Jay Weinberg on First Slipknot Show: “There Was Truly Nothing That Could Prepare for That First Moment”

No matter what the medium is—painting, opera, punk rock—or how much practice a performer has, there comes a point where rubber has to meet the road and one has to actually do the thing they’ve been practicing and dreaming of. Of course, sometimes that thing is playing your first show with Slipknot.

Slipknot drummer Jay Weinberg guested on Danny Wimmer’s Power Hour show to discuss what it was like playing his first show with the band at Knotfest 2014 (via Blabbermouth).

“I had joined the band about a year before our first show together, so we made a record and we were jamming. And we had that kind of a runway before our first show. But yeah, man, nothing — I’ve said it before, but it’s like nothing…. I could have had years and years and years to prepare for my first Slipknot show. There was truly nothing that could prepare for that first moment when the curtain goes up, we’re in our masks, we’re in our outfits, everybody’s there. That was like the turnkey moment. Especially after a year of knowing. I’m waiting for that moment, what’s gonna happen for this first show? What’s it going to smell like? What’s it gonna feel like? All this stuff, and just trying to best prepare myself for that moment. And there was no preparing for that moment. It really was, as the guys had described to me, every night is, like, you’re just dropped out of an airplane and you just have to figure it out. And so that first night certainly was special in that regard. And I feel like we’ve just built it over the last 10 years.”

Things have been weird in the Slipknot camp lately but the masked nonet keep on rolling, even as touring takes its toll on their bodies.