Former Slipknot drummer Jay Weinberg has opened up about mentally processing his exit from Slipknot.
During an appearance on an episode of the One Life One Chance With Toby Morse podcast, the current Suicidal Tendencies drummer addressed being suddenly fired from Slipknot last year.
Last November, after the Iowa band announced the drummer’s departure, Weinberg said he was “heartbroken and blindsided” by the news, and went on to share that despite that, he “wouldn’t trade for the world” his “memories and experiences” with them.
“Truth be told, I’m at kind of a point where I’m not quite yet really ready to talk about it, really,” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “And that’s not to dismiss the conversation, but I’ve spent time, and spend time, just processing the entire experience.
“And the experience not being the last six months, but really the last 10 years [of playing with Slipknot]. And finally, in a way, processing all of that. And doing it in kind of what I would consider the responsible way.”
He continued to shed light on his experience, and why he didn’t want to speak before he had fully come to terms with it, saying: “I have a fantastic therapist who helps me”. He explained that before he opened up about it fully, it was important for him to do “the right work of processing these events that you spend 10 years exclusively committed to one thing”.
He added: “There’s a lot to process that on the other side, and I think there is definitely a time where I’ll speak to my lived experience over those ten years – just not quite yet,” while also hinting that a book based on his experience could be on the cards.
“I write a lot,” said Weinberg. “It’s one of the ways that I think is a responsible way of that processing, and that’s one of the things that, through therapy, has actually been — well, literally therapeutic. It helps you helps you understand moments, periods of time, long periods of time, and it kind of helps you just kind of contextualize that in the greater scheme of life, that you’re not able to when you’re kind of directly just consumed by it.”
In the conversation, he touched on the value of therapy, saying he’d had it “here and there” throughout his life, and that it was a “worthwhile thing”.
“I think anybody who embarks on trying to prioritize their mental health and pursue happiness through really tackling these things, I think anybody who embarks on that kind of a journey for themselves can understand when you find different therapists or different approaches or whatever, sometimes it doesn’t work out,” he said.
“Sometimes it’s, like, ‘Oh, it’s not the way I really approach this or whatever,’ but I’m in a place where I’ve found somebody amazing where I actually feel — I’ve used this expression before but that pedal meeting the pavement of, like, ‘Wow, this helps me contextualize, this helps me process.’ And that’s huge.
He advised that it “doesn’t happen overnight”, and that some people “might find that to be a dejecting part of the process” of getting help with their mental health.
“It’s hard to find a good therapist, but when you do, it’s a worthwhile pursuit,” he said. “And it’s an invitation to anybody out there who’s in search of that, that even if it is difficult, if you hit those obstacles of, like, you don’t feel you’ve found the right person to talk with yet, they’re out there.”
For help and advice on mental health:
- ‘Am I depressed?‘ – Help and advice on mental health and what to do next
- Help Musicians UK – Around the clock mental health support and advice for musicians
- Music Support Org – Help and support for musicians struggling with alcoholism, addiction, or mental health issues
- YOUNG MINDS – The voice for young people’s health and wellbeing
- CALM – The Campaign Against Living Miserably for young men
- Time To Change – Let’s end mental health discrimination
- The Samaritans – Confidential support 24 hours a day
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