Young drummer keeps the beat for E Street

Once upon a time in the Land of Hope and Dreams, a hard-working young prince who was Born in the USA was thrust into the limelight when the benevolent dictator of E Street called upon him to follow the path of his father.

Middletown native Jay Weinberg, a drummer and the son of E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg, answered the call this summer and joined Bruce Springsteen's band on its worldwide tour when other commitments would not allow Max Weinberg to perform. His mission was to fill his dad's extremely large shoes that float effortlessly upon the pedals while caressing the skins with stick-laden hands to the adoration of millions of loyal followers throughout the land — on a part-time basis, in the family business.

The prince decided it was a gig he could not refuse and set off to find the Promised Land on the path to happily ever after while Working on a Dream and reveling in the moment.

Jay Weinberg's fairytale story is one that most musicians can only dream of.

He is the son of famed E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg, who currently leads Max Weinberg and The Tonight Show Band.

The younger Weinberg, who turned 19 on Sept. 8, is quickly gaining worldwide attention since Bruce Springsteen offered him a position as his father's off-and-on stand-in on the E Street Band's current tour.

Scheduling conflicts resulting from Max Weinberg's move to the "Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" in Los Angeles prevented him from being able to accompany the E Street Band on several of the 2009 Working on a Dream tour shows.

So far, Jay Weinberg has played several full shows on the tour in the United States and Europe without his dad and several shows with his father as well. There could be more before the tour ends in November.

While recording a segment for the cable television show "Let's Talk with Gary Gellman," Jay Weinberg sat down with a Greater Media Newspapers reporter to talk about the double life he leads as the drummer in his own band, The Reveling, one moment and a member of one of the most well-known bands in the world the next.

"Let's Talk with Gary Gellman" airs locally on Channel 1 on Verizon's Fios network. Comments that Weinberg made during his interview with Gellman appear in this article.

Weinberg relayed how it all came to pass: "It was at the end of our winter break for Stevens Institute of Technology (in Hoboken, where Weinberg is a sophomore) and we (Weinberg and his dad) were going back to Hoboken to get me settled back in school and we had been talking about the possibility of me playing with the band because my dad was trying to balance the upcoming (Springsteen) tour and the start of the 'Tonight Show,' and there were dates that coincided and he would not be able to do both.

"We were tossing around the idea and I was kind of preparing myself with the material just on the off chance that it might happen. Me and my dad were driving in the car and my dad got a call from Bruce saying he wanted to talk to me and my dad gave me the phone and basically he said right there, 'Well, as you know, I have this band and in this band we have the world's greatest drummer who has a scheduling conflict and when we were trying to resolve this conflict, he gave me your name and number.'

"It was a really great shock. It's such an intense thing to be told that we want you as part of the E Street Band. I didn't know how to feel. I was just really so excited to begin what I knew would be just kind of like a wild journey revisiting their past and learning the catalog and ultimately (doing) these amazing shows," the young man said.

Weinberg got a list of about 200 songs from Springsteen and he started practicing.

Weinberg had played with the E Street Band once before in August 2008 when he played "Born to Run" at Giants Stadium.

He said that during the Giants Stadium show, "a lot of the family members had gotten up on stage, including my sister who played the keyboard and now plays accordion. I just wanted to do it to say I did it. I would have done it and that was it, but then I got the phone call."

Weinberg isn't sure what made Springsteen trust him with such a tremendous responsibility, but he said Springsteen has been quoted as saying, "It really only takes one song to learn what somebody's about."

Weinberg believes that when he played "Born to Run" in 2008, Springsteen must have gotten an inkling of potential in his abilities.

As for taking his dad's place, Weinberg said, "No one could ever fill that role. He has pretty big shoes to fill. In my opinion there's never going to be a replacement for Max Weinberg. He has such a way about him; the way he's been able to interpret this music for over 35 years. There's nobody that's ever going to be able to take that throne and do what he does the way he can do it. But I guess maybe there's something hereditary that Bruce saw in me.

"There are great session drummers out there that can learn the material, but the actual songs are really only a part of the show," said Weinberg. "So much of the show is connecting with everyone else's energy, interpreting what Bruce wants at that moment, being able to play a song that they play out of thin air that I never even played before.

"There are things that another drummer outside of the E Street family would not be able to know, and I was able to talk to my dad about that and kind of be able to home in on things that you don't necessarily see from the crowd.

"Amidst the chaos that is that show, you need to read the subtlety that nobody in the crowd would be able to notice. The way he (Springsteen) moves his foot, the way he looks, it's stuff that's so subtle, but over the past six months I've been able to home in on little nuances of performing with the band. Nobody could fully fill my dad's shoes, but I'm 18 years old and I'm trying my best," the young man said.

Weinberg said he has great respect for the drummers who played with Springsteen before his dad joined the E Street Band.

"I had to learn songs off records that my dad didn't record on. On 'Born to Run' my dad didn't actually play on it, Boom Carter did, and Vini Lopez played the earlier material. My dad had to pay respect to what they did and really interpret it in his own way, so I've been able to take what my dad did and what Vini did and what Boom did and try to make it my own," he explained.

As for his technique when playing with the E Street Band, Weinberg said, "I don't necessarily copy my dad beat for beat. I use what he's done as more of a blueprint for my own interpretation. He's been playing the songs for more than 30 years, so I need to do a tasteful take on what he's already done, but still infuse my style of drumming."

Weinberg started playing drums at the age of 14. He never had any lessons and plays entirely by ear. Back then, he said, he told his dad that he just wanted to play the drums by himself for fun, so his dad left him to his own endeavors, but advised him on how to condition himself as a drummer and take care of his body as an integral part of the entire instrument.

Prior to that, Weinberg's musical experiences included playing the bass guitar at the age of 12, and watching his father perform with the E Street Band. When the band reunited in 1999, Weinberg, who was 9, traveled with the band along with his mom, Becky, and sister, Ali, who is now 22.

Weinberg recalled that during his childhood there was a part of his dad that he knew from pictures and from stories he had heard, but he could not grasp the concept.

"I didn't really understand it fully," Weinberg explained. "For the first nine years of my life I didn't really know what my dad did with the E Street Band in the past. I knew what he did, but I couldn't see it. He had gold and platinum records and pictures of him with the band but he looked much younger (in the photos). So when it finally hit and they were doing gigantic stadiums and all this crazy stuff and I was 9 years old, it definitely took me by surprise."

Weinberg got the opportunity to travel with his dad when he was on tour, starting with the E Street Band's Reunion tour, which began in 1999. He believes he came away from the first tour more cultured, but did not fully grasp what it was all about at 9 years of age. He missed a lot of school during the tours, noting that he did not get to finish out eighth grade in the classroom.

Weinberg credits his mom, a teacher, with keeping Ali and himself busy and up to date with their school studies. His mom had an appreciation for Europe that she ingrained in her children by taking them to explore the towns and museums when their studies were completed and while his dad rested up between shows.

Weinberg reflected, "It wasn't until I was 13 on the Rising tour and especially in 2007 on the Magic tour when I really started to get an appreciation for what the band did and everything that the tour brought. I was really able to delve into what that meant."

Weinberg grew up in Middletown and is a graduate of Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School in Rumson. He credits close proximity to the Red Bank community, which is supportive of the arts, for helping to support him in his earlier musical endeavors. He had been playing in hardcore and metal bands since he was 14. His band, Chaosis, disbanded when the members went on to further their education.

Weinberg is currently in his sophomore year at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, where he is majoring in business and technology. He wants to complete his education, but says his biggest passion is now music, although it used to be hockey.

"I used to have a huge passion for hockey and I wanted to play for the NHL and I had to decide between hockey (he was a goalie) and drums and I found I gravitated toward drums," he said.

Weinberg finds a correlation between being a goalie and being a drummer.

"Often in hockey if you win, it's a team victory; if you lose, it's the goalie's fault. I can kind of relate that to being a drummer. In a band you're like this bed frame for this band. If you do something wrong, the whole thing is going to collapse," he said.

In trying to find a band that practiced closer to his school in Hoboken, Weinberg answered a Craigslist ad for a band called The Reveling, which was conceived in 2007. In August 2008 Weinberg replaced the original drummer, who left to attend graduate school. Coincidentally, Max Weinberg answered an ad when he joined the E Street Band.

Weinberg described the type of music The Reveling plays as upbeat punk music. The band's Internet Myspace site (www.myspace.com/thereveling) says "the music brings together mid '90s melodic hardcore and punk with the urgency of today's post-hardcore sound."

The band performs often in Brooklyn's Williamsburg and Greenpoint neighborhoods. In addition to Weinberg on drums, the band's members are Dave Kramer (guitar and vocals), Dennis Murphy (bass) and Sean Morris (lead singer and guitar player), all childhood friends who now reside in New York City.

The release of the band's new CD, "3-D Radio," was celebrated Aug. 28. They hope to film a music video in the near future.

Weinberg spoke eloquently of the duality of being able to play in front of tens of thousands of people at a stadium one night and then playing "a dive bar where you're playing for the doorman and a club owner" the next night.

"It's interesting," he said. "I like both equally and it's just two different energies. The way you play in a club is so different from the way you would play in a stadium. It's hard to articulate, but catering to those types of audiences, or lack of, I'm enjoying being able to do both.

"I'm 18 and that's what 18- year-olds are supposed to be doing, and that's what I'm supposed to be doing — playing dive bars. I'm really fortunate to be in this position where I'm able to really see this grandiose rock and roll giant cake."

"I feel it's something that can wrap around your head and get lost in it. It's hard to take in this crazy huge rock experience with one band and then with the other, you're juggling in a van and living off Cracker Barrel and stuff. It's cool to be able to do that at the same time and I don't know anybody that would be able to say they have done that. I played in Bonaire (Netherlands) one night and then flew out to Cleveland to meet back up with my band and we played a show to five people. So it's a pretty interesting story," he said.

Weinberg said, "In The Reveling, Sean will bring basically the skeleton of the song and we'll all arrange it and figure out what should go where and extend it. We all have an equal part in the writing process. We have all these different kinds of viewpoints."

Weinberg describes his band as a democracy and jokingly calls the E Street Band "a benevolent dictatorship."

In addition to the E Street Band, Weinberg's earlier musical influences began when his father took him to see the metal band Slipknot at the age of 9. He was also influenced by Mastodon and Lamb of God. He calls Sam Bey and his band, The Parlor Mob, "the best band in the universe." He said playing along to Metallica songs helps him build stamina.

Talking to Weinberg, one comes away with the feeling that despite a unique dual career placement at both the highest and stillrising rungs of the ladder of success, this intelligent young man has found a balance that keeps him firmly rooted in reality, very down-to-earth, and willing to work hard and pay his dues to earn respect for his abilities.

"The experience I've had has been amazing and I'll take it wherever I go, and with everything I do in music," commented Weinberg. "Hopefully the recognition generated from my time with the E Street Band has spurred some interest in my drumming, and that people may take notice of the projects I may have in the future."