Fired Slipknot roadie unmasks latest members

An angry former Slipknot roadie has unmasked the band’s new drummer as Jay Weinberg and their bassist as Allessandro ‘Vman’ Venturella.

The band had said they might never confirm the identities of the men who were brought in to work on latest album .5: The Gray Chapter. The lineup changes followed the death of founding bassist Paul Gray 2010 and the dismissal of drummer Joey Jordison last year.

But drum tech Norm Costa, who’s worked with Slayer, Mastodon and others before being hired then fired by Slipknot recently, last night posted a picture of a tour itinerary on Instagram. It names Weinberg and Venturella as members of the band alongside Sid Wilson, Chris Fehn, Jim Root, Craig Jones, Shawn Crahan, Mick Thomson and Corey Taylor.

Costa tagged the image “#blowitup #fuckslipknot.” It followed the posting of Weinberg’s drumkit seen from backstage, which had been tagged “#jayweinberg #slipknot #newdrummer #fuckslipknot.”

Responding to a comment from a follower asking whether he was working with Weinberg, the roadie replied: “I was, no longer.” Responding to another follower, he wrote: “Should have stayed with Mastodon though – a real band!”

Weinberg, the son of Bruce Springsteen’s drummer Jay, had been named in September after former colleague Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! tweeted: “Dear Slipknot, good luck with that. #shitbag.”

Fans identified Venturello from his distinctive hand tattoos after seeing the video for The Devil In I. Frontman Taylor later laughed it off, saying: “I was like, ‘Why didn’t we make him wear gloves?’ I was so upset.”

Slipknot tour the UK next month with Korn and King 810:

Jan 14: Dublin 3Arena

Jan 16: Sheffield Motorpoint Arena

Jan 18: Glasgow SSE Hydro

Jan 19: Newcastle Metro Radio Arena

Jan 20: Manchester Arena

Jan 22: Liverpool Echo Arena

Jan 23: London Wembley SSE Arena

Jan 24: Cardiff Motorpoint Arena

Jan 26: Nottingham Capital FM Arena

Jan 27: Birmingham Barclaycard Arena

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Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.