Eddie Van Halen once held a gun to Limp Bizkit front man Fred Durst’s head following a jam session – that is, according to a new book by filmmaker and author Andrew Bennett.
The book, Eruption in the Canyon: 212 Days and Nights with the Genius of Eddie Van Halen, chronicles Bennett’s time with the electric guitar player in 2006 and 2007, when he was filming and photographing Van Halen at Eddie’s 5150 home studio to document the band’s reunion tour.
The Durst shenanigans took place several years earlier, when Eddie and Fred were introduced at a party shortly after Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland’s exit from the band.
After it was suggested they work together, Durst, according to Bennett, responded that it “would be hilarious. The greatest guitar player ever plays with the worst band ever.”
Eddie did indeed go on to jam with Limp Bizkit at a house in Beverly Hills, but abruptly split the session after people there began smoking pot, leaving his guitar and amp behind. Bennett recounted Eddie saying the experience was like being "a scholar amongst kindergartners."
Things went even further south when Eddie tried contacting Durst the next day to retrieve his gear, and received no reply.
“Eddie once bought an assault vehicle from a military auction,” Bennett writes, via Ultimate Classic Rock. “It has a shine gun mount on the back and is not legal. Eddie drove that assault vehicle through L.A., into Beverly Hills, then parked and left it running on the front lawn of the house Limp Bizkit was rehearsing in.
“He got out wearing no shirt, his hair in a Samurai bun on top of his head, his jeans held up with a strand of rope and combat boots held together by duct tape. And he had a gun in his hand.”
Bennett says he recalls Eddie telling him, “That asshole answered the door. I put my gun to that stupid fucking red hat of his, and I said, ‘Where’s my shit, motherfucker?’ That fucking guy just turned to one of his employees and starts yelling at him to grab my shit.”
He continues, “Eddie Van Halen stood on the front lawn of a residential home in Beverly Hills in broad daylight, smoking a cigarette while holding a gun on Fred Durst as he went back and forth from the house to the assault vehicle, lugging amps and guitars.”
In 2018, Eddie Van Halen launched legal action against Bennett, accusing him of trying to release video material of Van Halen without permission.
For more information on Eruption in the Canyon, head here.
