Max Weinberg was born on April 13,1951 and is an American drummer and television personality, most widely known as the longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and as the bandleader for Conan O'Brien on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.
84 Facts About Max Weinberg
2.
Max Weinberg is the father of Slipknot drummer Jay Weinberg.
3.
Max Weinberg attended college planning to be a lawyer but got his big break in music in 1974 when he won an audition to become the drummer for Springsteen.
4.
Springsteen dissolved the band in 1989, and Max Weinberg spent several years considering a law career and trying the business end of the music industry before deciding he wanted to continue with drumming.
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In 1999, Springsteen re-formed the E Street Band for a series of tours and albums; Max Weinberg worked out an arrangement that allowed him to play with both O'Brien and Springsteen.
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Max Weinberg continued playing with Springsteen, and in 2014 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the E Street Band.
7.
Max Weinberg grew up in Newark as well as in the neighboring suburban towns of South Orange and Maplewood.
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The young Max Weinberg was exposed to music early on, attending Broadway shows weekly from the age of two and liking the big sound put forth by the pit orchestras.
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Max Weinberg then liked the rhythms of country and western music.
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Max Weinberg has acknowledged The Ventures as a major influence on him in a TV interview in 1988 to celebrate that band's 30th anniversary and he actually sat in on drums during the performances.
11.
The bandleader, Herbie Zane, was the leading act for bar mitzvahs and weddings in the area; he was impressed with young Max Weinberg and brought him along on other engagements as a kind of novelty act.
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Max Weinberg thus became a local child star, drumming in a three-piece mohair suit.
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Max Weinberg gained an appreciation for showmanship and was a fan of Liberace and Sammy Davis, Jr.
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Max Weinberg grew to idolize drummer Buddy Rich and become a fan of Gene Krupa and saw drummer Ed Shaughnessy of Doc Severinsen's band on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson as having an ideal job as well as admiring the level of playing and serious sartorial style of the Tonight Show musicians.
15.
Max Weinberg stayed with Zane until junior high school and learned rhythms such as cha-chas, merengues, polkas, and the hora and playing everything from Dixieland jazz to Acker Bilk's "Stranger on the Shore".
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Max Weinberg began playing in local New Jersey rock bands, playing the music of The Rolling Stones, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, and The Young Rascals.
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Max Weinberg attended Columbia High School in Maplewood; there he knew Leigh Howard Stevens, who would become a famous percussionist in his own right.
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Max Weinberg first attended Adelphi University, and later Seton Hall University, majoring in film studies.
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Max Weinberg performed at weddings, bar mitzvahs, and bars, then landed a job in the pit band for the Broadway musical Godspell.
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Max Weinberg was still living at home when he met Bruce Springsteen on April 7,1974, when his band, The Jim Marino Band, were Springsteen's support at Seton Hall.
21.
Max Weinberg answered a Springsteen Village Voice newspaper ad that famously requested, "no junior Ginger Bakers," in reference to Ginger Baker's reputation for long drum solos.
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Max Weinberg knew one Springsteen song from the Marino band, "Sandy", and played it.
23.
Max Weinberg's drumming on the Fats Domino song "Let the Four Winds Blow" sealed the position as his.
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Max Weinberg rose to success as the drummer for Springsteen's E Street Band, as his powerful yet controlled beat solved the E Street Band's drumming instabilities.
25.
On Born to Run, Max Weinberg's drumming evoked two of his idols, Ringo Starr and Levon Helm, and he covered his snare drum with heavy paper towels to capture some of the Memphis soul sound.
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Max Weinberg started a long practice of keeping his eyes on Springsteen every moment during the show, even when Springsteen was behind the stage, as he never knew when Springsteen would change a tempo or suddenly deviate from the set list.
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Max Weinberg soon regretted not playing faster on "Badlands", and tempos did speed up on that number and some others during the accompanying Darkness Tour.
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Max Weinberg did later say that "It was a ballsy thing to play a single stroke roll through the entirety of 'Candy's Room" and that it was the kind of choice a session musician never would have tried.
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Max Weinberg suffered an acknowledged "drumming slump" around 1980, and his time-keeping skills were criticized by Springsteen.
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Max Weinberg studied for a while with noted jazz drummer Joe Morello; Weinberg credited Morello for helping him to learn how to play with the tendinitis.
31.
On June 22,1981, Max Weinberg married Rebecca Schick, a Methodist who had grown up in Tinton Falls, New Jersey, and whom he had met through a mutual friend.
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Springsteen and the band played at their wedding, which was officiated by the same rabbi that Max Weinberg had while growing up.
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In 1984, they bought a 5-acre farm in Monmouth County; after feeling taken advantage of in the deal, Max Weinberg became a scrupulous researcher in real estate matters, often spending days at town halls looking over obscure zoning regulations.
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Max Weinberg made a full recovery from his injuries in time for Born in the USA, which featured an aerobics-timed beat on some tracks that owed something to the popular Phil Collins drum sound.
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Max Weinberg was a fan of the This Week with David Brinkley television program and invited panelist George Will to the Washington-area Capital Centre show.
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Max Weinberg soaks his hands in hot water before a concert, in ice afterward, and sleeps with tight gloves on.
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Max Weinberg called the latter tour's visiting of many third-world spots around the globe one of the most rewarding things the band had done.
38.
In 1986, Max Weinberg began taking a one-man show "Growing Up on E Street" to college campuses around the country.
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Max Weinberg played as a session musician, enjoying particular success in connection with songwriter and producer Jim Steinman.
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At a point in 1983, Max Weinberg was featured on the number one and number two songs on the Billboard Hot 100, Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and Air Supply's "Making Love Out of Nothing at All", both Steinman creations.
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Max Weinberg recorded with Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Gary US Bonds, Ian Hunter and Carole King.
42.
Max Weinberg asked Ringo Starr for advice on how to go on when the band that had made your life had broken up.
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In 1990, Max Weinberg began offering motivational seminars oriented towards corporations to augment his one-person college show business.
44.
Max Weinberg received the HERO Award from Big Brothers Big Sisters of America in October 1990 for his work for that organization.
45.
Max Weinberg thought his career as a musician was over and considered himself retired as a drummer.
46.
Max Weinberg went into the music business instead, joining a distribution company as a business partner.
47.
Max Weinberg worked as an executive for the Music Master label.
48.
Max Weinberg formed his own record company, Hard Ticket Entertainment, in 1990.
49.
Max Weinberg auditioned in 1993 to be the principal drummer on the Broadway show The Who's Tommy, but was selected instead as the second substitute.
50.
In July 1993, Max Weinberg had a chance sidewalk meeting outside Carnegie Deli with newly selected Late Night host Conan O'Brien, where Max Weinberg spoke about his ideas for music on the show.
51.
Max Weinberg decided a muscular, drums-driven jump blues vibe, partly derived from the Killer Joe sound, is what he would use as a starting point for the group's sound.
52.
In 1994, Rhino Records released Max Weinberg Presents: Let There Be Drums, a three-volume set of CDs that highlighted drumming that Weinberg admired on songs from the 1950s through the 1970s.
53.
In 2000, Conan sidekick Andy Richter left the show, and Max Weinberg became the "second banana".
54.
Max Weinberg returned to the E Street Band briefly when Springsteen re-grouped the band in early 1995 to record a few new songs for the Greatest Hits release.
55.
Also in 1995, Max Weinberg drummed on two of Johnnie Johnson's songs: "I'm Mad" and "She Called Me Out of My Name," on Johnnie's 1995 album Johnnie Be Back.
56.
Max Weinberg spent two years building an 8,900-square-foot house in Middletown Township, New Jersey, that they moved into in 1999; he picked up many of the furnishings for it from locations around the world during subsequent tours.
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Indeed, up until then Max Weinberg had never missed a Late Night show, appearing in over 1,000 in a row.
58.
Max Weinberg's steady drumming helped power Springsteen's 2002 comeback album, and the first E Street Band studio recording in 18 years, The Rising.
59.
Max Weinberg was a member of the board of trustees of the Monmouth Conservation Foundation and won a conservation award in 2002.
60.
Some of his neighbors strongly protested the move, and they and some in the press accused him of hypocrisy; Max Weinberg defended himself by saying the conservation foundation was not against all development, just thoughtless development.
61.
Max Weinberg generally avoids political comments, but did campaign for John Kerry in the 2004 United States presidential election.
62.
Max Weinberg participated in the 2004 Vote for Change tour then drummed on Springsteen's 2007 album Magic.
63.
Max Weinberg repeated his role in the core section in recording Springsteen's Working on a Dream album.
64.
O'Brien told a Variety reporter at the time of the announcement that he hoped that Max Weinberg would follow him to Los Angeles and that he hoped an arrangement could be worked out to let Max Weinberg go on the road with Springsteen as had been done for past tours.
65.
Whether Max Weinberg would stay with O'Brien and move or not became a subject of conflicting news reports.
66.
Max Weinberg had not missed an E Street Band show since joining the outfit in 1974, and E Streeter Van Zandt said that no amount of rehearsal by another drummer could replace Max Weinberg's intuitive understanding of Springsteen's performance gambits.
67.
The tour wrapped on November 22,2009, in Buffalo, New York; Max Weinberg was back on The Tonight Show the next day.
68.
The 2010 Tonight Show host and timeslot conflict erupted, and after an intense period of public turmoil, the last Conan show took place on January 22,2010, finishing with Max Weinberg propelling a guest-filled seriocomic rendition of "Free Bird".
69.
In February 2010, Max Weinberg underwent a twelve-hour open heart valve repair surgery to correct a condition he had known about and had been monitoring since the mid-1980s.
70.
Max Weinberg's recovery took place over three to five months, and Weinberg kept news about the operation private until an interview eight months later.
71.
Max Weinberg said his health was better than ever but that the "life-changing experience emotionally and spiritually" of the surgery, a desire to remain in New Jersey with his family, and an interest in exploring new musical directions had all played a role in his departure from O'Brien.
72.
Max Weinberg had surgery for it the following month with a favorable outcome, but did not reveal publicly the news of this health situation for another six years.
73.
In 2013, Max Weinberg again found himself in a real estate dispute, threatening legal action against Monmouth County in connection with its attempt to repair damage to the Henry Hudson Trail in Atlantic Highlands following damage caused by Superstorm Sandy.
74.
Max Weinberg claimed that the work done in creating that portion of the trail, augmented by Sandy, had caused significant damage to two properties he and his wife owned there.
75.
In 2014, Max Weinberg was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the E Street Band.
76.
In late October 2014, Max Weinberg sat in for a surprise guest appearance on Conan.
77.
In early 2015, Max Weinberg received the Humanitarian of the Year Award from Temple Rodeph Torah in Marlboro, New Jersey, in recognition of his volunteering in association with multiple local groups; he said he was humbled to be accepting an award that focused on tikkun olam.
78.
Max Weinberg hit the road with Springsteen and the E Street Band for The River Tour 2016 in January 2016, which in its various phases lasted until February 2017.
79.
Once the tour was over, Max Weinberg said he would continue to appear with his various own bands, including doing weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs just as he had earlier in his career.
80.
Max Weinberg liked to watch his son Jay play with Slipknot, although he conceded he did so from a safe zone where he would not get knocked down by the audience.
81.
For many years, Max Weinberg's gear included Slingerland Drums, Ludwig, Pearl Drums and Zildjian cymbals; he subsequently switched to DW Drums, but continues to use Zildjian cymbals.
82.
Max Weinberg uses Remo heads and, previously having used Regal Tip drumsticks and brushes, he now uses Vater drumsticks, notably the 5A Nude wood tip model and Wire Tap brushes.
83.
Max Weinberg did and does have strong New Jersey and East Coast ties.
84.
Max Weinberg played drums on the first album recorded by his sister Nancy Winston, a professional pianist and singer in New York City, known for her regular appearances at Cafe Pierre.