Former Slipknot drummer Jay Weinberg recently explained why he had to take therapy after his exit from the band, discussing his journey of recovery and emotional healing following his unexpected November 2023 dismissal in an interview with HeartSupport.
Weinberg described the emotional state he found himself in after leaving the band and how he realized he needed professional help to navigate the challenging period.
“There was a certain point that I kind of found myself as like a tangled ball of rusted barbed wire, is what it really kind of felt like emotionally,” Weinberg said. “And needing the expertise that I didn’t have for sure, the know-how, the ability to see life on a trajectory that brought some or that maybe quelled some anxieties and frustrations or that challenge or whatever and live a more peaceful, happy life, all of that I viewed as the center of what was gonna require untangling that rusted over ball of barbed wire.”
He explained that this realization led him to seek out a therapist in Tennessee, noting that finding the right match took some time and perseverance.
“And so for myself, that took some seeking therapy, seeking a therapist here where I live in Tennessee, which took time as well,” Weinberg continued. “I wasn’t a complete stranger to it. In probably my early 20s when I lived on the East Coast, in New Jersey and New York, I had experience with therapy. Nothing that felt like a match made in heaven. It helped somewhat, and that was kind of a part of an experience that I had seeking it out for myself towards the end of 2023, beginning of 2024.”
Weinberg shared how a close friend helped him find the right professional, which finally allowed him to make progress.
“And I was so thankful to have a very trusted friend,” Weinberg said. “He married my wife and me. He’s like our closest, closest friend. So many life experiences that we’ve had and share and continue to share that I felt comfortable. It wasn’t admitting. I was on the search for trying to find — like, ’I need the assistance of a mental health professional to help get me through this moment in my life that’s particularly challenging. And he suggested his own therapist that he trusted. And it finally felt like an unlocking of a door, like a door that I’d tried many keys trying to open and it just wouldn’t.”
He emphasized the importance of sticking with the process and how weekly sessions have helped him process difficult life events.
“I think the perseverance through that was so worth it, that just because I didn’t have some kind of match made in heaven right off the bat searching for professional help in a mental health capacity, that I did, that I kept at it and that I did, and that I have someone that I speak to once a week,” Weinberg added. “I try to stick to once a week, and I’ve found that that really helps me in sorting through thoughts, sorting through those challenging things and processing events and life circumstances that are difficult to process, to make sense of.”
Weinberg also touched upon other life changes, such as becoming a parent, and the unique pressures that artists face.
“And when life doesn’t make sense, when life is difficult to process, you feel like you’re the crazy one,” Weinberg explained. “And it’s an ongoing process. There’s also other beautiful things that one can find challenging, like becoming a parent for the first time, which I just did a couple months ago. That brings a whole new angle to life, as I understood it would, as I had heard from so many parents before me. And so I think though it felt like a long, long search and over time recognizing the pressure that builds up over time and circumstantial pressure, for sure, the pressure of, as we do as artists, as musicians, of putting yourself on display for critique, for judgment, for all those things that being an artist, you kind of open your life up to.”
Ultimately, Weinberg expressed that reaching out to others and accepting that he does not have all the answers has helped him move forward.
“So I think it takes some realization of that and an admission that life… I’m okay with not being the person who just naturally has all the answers, and I sometimes need to reach out to my community, to someone I trust, to help me get through a challenging moment so I can — whatever it is — sit with my thoughts more easily, I can process event information more thoroughly and maybe with a greater degree of ease,” Weinberg concluded. “Not like it’s a solution to everything, ’cause it doesn’t solve anything in life, but it at least eases the process through getting to the next moment.”
This journey of recovery comes after Weinberg’s nearly decade-long tenure with Slipknot ended in late 2023. He joined the band in December 2013 and later continued his career with Suicidal Tendencies in 2024.
