Max Weinberg’s schedule has now gotten a little lighter.
The drummer for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band won’t be resuming his bandleader duties for Conan O’Brien’s new TBS show, Rolling Stone reported. Guitarist Jimmy Vivino will be taking over the band-leading duties and James Wormworth will work behind the drums.
“Max has his big band out there that has been his dream all his life,” Vivino told the St. Louis Riverfront Times. “And there's a kid in Jersey that works with him occasionally. A singer-songwriter! Some guy that's got some hope over there!”
Longtime E Street guitarist Steve Van Zandt told the magazine that he wasn’t sure what the reason was behind Weinberg’s departure. “I don’t know why Max and Conan aren’t together anymore,” he said. “But whatever, they had some good years, and Conan gave Max credit for keeping the show on the air for the first two years. That was nice. He was a big fan of the band and he didn’t want to mess around with that too much. He was quite good to us over the years.”
Weinberg was O’Brien’s bandleader since 1993 from their NBC days. He also split time between that gig and working with Springsteen. Weinberg was with O’Brien during the latter’s brief stint on The Tonight Show; he then formed his own band, the Max Weinberg Big Band.
Asked by Rolling Stone about his future with the talk show host back in June, Weinberg responded: “I literally have not thought about it. There have been no discussions. It's kind of an open question."
