Born to Renovate

Springsteen's Drummer, Max Weinberg, Has a Real-Estate Obsession

(The Wall Street Journal) - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band had just finished playing a sold-out show at Earls Court in London, and Max Weinberg, the band's longtime drummer, was thinking about countertops.

Specifically, Kirkstone countertops. Mr. Weinberg wanted the pale green stone for the kitchen in the house he was building back in New Jersey. He knew the stone came from England, and he noted a kitchen-supply store they passed on the way back from the concert. The next day, the store's manager told him that it didn't stock the material but suggested he try the Kirkstone showroom nearby. Mr. Weinberg paid a visit and had the stone shipped across the Atlantic.

Mr. Weinberg's Middletown, N.J., house is full of such stories: light fixtures picked up on tour in Milwaukee; heart-of-pine floors snagged at $8 a foot from a supplier in New Hampshire; William Morris-patterned wallpaper from the original producers in London. Some have a connection to where he found them; others are just good buys he finagled on the road. "I'd do great deals because I'd help [the suppliers] get tickets to the shows," says Mr. Weinberg, who turns 57 on Sunday.