In a completely unexpected fashion, the legendary metal outfit Slipknot have announced they are parting ways with their longtime drummer, Jay Weinberg. On Sunday November, 5th, Slipknot issued the following statement regarding their decision to part ways with Weinberg:
“We would like to thank Jay Weinberg for his dedication and passion over the past ten years. No one can ever replace Joey Jordison’s original sound, style or energy, but Jay honored Joey’s parts and contributed to the last three albums and we, the band, and the fans appreciate it. But as ever, Slipknot is intent on evolving. The band has decided to make a creative decision, and to part ways with Jay. We wish Jay all the best and are very excited for what the future holds.”
Weinberg has yet to make any public statement on his exit from the band. Interestingly enough, these events all unfolded publicly only two days after the bands headlining performance at Mexico’s Hell & Heaven festival on Friday, November 3rd. Seeing as things are now, the festival marked the drummers final career performance with band.
Slipknot have seen quite the lineup change over the last decade, starting with the addition of drummer Jay Weinberg and bassist Alessandro Ventrurella in 2014. More recently the band parted ways with longtime members Chris Fehn in 2019, and keyboardist Craig Jones this past June. While Fehn’s exit revolved around some legal issue with the band, Jones’ exit was made without any context or reasoning provided from the band or himself. Weinberg’s exit marks the second lineup change from the band in only a matter of months, and given the ambiguity from both his and Jones’ departures fans are left questioning the future of the band, and moreover what the intent is behind Slipknot’s ‘creative’ decision.
With the exception of ‘Clown’ and Corey Taylor, if there’s one member of Slipknot fans would have least suspected of exiting the band it’d be Jay Weinberg. Beyond being the youngest member in the band at 33, Weinberg’s contributions and dedication to Slipknot were few and far between, not to mention the fact that Weinberg had the biggest shoes to fill in replacing former drummer, Joey Jordison. Whoever Slipknot decides to go with as their next drummer they will surely have massive shoes to fill as well. In the mean time, fans are eagerly awaiting to hear from Weinberg and get his side of the story.
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