NEW YORK (AP) - Following a wave of bad press in the past week about
Limp Bizkit 's alleged involvement in the Big Day Out Festival death earlier this year, the band's management has released a lengthy rebuttal.
Lawyers for the event have accused Limp Bizkit singer Fred Durst of not cooperating with lead investigators in the crowd surge death of a fan, Jessica Michallik, 15, at the annual festival in Sydney in January.
"We are disgusted," said manager Peter Katsis of The Firm in the statement released on Sunday (Nov. 25) "It was hard enough to deal with the loss of Jessica's life after all of our warnings to the promoters of the BDO, now we are forced to deal with journalists who seem to have no time to check their facts before printing, and even more appalling we are in fear that the focus of the press continues to drift further away from the more important issues of security, and that the lives of other concert goers will continue to be put into danger in the future."
Limp Bizkit's camp maintains that it made several requests to Big Day Out organizers for a T-style barricade after the crowd situation got dicey at the tour's kickoff in Auckland, New Zealand, several days before the incident in Sydney. Those requests were refused.
In a particularly damning portion of the statement, the Firm points out that in no less than five festivals with attendance over 60,000 where T-barricades, wave breaks, or other mutli-barriers were used, Limp Bizkit played without incident. Only one - the Big Day Out - did not utilize a similar crowd barrier.
The statement claims requests for a T-style barrier were refused by the Australian Permitting Body for Concerts, an organization the band later learned did not exist, and that very few of the 50 or so additional security personnel who were put in place following the band's requests actually went into the audience.
As to the specific accusations that brought Durst's character into question, the Firm responded vehemently: "Fred Durst has NEVER claimed to have personally visited or spoken to the family of Jessica Michallik," said the statement. As it turns out, that piece of gossip came from the showing of an episode of Access Hollywood in the courtroom in which host Pat O'Brien claimed such a meeting occurred, not Durst, according to Katsis.
The statement also claimed that by way of support and condolence, the band's tour manager stayed behind in Sydney to assist the Michallik family and that the band purchased around the world airline tickets for Michallik's mother and father so that they could release her ashes in Los Angeles.
Michallik died a few days after suffering a heart attack when the crowd surged during Limp Bizkit's set in Sydney. Detective Inspector Greg Bamford, who is heading up the Big Day Out inquiry into the death, has already told the inquest committee that he believes Limp Bizkit's show contributed to Michallik's death, although the band is not criminally liable.
The investigation continues this week in New South Wales.
