A CONCERT THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN
Man who started rumor of Fred Durst concert in Morganton gets tatted for 10-year anniversary
Bobby Canipe Jr., left, and tattoo artist Alvin Ward pose together in Ward's tattoo studio and Studio Tattoo & Gallery in Newton.
The Fred durst tattoo Bobby Canipe Jr. got on his right leg to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the concert at roses discount store in Morganton that never happened.
Alvin Ward holds up his design for a Fred durst tattoo about a 2016 hoax concert at the Morganton Roses Discount Store.
Alvin Ward said this painting he did of Fred durst performing at the roses discount store in Morganton served as his inspiration for designing a similar tattoo.
Alvin Ward tattoos a Fred durst tattoo onto Bobby Canipe Jr.'s right lower leg.
A Newton filmmaker commemorated the 10-year anniversary of a Fred Durst concert in Morganton with a permanent tattoo on his right lower leg. But the concert never actually happened.
Bobby Canipe Jr. was getting inked at Studio Tattoo & Gallery when artist Alvin Ward approached him with the Durst design. Ward drew four years prior. Canipe thought the tattoo would be perfect to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of a hoax in Morganton, when rumors of a Durst concert spread online, he said.
The year was 2016. Canipe and his friends were playing on their Xboxes and having funny conversations. One topic that came up was the 1990s band Limp Bizkit.
"I made the joke of, 'I wonder what, you know, Fred Durst is doing these days,' and we're laughing," Canipe said. "And I think I said something along the lines of, 'I wouldn't be surprised if they show up at like, a meet and greet or a concert at the Roses Discount Store.'"
After logging off the video game, Canipe was scrolling on his phone in bed and decided to create an event on social media to send to his friends about Durst performing at Roses in Morganton. What Canipe didn't realize at the time was that the post he made as an inside joke was set to post publicly, he said.
"The next day, I woke up and it was like 120 people going (on Facebook), and I was like, 'Oh, man, that's hilarious,'" Canipe said. "I just kind of laughed about it. I went to work, and throughout the day, my phone kept dinging. More people kept, you know, saying, 'Is this real?' And then I messaged my friends, and they were laughing about it. They're like, 'Are you going to tell them it ain't real?' And I'm like, 'Nah, I'm not going to tell them that, you know. I'm going to keep it going.'"
A small crowd turned up at Roses on the day of the event, according to a News Herald article from March 19, 2016. Those who attended said they knew Durst wouldn't be there, but still went to show support.
According to the article, a Twitter post to Durst said about 1,800 people had RSVP'd to the event and that he should "Give them what they want." The article said Durst replied, "If we were not in South America, we would."
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Canipe was interviewed by multiple media organizations including Fox News and Business Insider. Even Justin Bieber retweeted the event, Canipe said. Canipe didn't take any money for the fake event, but he did ask anyone who was planning to attend to bring canned food items.
In February, Canipe decided to sit down with painter and tattoo artist Ward to get a tattoo commemorating the occasion. Ward also painted a brawl at a Waffle House in Morganton in 2025.
Ward said he made a painting of Durst singing at the Roses Discount Store per a suggestion by a friend, which later served as the inspiration for the tattoo design.
"One day I drew the tattoo design, and it sat around for three or four years before we finally got to do it," Ward said. "And I couldn't think of anyone more fitting to do it than the man who started this whole fiasco."
Canipe's tattoo portrait of Durst features the Limp Bizkit frontman wearing a white T-shirt and a backward red ballcap. A Roses Discount Store logo is above Durst's head with a red rose and a banner underneath that reads "Never forget."
"The design he showed me was, like, super rough around the edges, which is what I wanted," Canipe said. "When we did the event, the banner for the event I made in like 30 seconds with a free app that was like a Photoshop alternative. So, it's all messed up. And I was like, it's got to be a rougher on the edges, raw tattoo, because if I get a really realistic Fred Durst tattoo, that's not going to be near as funny, in my opinion."
The tattoo has been shared across social media. Some sharers think the tattoo is meant to be serious and have shared it on Facebook groups about bad tattoo designs. People who know about the fake concert find it hilarious, Canipe said.
Canipe has more tattoos than he can count, but each one holds a special memory. The Durst tattoo is no different.
"I met so many people then that I'm still friends with now," Canipe said. "Love it or hate it, I still get tagged in every Fred Durst or Limp Bizkit news that pops up, whether it has anything to do with me or not. … I'm not even the biggest fan of Limp Bizkit. I'm not going to lie. I'm going to say it today. I listened to him probably about as much as anybody else did."
Sarah Johnson is a digital news reporter for the Morganton News Herald.
