Watch the band announce the tour: 28k | 56k| DSL

WHAT DO YOU THINK? If you think sponsorship by NAPSTER of the Limp Bizkit "Back to Basics" Tour is a good idea, let your voice be heard. Tell the critics on KNAC.COM, MTV.COM, and the other websites you visit what you think!

They may have ditched the idea as an album title, but the pimp rock maestros of Limp Bizkit will still celebrate their "Limpdependence" with a month's worth of free concerts kicking off on July 4.

Limp frontman Fred Durst announced the tour Monday on MTV's "Total Request Live" via satellite from Los Angeles and noted that the band will hook up with Cypress Hill and one other act for the tour.

"We're going to give back to our fans what they've given us," Durst said from L.A.'s Westlake Studios, where the band is currently working on the new album.

The trek is aimed at getting fans geared up for the August release of Limp's "Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water." Specific dates and venues have yet to be announced, but the band will play multiple nights at 3,000 to 5,000-seat locations in Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit, Boston, New York, Dallas, Denver, San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles before wrapping up the tour on August 6.

Admission to each show will be free, a point the band drove home on Monday. "There's no strings attached... it's really free," Durst told MTV News.

The trek will be sponsored by online music distribution aid Napster, placing Limp in the minority of artists who have publicly come out in support of the company. Napster has come under fire from many bands, including Metallica, who recently filed a lawsuit against the tech company charging Napster with copyright infringement and racketeering.

Durst himself addressed Napster's sponsorship in a statement announcing the tour, noting, "We could care less about the older generation's need to do business as usual. We care more about what our fans want, and our fans want music on the Internet."

Napster will help to offset any hit the band might take by giving tickets away, as the "Los Angeles Times" reports that the band will get close to $2 million for the tour.

Limp Bizkit notes that the sponsorship money will go directly to the tour's production costs (travel, venue rentals, lights, etc.), and that Limp and Cypress Hill will not make any money on the outing.

-mtv.com
4/24/99