Why Limp Bizkit Named an Album ‘Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water’
During the peak of their music’s popularity, Limp Bizkit gave the world one of the strangest album titles of all time: Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water. What on earth does this title mean? Why did they choose it? And how did the public react to a title like this?
The meaning of ‘Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water’
Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water may sound like a nonsense title, however, it has a meaning. According to the book Guitar World Presents Nu-metal, Limp Bizkit’s Wes Borland revealed his bandmate Fred Durst called himself “Chocolate Starfish.” Why? Because that term is a slang for the anus and people called Durts an “*sshole.”
So what does this have to do with hot dog flavored water? Borland said he was looking at bottles of flavored water and imagined hot dog flavored water as a joke.
Durst came up with the title of the album and people refused to believe he would actually give the album that title. During an interview with Loudwire, Durst gave fans a little bit more insight into the title’s genesis. “It was my version of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band. I was the *sshole, and the other guys could be the d*cks,” he said. Regardless of any vague title similarities, Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water sounds nothing like Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
How the world reacted to Limp Bizkit’s ‘Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water’
So did this odd choice of title work for Limp Bizkit? Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The album included some of the band’s most famous tracks, like “Rollin’” and “My Way.” However, it would be the band’s last album to chart so highly.
What Limp Bizkit said about the backlash to their success
Durst told Loudwire he felt a backlash to Limp Bizkit after the success of Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water. “I felt like I was a target, public enemy No. 1. I didn’t know how to deal with it,” he said. “Wherever you went, it felt like eyes were on you and like your life isn’t your own anymore. You sort of think, ‘F*ck all these people’. If people had to find out every last detail of your life and what you jerk off to at night, people might hate you, too.”
Borland felt there was a downside and an upside to the backlash. “I just think it took a lot of people time to get over how annoyingly in everyone’s face we were for that period,” he said. “When you’re that overexposed, where no one can get away from you and you’re like, ‘Uh, I’m so sick of seeing this person all the time.’ Now, people can enjoy the band for what it is.”
