We've been wondering who Slipknot's new members are ever since it was announced they had found replacements for deceased bassist Paul Gray and fired drummer Joey Jordison. Through a slip up on the band's end, it was all but officially announced the current bassist for the group is Mastodon guitar technician and Krokodil bassist Alessandro "Vman" Venturella. So who the hell is the drummer? Aside from the fact Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor said we'll probably never know, we think we've put enough of the pieces together to safely say it's former Against Me! drummer Jay Weinberg.
Related: Let's Take A Closer Look At The New SLIPKNOT Masks
In a recent interview with Guitar World, axe-slinger Mick Thompson said Slipknot's new drummer had grown up with the material and already knew all of it going in.
"We kinda knew who we wanted [to play drums on the new CD] from the start, and we got him. We knew from the get-go that there wasn't going to be any issues with him. We did get lucky, I guess. He knew all the [old] material anyway. He'd grown up with the band. That made things easier."
Well, for starters, let's take a look at the film Goat by the band. Goat was released as a third disc on the anniversary edition of Iowa and consisted of footage shot during, and around, 2001 when Iowa came out.
Hey, that's Bruce Springsteen drummer Max Weinberg! We're willing to wager that beside Max in the video is not a deformed midget with stupid dreadlocks, but his son Jay Weinberg in a mask. Considering Jay is 24 years old now, he would probably be about 10 or 11 in this footage. Y'know, almost like he was growing up with Slipknot's music or something.
Related: Track by track review of Slipknot's new album .5: The Gray Chapter.
Then there's the whole Twitter rant from Against Me! frontwoman Laura Jane Grace wishing Slipknot luck with Weinberg and the fact that the dude looks like Weinberg. Hell, even our own website overlord (actual title) Robert Pasbani saw him backstage with the group about eight years ago!
"Also, I know for a fact the dude is a huge Slipknot fan. About 10 years ago, when I was interning for Roadrunner, I was lucky enough hang out backstage where I saw Max and a very young Jay (he must've been 13 or 14 at the time) gushing with members of the band."
Also, and this is taking it a step further, but check out Weinberg's Instagram. Slipknot was in the studio in May of this year in California and all the pictures Weinberg was taking at the time were in California, according to the geotagger Instagram uses.
So could this all be coincidence? Sure, but that's a hell of a lot of coincidences.
One thing we know for sure is Slipknot has spent the last few weeks posting new tracks off the album. Take a listen to "Skeptic," "Killpop," "AOV", "XIX," "Sarcastrophe," "Custer," "The Devil In I" and "The Negative One."
