Weinberg ready to play in cold at NHL Winter Classic

Three years ago, Max Weinberg and his wife, Becky, decided it was time for them to leave New Jersey and move to South Florida.
"Just too many cold, slippery winters," he said.

So it's ironic that Weinberg, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame drummer from Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, is leaving the warmth of Florida to play in the cold at Citi Field in New York on Monday.
Max Weinberg and Max Weinberg's Jukebox will serve as the house band for the 2018 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic between the New York Rangers and Buffalo Sabres (1 p.m. ET; NBC, SN, TVA Sports, NHL.TV).
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"Having served as the house band on 'Late Nite with Conan O'Brien' and 'The Tonight Show' for a long time, I kind of know the landscape a little bit," Weinberg said. "So when [the NHL] called up, I was delighted because it involves a lot of the things I like: hockey, the challenge of playing outside in freezing weather to see if I can really do it, the songs I love to play and the fact that I never know what I'm going to play in the typical shows that we do."
Between tours with Springsteen and The E Street Band, Weinberg, 66, plays about 10 shows a month with the quartet, which includes bassist and vocalist Glen Burtnik and guitarists Bob Burger and John Merjave. They play songs from the 1960s and 1970s, with the audience usually picking the set list on the fly from the 300 songs in the band's repertoire.
The set list will be more scripted Monday, but fans have a chance to vote for songs they want the band to play in polls on Twitter and Facebook.
"We go from the Monkees to AC/DC to a little bit of Springsteen to the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Hollies, Manfred Mann, all the English bass, the Beach Boys. So it's very eclectic," Weinberg said. "One of the things I love so much about playing with these guys is that the respect of the music comes in in really knowing the songs."
Weinberg has plenty of experience playing outdoors from his 43 years with Springsteen and The E Street Band.
"The stadium thing I've got down," he said. "In 10-degree weather, that's going to be the challenge."
The forecast on weather.com for Monday calls for mostly sunny skies with a high of 21 degrees. It has Weinberg thinking back to winters growing up in Maplewood, New Jersey, when he'd practice on a drum kit in an old coal shed in his parents' backyard.
"It was in a very cold, unheated space," he said. "So the more vigorously I played, the warmer I felt. It's like chopping wood."
The coldest concert Weinberg can remember playing in was at Olympic Stadium in Munich, Germany, on May 26, 2013.
"It was a freezing rain and 31 degrees, and I've never been so cold playing," he said. "I had to keep putting my hands in hot water, which I expect I'll be doing on Monday at the NHL Winter Classic."

Weinberg also recalled playing in a snow shower during a show at Mile High Stadium in Denver during Springteen's Born in the USA Tour in September 1985.
"We didn't have an enclosure on the stage, but they had those heaters that they have on the sidelines in NFL games," he said. "It was fine when the lights were on because we were heated up. As soon as they turned the lights out on the stage, you were soaking wet and that wind came in. Now that I think of it, that we pretty cold, too. And it was snowing on the stage."
A former New Jersey Devils season ticket holder, Weinberg has a great appreciation for outdoor hockey. His son, Jay, now the drummer in the band Slipknot, and daughter, Ali, learned to play on a lake in their front yard in Middletown Township, New Jersey.
"It was about 2 1/2 acres and there were a couple of winters where it was frozen all winter and that was fantastic," Weinberg said. "We even had sort of stadium lights put up around the perimeter so they could play late into the night."
Ali went on to play as the only girl on Red Bank Regional High School's boys hockey team. Jay, a goaltender, played in the Red Bank Generals youth program.
Now 27 and living in Nashville, Jay Weinberg recently got back into playing hockey on a team with a group of metal and country musicians there. Max Weinberg said Jay will be at Citi Field on Monday and might take his place behind the drums for one song.
Jay once played in a band with Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, who plays guitar, so there's a connection there, too.
"He's stayed very friendly with Henrik," Weinberg said, "so it will be fun to see the Rangers and Buffalo play."