SLIPKNOT Drummer JAY WEINBERG Is 'Itching' To Start Work On New Music

Jay Weinberg is "itching" to start work on new SLIPKNOT material, more than three years after he joined the band following the dismissal of previous drummer and founding member Joey Jordison.

Weinberg played on SLIPKNOT's last album, ".5: The Gray Chapter" and the subsequent two-year world tour.

SLIPKNOT is on hiatus now although several members of the group are beginning to write material for their next record.

During an appearance on the "Best Friends With Sam Pura" podcast, Jay — who is the son of Max Weinberg, drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E STREET BAND and one-time bandleader for Conan O'Brien — stated about his approach to the SLIPKNOT gig: "I'd be nowhere without a little bit of being in the right place at the right time, and a lot of that is sort of luck, I suppose. But luck doesn't mean anything unless you're gonna be able to… You can walk somebody to the door, but it's up to that person to kick the door in. That's everything. And that only comes with just tenaciously going at it every day. And every day, that's still kind of I got at things with. Especially, I feel like now, with the work we've done with SLIPKNOT over the last couple of years, I feel that even more so. We've done one record together, we've done a lot of touring together in support of that record, and now that we're going away and possibly turning our attention to making some new music, it's, like, now that ethos is more important than ever — to really dig even deeper than we did before and just continuing that process. I'm just, like, 'Fuck it! Let's just see what we come up with and how far can we can go.'"

SLIPKNOT's touring cycle in support of ".5: The Gray Chapter" ended in November, with singer Corey Taylor returning to his other band STONE SOUR this year.

According to Weinberg, the other members of SLIPKNOT won't be sitting idle for very long and there are already tentative plans for them to get together and begin work on new music in the coming months.

"I think it'd be logical process to start the process, kind of like how we did three years ago," he said. "I'm not sure, but I'm itching to get back to that. And I think a bunch of guys are really motivated and inspired to keep the momentum that we built over the last couple of years.

"As we've had a little mini studio on the road, we've kind of documented some song ideas, so there's already some things that are kind of brewing that are really interesting," he revealed. "But, yeah, I think we'll just see once we get into a room together and just start to throw stuff at the wall."

".5: The Gray Chapter" was released following a six-year hiatus during which founding SLIPKNOT bassist Paul Gray died and Jordison was dismissed.

One of last gigs of "The Gray Chapter" touring cycle saw SLIPKNOT performing its 2001 second LP, "Iowa", live in its entirety for the first time during the band's set at their annual Knotfest.

"Ever since I've been close to the band and we've been working together, everything has been very focused on just being the best band that SLIPKNOT can be and really focusing on the show and the music and doing some interesting stuff, like pushing ourselves and playing different material each night or something, or doing something where we play a whole album start to finish; that was a challenge, and we did it," Weinberg said. "Yeah, I think just keeping it fresh, keeping it exciting, and hopefully that'll translate into newer material hopefully soon."

".5: The Gray Chapter" sold around 132,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 1 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD arrived in stores in October 2014 via Roadrunner.

Gray died in 2010 from a drug overdose, while Jordison was let go in December 2013, just before SLIPKNOT began recording the last album.