Max Weinberg Keeps the Beat With Kent Stark Students

When featured speakers take the stage, they typically do a lot of, well, speaking.

Then there’s Max Weinberg, who came to campus Monday night and not only shared his insights into the music industry, but played alongside a handful of Kent State music students.

The drummer for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street band and bandleader of the Max Weinberg 7 on Late Night With Conan O’Brien performed with nine music students for about 40 minutes. Taking jabs at his age all night (he’ll be 60 in two months), Weinberg said the students gave him a good workout that night.

“I’m soaking wet,” he said after the performance. “I know you can’t see it because I don’t really sweat, I kind of glisten. It’s a TV thing.”

They played hits like Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire, James Brown’s I Got You and Otis Redding's Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay. Two students swapped singing roles while seven others played on two guitars, a bass, keyboard, trumpet, saxophone and trombone. And, we shouldn’t have to tell you, Weinberg carried the beat on drums.

Keyboard player Romulus Mihalteanu, a music technology junior, said performing with Weinberg was intimidating, but it was a good experience because the students learned about the music industry from someone who’s lived it.

“The pressure was kind of on,” said Mihalteanu, a 2007 grad. “I think we all were a bit scared, like ‘We’ve got to get this. We’ve got to hit it.’”

He said he was grateful for the opportunity to perform with Weinberg.

“We’re students playing with someone famous,” he said. “That’s pretty awesome.”

Weinberg spoke after his performance and centered his discussion on his story of becoming a professional musician. He also encouraged everyone to support arts in schools, and he talked of his son, Jay, who became the drummer for Against Me!, a band he idolized in high school.

“To have your kid happy, exhausted and spreading the love around, that is a blessing,” he said.

He credited Jay’s success to his passion for drumming, hard work and level head in deciding he wanted to pursue music but also earn a college degree.

Weinberg said, like his son, the urge to become a drummer hit him early on, and he wouldn't let anything stop him.

“It really didn’t matter how much or how little I knew about playing the drums (early on), but when I played them, I felt good,” he said. “I felt good about myself.”

He urged the room full of hundreds of people to make sure they, too, like what they do.

“I think, in the end, that’s what it’s about for all of us here,” he said.

Friends Denise Kerr, of North Canton, and Lare Sattler and Tom Licht, both of Canton, attended the event and said they thought Weinberg’s words on supporting arts programs were greatly needed.

Sattler, who’s in the Little Chicago blues band with Licht, said he wasn’t totally familiar with Weinberg before he came, but he’s now a fan.

“He’s a killer drummer,” Sattler said. “Very good drumming, very interesting to listen to. He has a lot of really good stories and tells them well. I’m really, really glad I came.”