ultimately disbanded the group for a spotty solo career of his own.

- Life after the band: Marr acted as star sideman to bands as diverse as the Pretenders, The The and the Pet Shop Boys and also formed Electronic with New Order's Bernard Sumner. In recent years, he launched his own group the Healers, which released a long-delayed and largely ignored debut single last year.

Suede

- What happened: Bernard Butler left this British glam band (unfortunately billed in this country as "The London Suede") in a huff during sessions for its second album, 1994's "Dog Man Star." The remaining members finished the record without Butler and later hired an unknown 17-year-old named Richard Oakes. The next Suede album, 1996's "Coming Up," scored a surprising string of five U.K. Top 10 singles. Suede remain stars in Europe and have a new album due this year.

- Life after the band: Butler recorded an acclaimed album with soul singer David McAlmont and then broke off that relationship to briefly join the Verve before releasing two well-received solo albums. The latest word is that Butler and McAlmont have kissed and made up and are back together in the studio.

Guns N' Roses

- What happened: In the years that followed 1993's all-covers album "The Spaghetti Incident," Guns leader Axl Rose managed to chase all of the original members out of his band, including Slash. Rose replaced Slash with Buckethead, a guy who is known primarily for wearing a KFC bucket on his head while performing. The world is still waiting to hear what's going to happen next, as the Axl-centric Guns have yet to release the long-promised new album "Chinese Democracy."

- Life after the band: Slash has recorded a few poor-selling solo albums and currently is without a record deal or management. Rose had Slash banned from attending Guns N' Roses' pair of shows in Las Vegas last month -- a move that generated plenty of embarrassing publicity for both figures.

The Verve

- What happened: After strained sessions for the band's second album, 1995's "A Northern Soul," the Verve broke up. Lead singer Richard Ashcroft re-formed the group without guitarist Nick McCabe, who ultimately ended up rejoining the Verve in time for the band's commercial breakthrough, "Urban Hymns." Then McCabe left the Verve during a crucial 1998 tour. Early the next year, the Verve split once again, this time for good.

- Life after the band: McCabe has done very little as of yet. He remixed a song by the French band Mellow and contributed guitar to "La Prochaine Fois," the latest record from experimental electronic act Neotropic. Rumor has it that McCabe is a perfectionist -- or possibly just a procrastinator -- who has plenty of other projects in mind, but is unable or unwilling to finish any of them.

KISS

- What happened: Ace Frehley followed drummer Peter Criss out of the original KISS lineup near the end of the band's makeup era. The hard-living ways of Frehley and Criss displeased teetotalers Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, who went on to prove they were extraordinarily skilled at selling KISS products to KISS fans. A number of guitarists played on subsequent KISS albums, none of which matched the glory of the Frehley days.

- Life after the band: Frehley embarked on an iffy solo career, but remained a fan favorite. In 1996, Frehley (and Criss) rejoined KISS for an enormously successful series of tours that drew to a close last year. He was a salaried employee -- as opposed to full partner -- for the entire run. Simmons recently published an autobiography that claimed, among other things, that Frehley is: an out-of-control drunk, bisexual, a Nazi fanatic, chronically lazy and an all-around flake.

Red Hot Chili Peppers

- What happened: Actually, in the case of this band, what didn't happen? The chronological list of guitarists for the Red Hot Chili Peppers goes something like this: Hillel Slovak, Jack Sherman, Hillel Slovak (again), Blackbird McKnight, John Frusciante, Arik Marshall, Jesse Tobias, Dave Navarro and John Frusciante (again). Considering that the band's two biggest-selling albums (11 million copies between them) feature the occasionally drug-addled Frusciante, it's a safe bet the rest of the Chili Peppers plan to keep him clean and in the band as long as possible.

- Life after the band: Slovak died from a heroin overdose in 1988. Sherman did session work for the likes of Bob Dylan and George Clinton in the mid-'80s, later sued the Peppers for royalties and now has a band named In from the Cold. McKnight, a former member of Parliament, continued to record with bands such as Axiom Funk. Marshall played on Macy Gray's second album, "The Id." Tobias played on Alanis Morissette's "Jagged Little Pill." Navarro has since consumed a mountain of drugs, played with his reunited original band Jane's Addiction and released a dud solo album last summer.

Ross Raihala covers music and entertainment for The Olympian and can be reached at 360-754-5406 or OlyRoss@aol.com.

Gene Simmons of KISS performs his trademark tongue flip in this October 1998 photo. Simmons said in his recently published autobiography that estranged KISS guitarist Ace Frehley is, among other things, a drunk and a Nazi fanatic.

Limp Bizkit guitarist search

- What: Open auditions for a new lead guitarist to join the rap-metal band Limp Bizkit. Candidates are advised to show originality and proficiency, not just the ability to replicate previous Limp Bizkit songs.

- When: Noon Jan. 14.

- Where: Guitar Center, 530 Westlake Ave. N., Seattle.

- For information: Call Guitar Center at 206-287-9100 or see www.limpbizkit.com.

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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