When Metal Insider spoke to drummer Jay Weinberg about joining Madball last month, it seemed as though he was in it for the long haul, even though the hardcore legends had been around since before the 20 year-old was born. That’s not the case however, as a post on the band’s Facebook page states that the band has unexpectedly relieved him of his duties mid-tour. Leader Freddy Cricien released the following statement:
I’m letting Jay go in Canada because I just feel he doesn’t represent this band well on a character level. It would go against my own code of ethics to keep him around. Not saying he’s a bad drummer. I won’t take that away from him. But the reality is – he has a lot to learn about paying dues, and about life in general. Granted, he is a kid, but I’m not sure that he’ll ever be built for this particular lifestyle. I wish him the best of luck, but the MADBALL machine rolls on!
The band will finish out the tour with an as-yet-unannounced replacement drummer. Weinberg’s departure will not effect their forthcoming European tour with Sick of it All or the October 12 release of their Good Fight debut, Empire. I suppose when you’ve toured with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, it can be easy for a band that’s old enough to be your collective dads thinking that he might not have paid his dues, but it’s something they probably should have hashed out before bringing him into the band, and it’s still pretty shocking that this would happen so quickly. That said, at least they did what they felt they had to do quickly instead of dragging it out, and it’s not like Weinberg’s going to be hurting to find any other bands to play with. He’s got his dad’s for one, and we hear fellow Jersey band Mutiny Within is looking for a drummer too.
And while Cricien might have problems with him representing the band now, he certainly didn’t have any problems with letting the 20 year-old conduct interviews on behalf of the band. Weinberg did a fine job representing the band during Metal Insider‘s interview, stating the following when asked if the band was comfortable with him doing press:
I think they’re comfortable with me doing it because, I mean, whenever I’ve been telling people that I haven’t seen in a long time like ‘Oh since I last saw you I joined Madball,’ every reaction has been like “What?! You’re playing in Madball now?!” Because before that, I’d been playing with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band for like eight or nine months before that, and going from one type of music to a completely different type of music is quite alarming and as far as interviews go, is a cool story. And I love to explain it and talk about what’s going on with Madball, what I’ve done with so far as with preparation and switching from the E Street Band to Madball in a relatively short amount of time and just keeping active.
