Papa Roach are still putting out new music today (their 11th record, Ego Trip, arrives this week) but the average person who's aware of their existence probably knows them best for "Last Resort," the rap-infused metal banger that skyrocketed their career in 2001. That song and pretty much every other one on the album it came from, Infest, are by all accounts nu-metal tracks, but Papa Roach singer Jacoby Shaddix has revealed in a new interview that he actually has an intense disdain for nu-metal and was never pleased to be lumped in with that genre. He also expressed a strong opinion about the comparison between him and Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst.
"I hated it, I couldn't stand it," Shaddix said of nu-metal in an interview with Metal Hammer. "Everyone was trying to compare me to Fred Durst and I was like, 'I am so much more fucking punk rock than this dude. He's on the hip-hop side.' No disrespect to Fred. I think he's fucking great at what he does, and I dig him."
Some Limp Bizkit songs definitely lean closer to hip-hop than others, but the band's hits — "Break Stuff," "Nookie" and "Rollin'" — are definitely straight-up nu-metal songs, and the average listener wouldn't be wrong to see the similarities they share with much of Papa Roach's earlier material. That said, even though Shaddix doesn't personally care for other nu-metal bands, his opinion on the scene has become more favorable as time has gone on.
"It was a new interpretation of what metal music could be and we were pulling inspiration from all over the place," he said. "Ministry were an influence, Faith No More were an influence. They were like the OGs of nu metal. They hate to own it, but they are. Mike Patton, you fucking motherfucker, you started it."
Elsewhere in the interview, Shaddix recalled a time that he was cursed out by Sharon Osbourne after inciting a riot at Ozzfest 2000.
"She cursed me out," Shaddix rememberd. "Rightfully she was pissed as fuck because the fans destroyed the venue, it was a fucking disaster. Slipknot and Ozzy still had to play and the place was in a shambles. I tried to leave in the trunk of a car, but they found out and I had to turn myself into the cops. Then I had to go sit with Sharon in the office and she just cursed me and I was just like, 'I am so sorry, I will never do this again.'
"I think if I'd just dealt with the cops and paid the money off, I'd have been like, 'Fuck it, whatever.' I would have carried on just numb-skulling. But I had this verbal assassination from Mrs Osbourne. Don't fuck with Sharon."
