Advertisement

The E Street Band's Max Weinberg Keeps Winning. Appointed To Del Ray Beach Zoning Board.

Palm Beach Post - Max Weinberg, Bruce Springsteen’s long-time drummer and the bandleader for Conan O’Brien’s Late Night and The Tonight Show, will soon be drumming to a different kind of beat.

City commissioners Tuesday appointed the 69-year-old Delray Beach resident to a two-year term on the Planning and Zoning Board. He told The Palm Beach Post he is looking forward to “serving the city.”

Commissioner Juli Casale, who recommended Weinberg to the two-year term, said she met him last year while campaigning for a seat on the commission. “I was impressed with his knowledge and vision of real estate and development,” she said. “I love Springsteen. Who doesn’t? But this appointment was not made because of his music prowess.”

He pledged to thoroughly review plans that come before the board.

“You owe that to the community,” Weinberg said. “I want to see Delray Beach developed in a way that takes into consideration all of the different viewpoints. You need to look at these plans from every angle.”

Springsteen hired him to be his drummer in 1974. Weinberg said community decisions, like music, can have a lasting effect.

“Bruce used to ask the question: Why do they call it a record? It is because it will last forever,” Weinberg explained. “Forty years from now, people will listen to Born to Run. He put a tremendous amount of time and effort into writing those songs.

“It is the same with planning and zoning board decisions. They will have lasting impacts.”

1st off what a fucking quote to drop. "As my dear friend Bruce (Springsteen. Ever heard of him?) likes to say, records last forever. Same with zoning board decisions."

Max fuckin Weinberg. The guy just continues to kill it. At everything he sets out to do. 

I want to play drums in a band. 

Boom. How's drummer of the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, hard-rocking, booty-shaking, love-making, earth-quaking, Viagra-taking, justifying, death-defying, legendary E Street Band sound to you?

We need a break from touring for 40 years. I want to play drums for an hour or two 5 nights a week for a few months a year up the turnpike from where I live.

Ok. Will the Conan O'brien show (back when it was the hottest late night show on tv mind you) do?

(sidebar - Remember Conan back before he got fucked over by NBC and Jay Leno? His show was incredible for like a 7-8 year run. He was constantly pushing the envelope, pulling off some of the best sketches on television at the time (masturbating bear, Triumph, The Year 2000, his Ford SHO bits, all his bits with Max being a sick sex freak, Pierre Bernard, Celebrity Secrets and on and on). His show and the writing was better than SNL not that that's saying a lot. And Max Weinberg was a major part of that.)

I need to diversify my portfolio. I think I'll get into real estate.

Great idea. Solid, time tested investment strategy. How about developing or flipping 40 properties? No joke.

Real estate investment has always been somewhat of a second job for Weinberg. He has bought or built nearly 40 houses over the years, appearing before planning and zoning boards throughout the country.

In April 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported in a feature article that Weinberg is “real estate obsessive.” He spends hours leafing through property records at town halls, and throws around names of architects the way most people throw around names of rock stars, the Journal reported.

“In those days, nothing was on line. You had to go to City Hall to do your research,” Weinberg said.

Sometimes, he said he has encountered planning and zoning board members that were not as “thorough or as prepared” as they should have been.

He has been involved in a number of real estate deals in Palm Beach County. He and his wife, Becky, sold a five-bedroom, Mediterranean-style house in Palm Beach for $6.79 million in April 2018. And in 2017, he purchased a British Colonial in Delray Beach, where he currently resides, for $4 million. Weinberg said it is on the market as he wants to downsize but he will continue to reside in Delray Beach. The six-bedroom, 5 ½ bath house on Seaspray Avenue is listed for $5.2 million.

What could be next on Max' agenda? 

Maybe I'll run for office...

Could the future include a run for elected office?

Weinberg said he has no ambitions to do that now but added: “You never say no. I drive around town and I see issues that need to be addressed. So who knows?”

Speaking for myself but any man that's responsible for the drums on "Roulette" and "Land of Hopes and Dreams" would be hard for me not to vote for.

BONUS - Conan during his prime.

Advertisement

Advertisement