Weinberg joined forces with Conan back in 1993, leading The Max Weinberg 7 as the house band for “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.”

He took a few breaks from the show beginning in 1999 to tour with Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, who he had previously played with between 1974 and 1989.

In June 2009 Weinberg and the Max Weinberg 7 followed Conan from New York to Los Angeles to take over “The Tonight Show.” Conan’s short-lived run as host ended in late January 2010 after a good amount of drama with NBC executives and Jay Leno.

Because Conan’s settlement with NBC banned him from hosting a TV show until September, the funnyman spent the spring touring “The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour.” Weinberg’s band, renamed The Legally Prohibited Band, came along on the road, minus Weinberg. James Wormworth handled the drums and guitarist Jimmy Vivino took over as bandleader. The two musicians previously filled these roles on “Late Night” and “The Tonight Show” when Weinberg toured with Springsteen.

In a recent interview, Vivino told the St. Louis Riverfront Times he will be officially leading the band on Conan’s new show on TBS. The show, simply called “Conan,” premiers Nov. 8.

“I’ll be leading the band, and James Wormworth will be playing drums now,” Vivino said. “He played half of ‘The Tonight Shows’ and a good quarter of the ‘Late Night’  shows. The funny thing was, when we got this gig, James was the only one we had to leave behind, you know, ’cause Max [Weinberg] got the gig and we didn’t need two drummers. But basically we took the band that was mine and my brother’s [and] combined [them] with some of the guys from Southside Johnny’s band that Max knew and it worked. It worked great for a long time. Now, we’re staying in L.A. and I’m committed to that now. It feels different than when we went out and tried to continue the New York show, because now we’re disassociated from one network and starting up with a new one. It’s gonna be great.”

Vivino said that Weinberg is going to stay busy.

“Max has his big band out there that has been his dream all his life, kind of a Buddy Rich band. And there’s a kid in Jersey that works with him occasionally. A singer-songwriter!”

The 15-piece Max Weinberg Big Band hits the road next month, touring the U.S. with dates lined up through early November.

Click here to read the St. Louis Riverfront Times story.