Max Weinberg on ‘River’ Tour, What He Learned From Bruce Springsteen
“The River is my summer record,” Max Weinberg said between sips of a cocktail in a hotel bar in Pittsburgh — the drummer’s reward after three hours onstage earlier in the evening at the Consol Energy Center, the night before Bruce Springsteen opened his 2016 tour with the E Street Band there on January 16th.
“Through the years, every summer, I would listen to that in my convertible,” Weinberg went on. “That was always my long drive — just put The River on.”
Weinberg — the backbeat in the E Street Band since the fall of 1974 — is now performing The River every night, in its entirety, as Springsteen follows the December release of the multi-disc retrospective, The Ties That Bind: The River Collection (Columbia), with thorough, passionate live reexaminations of the 20 songs on that record, a personal crossroads that became the singer’s first double album and first Number One hit. “I’m the white line down the center of the road,” Weinberg said, summing up his role in these concerts. “My job is to be observant, to make the transitions, to focus on what Bruce is doing — to be as commanding a percussive force as I can be, so he has the freedom to go where he wants to go.”
After that rehearsal and an immediate interview with Springsteen, I joined Weinberg that evening for a drink and a second hour of spirited conversation. Weinberg, who turns 65 in April, spoke about the birth of The River in rigorous practice sessions at Springsteen’s home; a “tough-love” moment with Springsteen, during the recording, that changed Weinberg as a drummer; other motivating counsel from the album’s co-producers, Jon Landau and E Street guitarist Steven Van Zandt; Weinberg’s memories of the late E Street men Danny Federici and Clarence Clemons as he revisits The River; and his trust in Springsteen, at this advanced point in the E Street Band’s life, to know when it’s time to walk off the stage for good.
At one point, Weinberg pointed out that on the following night, as he was opening with Springsteen in Pittsburgh, his drummer-son Jay, 25, would be starting a European tour with Slipknot in Helsinki. “I keep telling him, ‘Don’t headbang,'” Max said, laughing. “He did it a couple of weeks ago, and his head hurts. I said, ‘Learn from my experience.’
“I beat up my body physically when I was younger,” Weinberg went on. “Look at the Tempe, Arizona show” — the fabled, epic 1980 concert included, on DVD and Blu-ray, in The Ties That Bind. “You can see it. But I have figured out a way to do it now — with energy, focus, excitement and enthusiasm.”
At 30-plus songs over three hours and more, this is a demanding show. Was it hard to get the muscles and memory in shape, especially after a substantial break from the road?
They come back fairly quickly. I spend a lot of my time, when not touring, working out aerobically, so my endurance is actually pretty good. You get shocked back into it — a little. We all do. But that’s the beauty of it — the memory is still there. I’ve done this, in my case, for 42 years. The memory of how to do it — why you do it — is still there.