(Gray News) - Sam Rivers, the founding bassist for Limp Bizkit, died on Saturday. He was 48.

The band released a joint statement announcing the loss of their “brother.”

“Today we lost our brother. Our bandmate. Our heartbeat,” Limp Bizkit wrote on Instagram , “Sam Rivers wasn’t just our bass player — he was pure magic. The pulse beneath every song, the calm in the chaos, the soul in the sound.”

The statement continued saying, “From the first note we ever played together, Sam brought a light and a rhythm that could never be replaced.”

In 1994, Rivers was a founding member of Limp Bizkit after he befriended the band’s vocalist, Fred Durst. The pair played together in the band Malachi Sage before forming their nu-metal group.

At this time, his cause of death has not been specified.

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