E Street Band drummer and former bandleader for Conan O'Brien, Weinberg has struck career gold twice.

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. Weinberg suffered from tendonitis and required multiple surgeries, but he made a full recovery to record the drums on The Boss's best-selling album, 1984's Born in the USA. In 1989, Springsteen dissolved the E Street Band, and Weinberg was left jobless.

Crushed by the band's end, Weinberg considered himself a retired drummer and pursued a law degree and a music distribution job. Fulfilled by neither, he began drumming again, for $125 a pop at bar mitzvahs in New Jersey. In 1993, after a chance encounter with Conan O'Brien, Weinberg and his band, The Max Weinberg 7, became the house band for Late Night with Conan O'Brien. In 1999, when the E Street Band reunited, Weinberg, when possible, recorded episodes with O'Brien in the afternoon and played with Springsteen at night. He stayed with O'Brien for almost two decades, following him to LA when he was named as the short-lived host of The Tonight Show. When Conan's time at NBC ended abruptly in 2010, Weinberg decided to shift focus back to touring and recording — both with his own band, Max Weinberg Big Band, and with the E Street Band.

Weinberg lives with his wife, Rebecca, and two children, Ali and Jay, in New Jersey. [Image via Getty]