SLIPKNOT drummer Jay Weinberg unveiled his new mask during the band’s headlining performance Friday night (November 5) at Knotfest Los Angeles at the Banc of California Stadium.
Weinberg is the second member of SLIPKNOT to debut a new mask during the fall 2021 touring cycle in support of the group’s latest album, 2019’s “We Are Not Your Kind”. In early September, SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor‘s new mask, which he had been working on for a few months, was officially revealed during the band’s concert at the Rocklahoma festival in Pryor, Oklahoma.
The other members of SLIPKNOT performed with their current masks for the first time in May 2019 when they appeared as the musical guests on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
During a 2017 appearance on an episode of Viceland‘s “The Therapist”, Taylor was asked about the significance of wearing a literal mask when he is performing with SLIPKNOT. He responded: “With SLIPKNOT, at least for most of us in the band, the mask is part of the art — it’s not just the visual and the shock; it’s a representation of who I am in that album. So, for me, it’s as natural as having a different hairstyle for one album and tour cycle, wearing different clothes for an album and tour cycle. It’s a part of the dynamic. It’s one of the things that you look forward to. Not just writing the songs, not just putting the music together, not just putting the visuals together, but what… who am I in this album?”
Corey spoke about the changes in the SLIPKNOT bandmembers’ masks in a 2014 interview with Metal Mania Radio. “With every album, some of us have evolved our masks more dramatically than others, but there’s always a difference, they’ve always changed a little bit… This band evolves with every album, and it just makes sense that our masks [would as well], because we’re not the same people. It’s not something that we sit down and we talk about as a group, we just kind of do it. As unified as we all are, the mask is really something that we trust each other to do individually and we trust them to do the right representation.”
Jay discovered SLIPKNOT when he was a pre-teen, through his father Max, who has been a member of Bruce Springsteen‘s E STREET BAND since 1974. He was hooked immediately and was a huge fan of SLIPKNOT by the time he was invited to Los Angeles to try out as replacement for Joey Jordison in 2014.
SLIPKNOT announced its split with Jordison in December 2013 but did not disclose the reasons for his exit. The drummer subsequently issued a statement saying that he did not quit the group.
Jordison passed away “peacefully in his sleep” in July of an unspecified cause. He was 46 years old.
