Drummer Jay Weinberg has played with Madball, Kvelertak and for the past few years, Slipknot. Having been a New York City staple, we have memories of him and his dad Max hanging out at Mastodon shows. His dad, of course, is probably the better known of the two, having been Bruce Springsteen’s drummer for the last 43 years and playing on Conan O’Brien’s Late Night show. In an interview with Rolling Stone, the elder Weinberg gives props to both Slipknot and his son, who’s also filled in for him with Bruce:
Jay is an unbelievable drummer. Two years in a row he’s been named the best metal drummer out there. They have very dedicated fans and their music is intense, and I like intense music. It’s complicated. I couldn’t do it. I’ve seen him up close and I don’t know how he does it. I had nothing to to do with it. He taught himself. He’ll be 27 this year and he’s just a killer drummer and a great kid. It’s so much fun for me to see him play, and he’s a virtual artist. He lives in Nashville. He’s doing quite a bit of stuff. He’s writing songs on his own and the band is making plans to do another record, a follow-up to the last one, which did very well.
Well, cool to know that, as the rest of the band has let on, that the band are working on a follow-up to The Gray Chapter. When asked where he stands when seeing his son’s band, Max says you won’t find him in the pit:
I don’t go up front. I won’t go up front since I’d get knocked around. I watch on the side of the stage or at the board. The drums and the vocals are the loudest things in the mix and the way he plays double bass, he’s got one of those drum sets and uses all of it. That’s been very pleasing for me. The other night we got an audible for “Radio Nowhere” and I never play that song without thinking of Jay because everyone says that Jay just kicked my ass on that song and played it so much better than I did. I stole a lot of the licks he used on that song.
It’s awesome that he can get inspiration from his son, and given that Jay is a noted drummer himself, it’s cool to see it works both ways. You can read the rest of the interview, in which Max compares being able to play Springsteen’s epic shows to being an athlete, here.
