Who

Best known these days as Conan's sidekick on Late Night, Weinberg originally became famous as the drummer in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.

Backstory

Raised in South Orange, New Jersey, Weinberg started drumming as a kid—his first public "gig" was playing along with the band at his own bar mitzvah. In college, he played in a wedding band and in the pit for the Broadway production of Godspell. In 1974 he answered a newspaper ad that landed him the job of drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, and dropped out of college to go on tour. He remained a member of the band until they broke up in 1989. (He also squeezed in time to play the skins on Meatloaf's Bat Out of Hell in 1977). At that point, Weinberg finished his degree, briefly attended law school, and got a job with a music distribution company. A chance meeting a few years later with Conan O'Brien outside the Carnegie Deli—and presumably a trip to the tailor to acquire the natty suits he wears nightly—led to his current gig as leader of Late Night house band, the Max Weinberg Seven. When Conan relocates to Burbank to take over The Tonight Show from Jay Leno in 2009, Weinberg is expected to follow along.

In print

Weinberg co-authored The Big Beat: Conversations with Rock's Greatest Drummers. The book featured interviews with Ringo Starr, Charlie Watts, Levon Helm, and Elvis Presley's original drummer.

Medical file

A repetitive strain injury and tendonitis in his fingers and hands nearly ended Weinberg's career in the 1980s. (The day after he recorded ''Born in the U.S.A.,'' Weinberg woke up to find that he couldn't move the fingers on his left hand.) He eventually underwent seven operations to try to correct the problem.

Personal

Weinberg lives in Middletown, New Jersey, with his wife Becky and two children, both of whom are amateur musicians—daughter Ali is a keyboardist and son Jay is a drummer in a teenage metal band named Chaosis.