Drummer Jay Weinberg has once again reflected on his sudden exit from Slipknot, describing the experience as confusing and still unresolved more than two years later.
In a new in-depth interview with Rolling Stone‘s Andy Greene, Weinberg revisited the moment he learned his time in the band had come to an unexpected end following a decade behind the kit.
The split came shortly after what would become his final performance with the band on November 3, 2023, at the Hell & Heaven Metal Fest in Toluca, Mexico. Just days later, he received a phone call that changed everything.
“I woke up the morning after traveling home from our last show together, and I received a phone call from the band’s manager in which he informed me that the band had made a decision to not renew my contract at the end of the year,” Jay revealed. “I was shocked and full of questions. I was like, ‘Why? What happened?'”
Weinberg said the timing came at a particularly tense moment for the group.
“It took place, to be quite honest, at the end of a year that was a very difficult year within the band,” he continued. “That might relate to some of those preexisting tensions before I arrived at the band, sort of coming back. But I’m left with no explanation, just that ‘It’s a creative decision and you’re no longer the drummer in Slipknot.’ And what he said from there was, ‘We would like to release a joint statement with you tomorrow. Take the rest of the day to think about it. I’ll be available to you for the rest of the day if you want to talk.'”
“My world just kind of bottomed out from under me,” Weinberg admitted. “This thing that I have been dedicated to with complete focus and drive and attention and love and holding on to a dream, despite the difficulties, despite all the things that happen with entering a volatile environment like that and a dark environment at that, to having nothing but questions. So I went on a walk with my wife to clear my head and process what had just happened. And then 20 minutes later, they posted their own statement online.”
He also reflected on how complex it was navigating long-established internal dynamics within the band.
“As a newcomer, I think being caught in between those preexisting tensions, you find yourself trying to navigate that the best you can,” Weinberg added. “One guy has one way he wants things done, another guy wants another way he wants things done, and amplify that by eight other people, to try to satisfy all of those things. This was my singular focus for 10 years. I applied myself in every way possible. As a newcomer, and like you mentioned, you’re like, ‘Are you in the band? Are you not in the band?’ How do you define that after 10 years? It’s not a short amount of time. But it’s easy for a newcomer, for myself, to be caught in the crossfire there. Maybe I became a scapegoat for certain things.”
Weinberg joined Slipknot in 2013, replacing original drummer Joey Jordison, and went on to spend a decade with the band before his departure in 2023.
In February 2024, Slipknot announced Eloy Casagrande, formerly of Sepultura, as Jay’s successor.
