When he's not laying down the rhythmic foundation for metal heavyweights Slipknot, Jay Weinberg likes to stay busy in his chosen home of Nashville playing hockey with friends on an amateur team they formed called the East Side Hellhounds. The drummer discussed this preoccupation while guesting on former NHL star and diehard metalhead Mike McKenna's 6 Degrees podcast, and he also revealed that the goalie mask he wears while playing is modeled after the same mask he wears while onstage with the 'Knot.
"I have a friend who runs a guitar shop in town and he and I said, 'We've got to start a team,' Weinberg said of the team's formation. "He and I were on the ice at 6 a.m. every day, playing hockey and getting our chops back because I had quit playing hockey."
He continued, "But I got my pads and basically had the mindset of, 'All right, I play in a band where I wear a mask — I can't not have my goalie mask be my Slipknot mask!'" Upon coming to this conclusion, Weinberg contacted airbrush artist Dave Fried from Friedesigns, who specializes in goalie masks, to create a one-of-a-kind, band-themed piece of headgear complete with the Slipknot insignia and a zipped-up mouth. As seen across nine gallery pages on his site, Fried has designed masks ranging from Toronto Maple Leafs/Marlies player Ian Scott's signature look to a "Civil War Goalie Mask" featuring a modified rendition of the iconic skull from the poster for Evil Dead.
You can listen to McKenna's full interview with Weinberg via Spotify and Apple podcasts and see the drummer's badass hockey mask below.
