
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 19, 1995                   TAG: 9507190082
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LARRY McSHANE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium

MIGHTY MAX: FROM E STREET TO 'ROCK CENTER'

Yes, drummer Max Weinberg played in another band before becoming musical director for ``Late Night with Conan O'Brien.'' No, many of his co-workers and the show's fans were not aware of his 15 years backing Bruce Springsteen.

So imagine their surprise when Weinberg, whose TV band leans more to Sinatra and swing, showed up pounding the drums in a reconstituted E Street Band for the Boss' ``Murder Inc.'' video.

Weinberg was delighted. The other folks were a little disoriented.

``It's amazing,'' Weinberg says. ``There are people who work at NBC who never knew I was in a band.''

It was September 1993 when Weinberg swapped E Street for Rockefeller Plaza and the NBC studios, where he leads the Max Weinberg 7 five nights a week.

``The musical experiences I've gained in the last two years, I would have never had anywhere else,'' says Weinberg, relaxing in a T-shirt and jeans. ``And I can play what I want to, which is great.''

So is the band. An amalgam of Asbury Park pals and other musical friends, the band plays (and recently did on one show) anything from Clarence ``Frogman'' Henry's ``Ain't Got No Home'' to the ``Theme From the Magnificent Seven.''

Sitting in his office down the hall from the ``Late Night'' studio, Weinberg conducts a nightly ritual: plunging his hands into an ice-filled silver bucket. He's undergone seven tendinitis operations over the years, fallout from 37 years of drumming.

``I felt at times, after the E Street Band broke up, so anonymous it was painful,'' Weinberg says. ``I know what it's like to be as high as you can go, and as low as you can go.''

Weinberg opened an entertainment business, figuring his career as a musician was finished.

``I hadn't played for more than a couple days at a time in four years,'' said Weinberg. He instead traveled to his suburban Jersey office each day, where his secretary and a morning cup of coffee were waiting.

That changed when the drummer for 10,000 Maniacs was injured five days before their five-week 1992 tour. Weinberg was summoned as a fill-in, and his attitude was totally turned around.

``I played long enough to get good again,'' he says, smiling. ``I really got my confidence back, my endurance - my hands felt good. ... I started to think, `Maybe I should be doing this.'''

In early 1993, Weinberg rented the movie ``Field of Dreams.'' Inspired, he returned to drumming. Weinberg soon landed his first post-Bruce gig - second sub drummer in the pit for the Broadway show ``Tommy.''

``I wasn't even the first sub,'' Weinberg recalls. ``I was the second sub. And I was overjoyed. ... I wanted to get skinny, grow my hair long and play the drums.''

Weinberg went three for three. And through a serendipitous street meeting with O'Brien, he wound up on a network television program - a career move he calls ``a jump to a totally different universe.''

Weinberg now commutes five days a week between Manhattan and his New Jersey home, where his wife, Becky, lives with their two children, 8-year-old Allie and 4-year-old Jay.

Any plans for Max to take a hiatus for an E Street tour with Springsteen?

``There's always been such speculation about Bruce and the E Street Band that I've gotten into the habit of not thinking of things until Bruce calls me on the phone says, `Hey, do you want to do this?''' Weinberg said.

``Playing rock with Bruce is always fun. But the last time we did anything was back in April, and I don't think there's anything going on.''

by CNB