Limp Bizkit Bassist Sam Rivers Dead at 48

Sam Rivers -- the bassist for the rock-rap group Limp Bizkit -- has died ... according to an official statement posted to the band's Instagram.

The group announced the news Saturday evening ... revealing Sam passed away earlier in the day and calling him their "heartbeat."

Sam wasn't just a bass player, the group say -- he "was pure magic. The pulse beneath every song, the calm in the chaos, the soul in the sound."

Outside of the music, the band writes that Sam was a once-in-a-lifetime person and a legend among legends.

The message ends, "Rest easy, brother. Your music never ends." They did not reveal a cause of death.

Rivers grew up playing with Limp Bizkit drummer John Otto ... and, he met Fred Durst while working at Chick-fil-A in the early 1990s.

Rivers, Otto and Durst made up the original iteration of Limp Bizkit ... then, they added guitarist Wes Borland and DJ Lethal to complete their group in 1996.

Over the next three decades -- outside of a three-year hiatus from 2006-2009 -- Limp Bizkit rocked stages all over the world. They dropped six studio albums including the critically-acclaimed "Significant Other" and "Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water" in 1999 and 2000 respectively.

Among their best known songs ... "Rollin' (Air Raid Vehicle)," "Take A Look Around," "My Way," "Behind Blue Eyes," "Nookie," "Hot Dog" and "Break Stuff" -- the last of which has been streamed almost 1 billion times on Spotify.

Rivers temporarily left the group in 2015 ... later revealing it was because he developed a liver disease due to excessive drinking. He received a liver transplant and rejoined the group in 2018.

Rivers was 48.

RIP