It’s been three years since Jay Weinberg was fired from Slipknot. Afterward, he now says, the drummer felt like his emotions were a “tangled ball of rusted, barbed wire.” That is, until he got back into therapy.
In a new interview, Weinberg sat down with Bryce Maopolski of mental health nonprofit organization HeartSupport. During the conversation, Weinberg shared his “barbed wire” analogy. He then noted that, after being booted from the band, he knew he needed expert help.
The heavy metal drummer shared that he’d long been an advocate for therapy. However, he often struggled to find a dynamic that fit perfectly. “I didn’t have some kind of match made in heaven right off the bat searching for professional help in a mental health capacity,” he shared. Weinberg then revealed that he’s been making an effort to talk with a therapist “once a week.”
Jay Weinberg joined Slipknot in 2014, following the exit of founding drummer Joey Jordison
“I’ve found that that really helps me in sorting through thoughts,” Weinberg continued. “Sorting through those challenging things and processing events and life circumstances that are difficult to process, to make sense of…when life doesn’t make sense, when life is difficult to process, you feel like you’re the crazy one. And it’s an ongoing process.”
Regarding both his physical and mental struggles in the wake of his Slipknot exit, Weinberg recognized that he needed healing. “I mean, talk about a mental and physical grind every moment of every day just to feel like a normal person,” he said. “The experience definitely taught me a lot, and continues to.
Weinberg added, “None of this is, like, ‘I’m fixed, and I’m all better.’ I just view it as this is part of being a healthy person, of tending to not just the physical rigors of what it is that I enjoy putting myself through.”
“Life doesn’t get less complex; I find it gets more and more complex,” Weinberg later said candidly. “Part of the journey is really prioritizing [your emotional health and therapy]. So the events of life, the circumstances that you can’t control, people that surprise you, [things that] will test you,” can’t cause too much damage to your mental health.
The Grammy-nominated drummer added, “And so knowing that this is a part of the process of enduring that in some respects was very eye-opening, and it’s just part of my practice now.”
Photo by Francesco Prandoni/Getty Images
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