Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg has praised his son Jay for his “unbelievable” playing in Slipknot.
Jay took over behind the drum kit following the departure of Joey Jordison from the band and appeared on Slipknot’s latest album .5: The Gray Chapter.
And although Max has been with Springsteen for 43 years, he admits he couldn’t do what his son does.
He tells Rolling Stone: “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.”
Max continues: “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.”
While Max goes to see Jay perform with Slipknot, he says he’s happy to watch from the side of the stage or the sound board.
He adds: “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.”
At a Bruce Springsteen show in Germany in 2014, Jay replaced his father for the track Radio Nowhere – and Max admits the performance, which can be seen below, was so impressive that he stole some of his son’s ideas.
Max continues: “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.”
Slipknot’s Clown recently revealed that the band were using their downtime to begin the writing process for what will be their sixth album – but said there were no plans yet to enter the studio.
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