Veteran musician Al Kooper, in an interview with Citypages, confirms that Conan O’Brien’s longtime band leader, Max Weinberg, is no longer with the band.
After the "Tonight Show" kerfuffle broke out last year, it was rumored that Weinberg wanted his freedom, and he reportedly has reached out to Jay Leno about replacing Kevin Eubanks on Leno’s "Tonight Show."
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Citypages asked keyboardist-guitarist-songwriter-producer Kooper about how he seems to have several bands going on at one time. "It’s mostly two now because my other band, half of them are with Conan O’Brien and they moved to the West Coast," he says.
When the interviewer says, "So those guys went off with Conan and Max Weinberg?," Kooper responds, "There’s a name you can’t say anymore. He’s not in that band anymore."
Clarifying that he means Weinberg, Kooper says, "They let him go. This is a big transition, and they’re all signing new contracts and everything so they replaced him, as far as I know."