During a recent interview with Knotfest Australia, M. Shawn Crahan (aka “Clown”), the co-founder and percussionist of Slipknot, talked about the band’s decision to fire drummer Jay Weinberg after his ten years of service with the masked metal ensemble.
“I’m very excited about this idea of a new drummer, Crahan said. “There’s many reasons for it. It’s not to be confused. It doesn’t matter what the situation may seem like. Unless you’re in the band and understand — there’s no hard feelings; there never was. We just went our way. There was really no bad things. That’s as much as I can say.
He continued: “What I can say is Slipknot decided to move on, and that’s what we’ve done. And I’m very excited for what we have done. And we’re really working hard. And there’ll be new music, there’ll be new masks, there’ll be new people, there’ll be new ideas, celebrating a 25-year anniversary. I would imagine there’d be some shows. It can be 200 people, 500 people, 700 people, 2,000 people.”
Crahan also talked about possibility of band releasing new music, noting: “I wouldn’t look at it like new music like album and stuff like this. I think we’re gonna have some fun. I don’t know exactly what we’re trying to do. I know that we just wanna do what we wanna do. So however it happens, it happens. We’re not gonna push it and we’re not gonna mold it into something it doesn’t need to be, but I will tell you, we’re having a really good time right now. There’s some real magical stuff that’s happening.
“Everything in Slipknot is meant to be. So, when it does happen and you shed a tear and you have a little smile, it feels good, man. It feels good to have good feelings in this reality. So we always want everybody to have good feelings.”
Slipknot announced on November 5 that they parted ways with Weinberg, citing a “creative decision.” Weinberg had played a significant role in numerous successful albums during his time with the band. Despite this development, Jay maintains a positive outlook on his musical path moving forward.