Former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted has looked back on his exit from Metallica, revealing the role his addiction struggles played in his decision to leave.

The bassist was chosen as the heir to Cliff Burton's throne following his passing in 1986, and departed in 2001 after making significant contributions to the band's most commercially successful era. Appearing on Dean Delray's YouTube channel, he explained the circumstances that led to his departure from the group.

“The reason I left Metallica is because I was a horrible addict,” he admits (via the PRP). “I was way up against myself, and if I didn’t get some kind of help, I was going to die. And so I just said, ‘You guys, can I have a minute? Please give me a minute.’ And they said, ‘No.’”

There are small parallels here with the original Korn bassist, Fieldy, who has recently addressed his exit from the band. Bob Rock famously depped for Newsted on the much-maligned St. Anger album, with Robert Trujillo since filling the void, playing on their last three records.

Ultimately, Newsted says Metallica’s response prompted him to step away.

“I said, ‘I would rather live than be in your band,’” he recounts. “‘I love being in your band. I think it’s kind of obvious.’”

He then goes into a passionate tirade regarding his commitment to the Metallica cause, saying, “I wear your shirt every night. I meet every person who wants to meet and represent us for all the fans every night. Don’t tell me I’m not committed. Don’t tell me I’m not loyal. I’m always the first one in and last one out. I’m not saying the words. It’s fucking history.”

Returning to his request for time, he says, “[If] you can’t give me that minute to get my head straight again, then I have to go. [It’s] not that I don’t love you, and certainly not that I’m not committed to this band.”

In a 2001 interview, James Hetfield pinned Newsted's leaving on his side project, Echobrain, which he reportedly wanted to focus on during the hiatus he proposed the band take at the turn of the century. The guitarist did later play down those claims, saying he was “choking” his “brother” in doing so, but it's clear there were tensions at play either way. Newsted's latest comments lay some responsibility at his own feet.

Interestingly, Ozzy Osbourne, who has welcomed both Newsted and Trujillo into his band at different points, said Newsted had “the edge” over his counterpart. Newsted briefly toured with Ozzy after his Metallica days – ironically, replacing Trujillo – and says the band had a higher “respect factor” than the thrash metal giants.

Elsewhere, EMG is celebrating its 50th anniversary with special edition pickups for each of Metallica's string hitters.

Metallica fans of a certain age will recall Jason Newsted's arrival in October 1986, when he was recruited to fill the huge boots of Cliff Burton. As current bassist Robert Trujillo told Bass Player: “Cliff was very aggressive, very melodic, and a busier player, but there’s an art to simplicity, and Jason brought that art.”

After one too many disputes with the other band members, Newsted called it a day in 2001, following 15 years with the thrash metal giants, and was eventually replaced by Trujillo in 2003.

Having played with Suicidal Tendencies, Jerry Cantrell's solo band, Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society and a seven-year stint with Ozzy Osbourne prior to joining – Trujillo was well prepared for life in Metallica.

“I think he's the best choice they could have possibly made,” Newsted told Bass Player in 2003. “Robert is solid and musical; he knows his shit and his style is very strong. He's got a big heart and a good family. All of those things are important to be able to put up with something as huge as the Metallica entity, and he's got what it takes.

“As a fan I wasn't sure Metallica would be able to come out and be a force again, but now that they have Robert, I think they will. If Robert and James can click the way I think they can, they could be a huge, huge thing.”

As fate would have it, just a few weeks after Metallica announced that Trujillo had emerged at the top of the audition heap, Ozzy Osbourne made his own proclamation, announcing Jason Newsted as his new bassist.

Newsted was officially welcomed with a press event at 3rd Encore Studios in North Hollywood, where the band powered through Black Sabbath’s War Pigs, and three Osbourne hits, Believer, No More Tears and the classic Crazy Train.

At the end of a busy press conference fielding questions like, “How does it feel to play with a metal icon?" and “Who in the band drinks the most?” Newsted sat down to talk to Bass Player about music – and the new page in his career.

When you found out about joining Ozzy's band, was it a surprise?

“Totally. I didn't put it all together until Sharon Osbourne called me. Mike Bordin and I have been friends for years – he was one of Cliff Burton's best friends – so I got Ozzy's setlists for the last two tours, figured out the tunings they were using live, and made a tape with 13 tunes – six Sabbath songs and the rest Ozzy.”

“I did everything that I had heard you're supposed to do, or that I had done before, to get a gig. I played until I could not play anymore. The flesh on my fingertips was actually cracking; it got down to the nerve, and the pain was shooting up my arm. That's when I'd stop. But I'd sleep with the headphones on, with my work tape playing on repeat.

“When I'd take 30 minutes to eat something, I'd watch old Sabbath videos. So I was literally living, breathing, eating, and sleeping Ozzy for eight days. It was full-on preparation – just like what I did with Metallica. When the day came, I felt pretty good about everything.”

So you didn't consider it an audition?

“The guys told me it wasn't an audition and that I was already in the band, and Ozzy had already mentioned it in a radio interview. But that didn't stop me.

“First I played with just Zakk and Mike. I had all the songs I'd learned written on a list, and I had pinpointed my questions: ‘Zakk, how does this resolve, what is that note.’ I got all those things tight, and we jammed for a while.

“Then Ozzy came in. I wanted him to be able to point to any one of those songs on the list and for me to be able to just knock it out. He picked five of the tunes, and from the first bit of Paranoid, when I began playing, he started bouncing around the room.

“He made a couple of comments in between songs; I didn't talk much. After the fifth tune he said, ‘If you want a job, you've got it.' And I said, ‘Yes, Oz, I want it. Wherever you want me to be, I'll be there.’”

How much freedom will Ozzy afford you in the band?

“In the first three minutes that I spoke to him on the phone, he was already talking about writing songs together, which pretty much freaked me out. Black Sabbath is my all-time favorite band, and it has been ever since I started playing.

“They influenced me so much that with every riff I wrote for Metallica or anyone else, the guys would always say, 'We can't play that – it sounds too much like Sabbath’ – or, 'Nice ripoff.' Now, those riffs I write will fit.”

With Ozzy will you be playing 4-strings, 5’s, or both?

“Usually I play a Sadowsky 5-string, though I have one new 4-string that I like a lot. As I start figuring out the songs a bit more and see exactly what they're going to play, things will change.

“If I can get away with some of the Sabbath stuff on a 4-string, I'll do it. But for the Ozzy stuff I want the 5 so I can put my own signature on the tunes. I want to make all those old songs new again, but still get what Geezer Butler did in there.”

You were branching out into things like fretless towards the end of your Metallica career. How will this shift affect your development as a musician?

“I haven't played fretless in a long time. My groove is more toward sounds and production now. Again, I need to pay justice to something that's already been done – I'm stepping into a situation where some cool bass players have been. I mean, Rudy Sarzo... whatever, right? But Bob Daisley – fantastic. Geezer Butler – number one. That's big, and they're much bigger shoes to fill than Cliff Burton’s.

“Ozzy hasn't really had a high-profile bassist before. A lot of guys became more famous after playing with Ozzy, but none was really established when they came in. In my eyes, Metallica is nearly equal to Ozzy in terms of the respect factor and accomplishments – not all the way, but nearly.”

Do you have any idea why you've now been picked to play in two of the world's elite metal bands?

“I ask myself, ‘Why does this happen to me?’ There are a lot of bassists out there who can play circles around me. But have they developed a style? Do they have personality? Do they have what it takes to be in the big leagues? I like to think I got this call because of the good energy I spread around.”

“And like I always did with Metallica, I want to make sure I say hello to the fans. They might have something they've been wanting to say to you for 10 years, and they get one minute with you and they finally spew it out – and it's the most sincere thing and just knocks you down.

“The guys who have been around the longest are the coolest guys – the ones who'd be the first to embrace you. It took B.B. King 90 seconds to embrace me and tell me about his family. Eric Clapton – the second time he met me, he called me by my name, and I just about dropped to my knees. It's the same with Ozzy.

“For someone who's been through that much, what does he have to prove? So I'll push myself to make it happen. Whatever he asks of me, I'll be there for him.”

It was heavy metal's equivalent of the 1990s Leno/Letterman late-night wars: in February 2003, Metallica announced that its new bass player was Robert Trujillo, formerly of Suicidal Tendencies and Ozzy Osbourne's band.

Less than a month later, at a press event at 3rd Encore Studios in North Hollywood, Osbourne introduced the world to his new bassist: Jason Newsted, Metallica's anchor from 1986 until he left the band in 2001.

The event wasn't a huge media circus as one might expect, considering Ozzy's rekindled mega-stardom from his bizarre MTV reality show The Osbournes. Instead, a couple of dozen writers and photographers were invited to hear the new lineup play an intimate four-song set in a modest rehearsal studio.

Bass Player joined earplugged journalists from MTV News, CNN, ABC News, and a handful of local music zines as the band ploughed through the tunes with head-vibrating sound pressure levels.

During breaks Ozzy entertained the subdued, seated gathering with his familiar profanity-laced witticisms. Meanwhile, Newsted wallowed in metal's equivalent of hog heaven. He bantered with drummer Mike Bordin and guitarist Zakk Wylde, and armed with a Sadowsky Modern 5 plugged into a rented SVT backline, held it down as if in mid-tour form.

“I'm levitating,” he said during a post-set Q&A. “When I got this call I was flabbergasted. I was thinking, ‘This is not real.’”

Though Newsted was still brand-new to the band, Ozzy was excited after the energetic set. “I'm thrilled," he raved. “Jason is like a rock. I've always loved his bass playing, and I think he'd be a great asset to any band. Not that Robert Trujillo is a bad bass player, but Jason just has this edge.”

So was it Ozzy's idea to approach Newsted? “Actually, my son Jack was the first to mention it,” he said, referring to the Osbourne’s then resident teen slacker. "He mentioned it to Sharon, and a lightbulb went ping. You've got to pass the torch on; if you don't it's going to die, man.

“When new blood comes along it always makes me feel like I have a new band – and when I played with Jason for the first time, I knew he was the one for me. I'm all for progress, and to have Jason onboard is my honor.”

“Jason's coming from a different kind of music," said drummer Mike Bordin, "and he seems more of a push than a pull. With Ozzy I try to lay back and create a Black Sabbath-style groove that just gets there when it gets there. But I think in the super-aggressive music that Jason's been playing for the last 15 years, he's used to really going after it. To be sure, we end up in the same place.

“But it's like a baseball player using a different glove: you can do a great job with it – but it hasn't been your glove for the last 15 or 20 years, so there's an adjustment. The glove adjusts to you, and you adjust to the glove.

“As Ozzy has said, Jason adds a new energy. It's like trading Derek Jeter for Nomar Garciaparra – nobody loses. It's a huge blessing.”

If you know your Metallica history, you'll know that Jason Newsted and Robert Trujillo aren't the only guys to have filled the bass chair with the thrash metal giants. The first, Ron McGovney, joined in January 1982, but his time with the band was to be short-lived.

The story goes that McGovney was at a concert in San Francisco with guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich when they saw Cliff Burton play with his band Trauma.

“Cliff starts going into this bass solo. And they’re just looking at him and their eyes are wide open,” McGovney told Bass Player in 2018. “I kind of knew right at that point: ‘This is the guy that they’re gonna go after.’ I could just feel it.”

Tension with guitarist Dave Mustaine eventually led McGovney to quit – he was more interested in being a motorcycle mechanic than in playing thrash metal. Burton joined in September 1982, but he always respected McGovney’s time in the band, giving him a backstage pass to a concert at the Palladium in 1984.

Burton’s impact on Metallica’s music was immense – listen to Orion from their superlative Master Of Puppets album for evidence – and on the next generation of metal bassists, all of whom owe him a debt to a greater or lesser degree.

Burton’s most famous instrument was his 1979 Rickenbacker 4001, uniquely modded with three replacement pickups: a Gibson EB, a Seymour Duncan stacked Jazz, and a Duncan Stratocaster pickup under the bridge for extra top end. It’s this bass that you can hear on Kill ’Em All and Ride The Lightning, but by the time of Master Of Puppets, he had switched to an Aria Pro II.

“Cliff’s style was very aggressive,” says Robert Trujillo, Metallica’s bass player since 2003. “When I joined Metallica, I became more familiar with where he was coming from creatively. That’s when I realized how special he was.”

By 1986 Metallica were riding high, but the year was to end in tragedy. While on tour in Sweden the group's tourbus skidded and crashed. Burton was trapped under the bus and killed. He was 24 years old when he died.

It looked like Metallica had been dealt a blow from which they would never recover, but they made the decision to carry on, with Jason Newsted joining in October 1986. For his audition Newsted had learned the band's entire back catalogue. When they asked him which song he wanted to play, he replied, “Whatever song you want.”

Newsted’s stint with Metallica was commercially successful, but also creatively inconsistent. While his bass playing was always exemplary, delivered on a range of basses including his beloved Sadowsky, he was inaudible on the 1988 album ...And Justice For All, while other, less assured records such as Load and Reload divided the Metallica fanbase.

Still, 1991’s self-titled LP – the Black Album – was a massive success, selling over 30 million copies worldwide.

Metallica found a new, bottom-heavy sound thanks to Canadian producer Bob Rock. “In Bob Rock I found someone who knew what he wanted and how to achieve it,” said Newsted. “I learned a lot by listening for what he wanted in terms of bass sound. I learned to bring lots of mids up. I didn't do that before.”

As current bassist Robert Trujillo told Bass Player: “You could hear Jason’s parts better for sure, and they were a bit more delegated, but still great, though. There’s an art to simplicity, and Jason brought that art.

“Obviously Cliff was very aggressive, very melodic, and a busier player, so it’s not like one way’s better than the other, but it would be safe to say that Jason’s parts were easier for me to learn, for sure.”

After one too many disputes with the other band members Newsted called it a day, and left in January 2001.

Following Newsted's departure, Rock kept the group's album plans alive by playing all the bass guitar parts on its 2003 Elektra release, St. Anger. Rock played just three gigs with Metallica, but in the studio he became an essential part of the group's bass legacy.

“Please – tell all the bass players to be easy on me, man,” Rock told Bass Player. “I did my best to represent you well!”

Robert Trujillo – who had played with Suicidal Tendencies, Ozzy Osbourne, Black Label Society and Jerry Cantrell's solo band prior to joining – was announced as Metallica's new bassist on February 24, 2003, following a two-day try-out that was captured on their fly-on-the-wall Metallica: Some Kind of Monster rockumentary.

Bassists Pepper Keenan, Jeordie White, Scott Reeder, Eric Avery, Danny Lohner and Chris Wyse – among others – also tried out for the role, but after months of auditions, Trujillo was officially declared the new bassist.

“For the first couple of years, I was literally just hanging on,” said Trujillo. “We hadn’t even done Anesthesia until the Puppets anniversary show in 2006, so I did a lot on my own, to stay ahead of the game, because for the first three years I was chasing it.”

When we ask about his his predecessors, Trujillo reflected: “Hard shoes to fill. Both guys are incredible players. Considering Newsted's a pick player, and the speed and dexterity involved in this music, I think it's a tall order. And for Cliff too, who was a finger player.

“I'm not being disrespectful to all the bass players out there, but there aren't many bassists that could do this job. Playing with Metallica is the most demanding gig there is.”

Given the band's success and the resources at their disposal, it remains remarkable that Metallica have had not one, but two, albums with enormously controversial mixes.

The more recent of the two was on 2003's St. Anger, which was a polarizing album even without its famous ‘metal trash can lid’ snare drum sound. The other came 15 years before, on, 1988's ...And Justice for All.

Though Metallica were on a sharp upward trajectory while recording the latter album – indeed, it would mark their debut on MTV and in the upper echelons of the Billboard charts – it was nonetheless an incredibly difficult time for the band.

On September 27, 1986, Metallica lost their beloved bassist, Cliff Burton, in a horrific tour bus crash.

Aside from his remarkable abilities on the bass itself, Burton had hugely influenced the band's musical direction.

“[Cliff] really exposed James [Hetfield] and I to a whole new musical horizon of harmonies and melodies,” recounted Lars Ulrich in a 2008 Guitar World interview. “[Our] whole way of writing songs together was very much shaped around Cliff’s musical input.”

After a period of mourning, the band auditioned dozens of new bassists, eventually settling on Jason Newsted. The wound from Burton's death, however, was still incredibly raw.

“There was a lot of anguish after Cliff died, and basically Jason was the punching bag,” guitarist Kirk Hammett told Guitar World. “We vented so much on him, and it wasn’t really fair.”

The band's first album with Newsted, ...And Justice for All was marked by the band's increasingly progressive and technically intricate bent – and nearly inaudible bass parts.

With the band's tough-edged, hard-drinking reputation, the bizarre mixing decision was long assumed to be an elaborate way of hazing their newest member.

James Hetfield, however, maintains that this was not the case.

“The bass [on ...And Justice for All] was obscured for two reasons,” Hetfield told Guitar World. “First, Jason tended to double my rhythm guitar parts, so it was hard to tell where my guitar started and his bass left off. Also, my tone on Justice was very scooped – all lows and highs, with very little midrange.

“When my rhythm parts were placed in the mix, my guitar sound ate up all the lower frequencies. Jason and I were always battling for the same space in the mix.”

Speaking to Guitar World at the same time, Newsted said simply of the situation, “I can’t explain how much grief I dealt with – and still deal with – over that record.”

Former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted is set to sell more than 60 electric guitars, basses, and oddball rarities on his official Reverb page.

The sale launches on July 24 and line-up includes a wealth of rare and unusual bass guitars, many of which were used to record and tour with Metallica and beyond. Now, though, Newsted says he is eager to see these instruments receive a new loving home.

“Over the last 30 or 40 years as I've traveled around playing music for people, I've gathered some cool shit,” he say. “[But] I can't play all of them. I'd like to get them in the hands of some people. They deserve to be enjoyed!”

Two key highlights come from two serious purveyors of low-end might: A 1992 Alembic Europa Custom 10-string bass used on the Black Album tour, and a five-string fretless Zon bass, used to record Until It Sleeps.

“This thing is an absolute beast,” Newsted says of the 10-string. “The weight alone you'll have to be a straight badass just to carry it let alone play it. I was never able to give it enough time. I was able to take it out on tour – the Black Album tour, that kind of thing – but I want to see what someone can do with it. It’s a really special piece of metal history.”

Of the Zon, he says everything is “left [as is] from the recording of Until It Sleeps. This is a piece of metal lore right here. You have the song in your collection [and] that’s the bass that played it.”

It's worth noting too that Newsted puts a little herb leaf mark on the headstocks of the instruments he has recorded with, so if you want to own an instrument with recording history, that's something to look out for.

Other listings include a mint condition 1966 Gibson Barney Kessel, and a '68 Hofner six-string with a built-in fuzz.

There’s also a 1970 Rickenbacker Fireglo 12-string, with a switch to make it a six-string, an Ampeg AUB-1 Scroll bass, which Newsted calls “a unique sounding beast” that has seen a lot of love, and a “pretty rare” PRS sunburst bass that featured on Metallica’s …And Justice For All tour.

[That record is remembered by many for its lack of bass guitar, and the record’s producer has recently revealed his theory as to why that is - Ed]

Representing Newsted's love for prog, there's also a custom 3-string Music Man bass inspired by Tony Levin’s design and a 1980 Rickenbacker 4080 double-neck split between a four-string bass and six-string guitar – a purchase inspired by seeing Alex Lifeson play double-necks with Rush.

As mentioned, the shop will launch on July 24 with all items listed at fixed prices, meaning there will be no bidding war on any item. So, be quick or be dead...

Head to Reverb to check out the listing preview.

In what was a real bolt from the blue, former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted revealed back in 2022 that he’d been approached for a Van Halen reunion tour with Joe Satriani slated to play electric guitar.

Satch was, of course, widely regarded as a suitable choice to fill the late Eddie Van Halen’s sizable shoes, and there’s huge excitement around the upcoming The Best Of All Worlds tour he’s to be a part of.

However, at the time, there was skepticism that the rest of the band wouldn’t want long-time bassist Michael Anthony, or at least Wolfgang Van Halen, involved.

Probed about Newsted’s claims in a fresh interview with Ultimate Guitar, Anthony says he was indeed in the frame for what proved to be a failed reunion attempt.

“It was really interesting because I had not even heard about [Newsted] until I heard about it in the press,” he says. “And it was right around that time that I actually had gotten a call from Alex [Van Halen] and Dave [Lee Roth] about doing a reunion.

“So I don't know what was going on there. But I thought it was actually pretty interesting. Who knows what was going on in their minds when they were trying to put something together.

“All I know is that they had spoken to me also,” he concludes. “But things kind of fell apart before they were even able to be put together.”

The Best Of All Worlds tour, spearheaded by Sammy Hagar with Joe Satriani, Anthony and Jason Bonham, has since unofficially taken on the Van Halen-reviving mantel. While the absence of David Lee Roth is a noticable, the assembled band will play many Roth-era hits.

Satch hasn’t taken the responsibility of playing Eddie Van Halen's guitar parts lightly. He’s worked with 3rd Power Amps for a custom tube amp, designed to replicate Eddie’s 1986 tone. He’s also given his pedalboard a major, Eddie-inspired revamp, and made many modifications to an EVH Eruption Strat.

Meanwhile, Anthony has talked about his hopes of Wolfgang Van Halen doing something with what he says is a vast archive of never-before-heard Van Halen songs. Earlier this year, he also hinted at a new band he's involved with, featuring Bon Jovi guitarist Phil X, Aerosmith live drummer John Douglas, and a vocalist whose identity was kept secret.

Robert Trujillo was born to be in Metallica. He’s one of the heaviest bassists you'll ever hear, and he also looks strong enough to survive what is surely one of the toughest gigs in rock. His CV is pretty impressive, too. 

After developing his bass craft with hardcore favourites Suicidal Tendencies, he later formed the funkier outfit Infectious Grooves before taking on two of the most demanding jobs of his career – Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society and a seven-year stint with Ozzy Osbourne.

It was just the experience Trujillo needed to prepare him for life in Metallica. Lest we forget, he joined the band at its lowest ebb. Its members were still reeling from the acrimonious departure of bassist Jason Newsted, James Hetfield's eight months of rehab, and the difficult recording of the aptly named St Anger, documented in the film Some Kind of Monster.

“I feel like I've had so many challenges,” Trujillo told Bass Player. “You know, I live in Los Angeles, but since I joined the band I've been spending more time in the Bay Area, and I actually really like it. Los Angeles has become so overpopulated and blown out. San Francisco has such a nice balance, almost like a funky '70s flavour to it. The way LA used to be back in the Cheech & Chong days!

"But the biggest challenge has been with my bass playing. I'm not being disrespectful to all the bass players out there, but there aren't many bassists that could do this job. Playing with Metallica is the most demanding gig there is.”

If you know your Metallica history, you’ll know that Trujillo isn’t the only one to have filled the bass role. There are also three other names in the family tree.

The first, Ron McGovney, joined in January 1982. His membership was to be short-lived. The story goes that Lars and James went to see a band called Trauma at the legendary Whisky-A-Go-Go on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. The bassist in the band was one Cliff Burton, whose break-neck bass style left the duo open-mouthed, and apparently determined to poach his unique talent.

The band pursued Burton until he gave them an ultimatum. He would join on the condition that they relocate from LA to his hometown of San Francisco. It's a testament to his talent that Metallica agreed. Burton joined in September 1982. McGovney was history.

Burton played on some of Metallica's finest recordings, including Kill'Em All released in 1983. Ride The Lightning followed in 1984, and then the album that many believe to be the band's masterpiece, Master Of Puppets in 1986.

“Cliff was amazing for Metallica. His ideas, his presence, and where he was taking the bass and taking metal, were so special. And his stage presence – he was such a physical player. He played what he felt, and that was the bottom line. His approach was, ‘I’m gonna play what I feel, and if you don’t like it, screw you!’

“He used to ask Kirk to show him Lynyrd Skynyrd guitar solos so he could play them on bass, and not many bass guitar players were doing that back then. I thought that was so cool. Cliff was a force on a lot of different levels.”

By 1986, Metallica were riding high, but the year was to end in tragedy. While on tour in Sweden the group's tourbus skidded and crashed. Burton was trapped under the bus and killed. It looked like Metallica had been dealt a blow from which they would never recover, but they made the decision to carry on, and began the search for a new bassist.

Jason Newsted joined in October 1986. For his audition he had learned the band's entire back catalog. When they asked him which song he wanted to play he replied, “whatever song you want.”

His first recording with Metallica was the Garage Days Revisited EP released in 1987. Newsted had a 14-year career with the band that ultimately went sour. After one too many disputes with the other band members he called it a day, and left in January 2001.

Trujillo officially joined in 2003, and, more than two decades later, there's no question he has earned his spot with the legendary band. “I had some hard shoes to fill. Both those guys are incredible players.”

“I really appreciate Jason Newsted. Considering he's a pick player, and the speed and dexterity involved in this music, I think it's a tall order. But he was really keeping it and holding it down, keeping it solid – more simple than Cliff, but in a good way.

“I love the fact that we’re all different. We all have our thing that we’ve brought to the band, but I also have my own style and I like to express that.”

Metallica’s 1988 album …And Justice For All may be a well-respected part of the metal titan’s expansive back catalog, but it's especially notable for its inaudible bass guitar.

In an interview with Metal Injection, the record’s producer, Flemming Rasmussen, theorizes why the band minimized Jason Newsted’s presence on his maiden Metallica record, believing it was a purposeful decision.

“I think – but this is purely speculation – they did it to get some kind of reaction from Jason,” says Rasmussen, who was also behind the desk for Ride The Lightning and Master of Puppets.

“What they hated the most about Jason was that he was a fan. He was never disagreeing or anything, or stating his own opinion. I think they were waiting for him to kind of state his place in the band… they probably did it to get a reaction, and when it didn’t come, that was the way the album turned out.”

It’s certainly an interesting theory. At the time, the band were still adjusting to life after Cliff Burton’s untimely passing in 1986.

Primus’ bass wizard Les Claypool auditioned for Metallica as the band sought a suitable replacement who could become a strong creative force in the band, but it was clear he “didn’t fit in”.

Eventually, Newsted was given the job, but it would prove to be a tricky transition for a band still in mourning.

“For him [Newsted] and for us, it was difficult,” James Hetfield reflected in a 2018 interview with Blabbermouth.

“Psychology 101 will tell you that all our grief and sadness got directed at him, and quite a bit of it was that he was an easy target.

“He was goofy enough to take it, which was a positive for him, and he was such a fan, and we hated that. We wanted to ‘unfan’ him.”

Since the record’s release, there have been multiple fan remixes – like ...And Justice for Jason – and cover versions, which show what the record could have sounded like had (if we are to go off Rasmussen’s theory) Newsted showed some bite.

Three years after the album dropped, Newsted discussed his new role in Metallica, and claimed his playing style brought a tightness to the band that his predecessor's did not.

Newsted left Metallica in 2001 and would go on to play in Ozzy Osbourne’s band among other projects. His replacement in 'Tallica, Robert Trujillo, joined having already played with the Black Sabbath singer.

Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony has set the record straight regarding the much-talked-about Van Halen tribute concert and why it never materialized. According to Anthony, “one of the ingredients was not, let's say, playing ball with everybody else.”

In 2022, Van Halen's fans speculated that a tribute project was in the works. Joe Satriani confirmed he was involved in project discussions with Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth. 

Ex-Metallica bassist Jason Newsted claimed Joe Satriani and Alex Van Halen had approached him to participate in the Van Halen tribute project. However, the project seems to have fallen through entirely, with Anthony confirming the tribute is not happening due to internal disputes. 

In a recent interview with The Hooks Rocks podcast, Anthony said [transcribed by Blabbermouth], “Now I, myself, I got a call from Alex and Dave a few years, a right around that same time. And they wanted to put something together, and Joe was in the mix. I remember talking to Joe a couple of times after that, too. And Joe was telling me, 'Yeah, well, they gave me some of that album and told me to listen to it or whatever.'

“All I can say is – I'm not gonna point fingers – but through all of this, one of the ingredients was not, let's say, playing ball with everybody else. And that's all I'm gonna say. I'll let you all figure it out. 

“It's pretty sad, because even when the band was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame – this was in 2007 – Sammy [Hagar] and I were the only two from the band that showed up, and we weren't even in the band at the time.”

The upcoming Best of All Worlds tour, spearheaded by Michael Anthony, Joe Satriani, and Sammy Hagar, seems to be the closest Van Halen fans will get to a star-studded tribute project tour.

“It’s crazy to think that it’ll be 20 years since Mikey and I played these songs with Van Halen on the 04’ Best of Both Worlds Tour,” commented Hagar. “With Joe on board, we can take a deeper dive into those years.”

The Best of All Worlds tour kicks off on July 13 West Palm Beach, Florida. Fans can expect to hear post-David Lee Roth Van Halen classics such as Best of Both Worlds, 5150 and Right Now, as well as material from Hagar/Anthony/Satriani supergroup Chickenfoot and Sammy Hagar and the Circle.

Following the tragic death of legendary Metallica bassist Cliff Burton in 1986, Jason Newsted had worked hard to get his name to the band, and felt certain he was the bassist they needed, but Burton was no easy act to follow. Looking back in 1999, Newsted told BP that “I wouldn’t wish my first years in Metallica on my worst enemy as far as the emotional stress goes, but I always felt I was the guy to take over from Cliff.”

Newsted’s bass sound didn’t always feature highly in the mix during his early recordings with Metallica, but on Load, his fourth record with the pioneers of thrash metal, his growling 4-string – tuned down a half-step – drove the band, along with Lars Ulrich's signature kick drum. Newsted even braved a fretless bass guitar on Until It Sleeps. Had he finally earned the props he deserved?

“Metallica had just celebrated its 15th anniversary and we had finally discovered how you're supposed to put things together,” said Newsted. “We used to be much more meticulous in the studio; James Hetfield would come in six hours after I was into the first song and say, ‘Dude, what's up with that?’ It was a breathin'-down-your-neck type of thing... ‘Get that bass shit happening!’

“With Load, I went in with engineer Randy Staub and producer Bob Rock, and we went crazy on the bass. If the bassline just went dun, dun, dun, dun, I'd make it swing like it never did before. The other guys would come in and listen to the bass and ask, ‘What's that?’ They expected it to be straight, but after they had listened to it a few times, they'd start snappin' their fingers. They even changed guitar parts to go with the bass, which was the first time that's happened.”

Newsted went on to play with Metallica for 15 years before being replaced by Robert Trujillo in 2003. This interview is from the April 1997 issue of Bass Player, which followed the release of Load.

Let's talk about the new record. There seems more room for the low end to breathe.

“The construction of the songs was the main factor. There was also a lot of counterpoint playing and feeding off each other. The first single, Until It Sleeps, was actually the only song we've ever written in the studio while jamming. Somebody played a riff, we counterpoint-played for a second, and that was the first single. It was a special, cool thing.” 

So you've gone back toward a more traditional style of bass playing? 

“Yeah, I'm still evolving in that direction. The parts are more simple; if you let 'em get going too much, they could easily get away from you and lose their groove. It's easy to turn on the faucet all the way for an hour, but to be able to do that for ten minutes, and then go to a mid-tempo song, and then go to Nothing Else Matters and try to sing for real instead of just barking – that takes more focus and control. Fast doesn't equal heavy. Even when you're playing a slow song, you can create a heavy mood. That's part of being an entertainer.” 

How closely did you work with James Hetfield in the studio?

“James had a lot to do with the bass parts on this record; he planted the seed in me that the bass can go to different places. His songs are always really good, but now I've realized it's up to me to make them great. His songwriting is always going to be up here, and I'll always write metal-101 songs and love 'em. That became clear to me by the time I went in to play my tracks on this record, so I just applied myself to the songs and focused on the pieces.” 

Did James ever make any bassline suggestions to you? 

“If he did, it was when I first heard the songs in Lars's Dungeon, which is an eight-foot-square room with a full drum set and three Marshall stacks. The first time I was shown the tunes, I'd take notes and then record my parts; if James heard something that was clashing, he'd let me know as we went along. It used to be more of a 'Do this' kind of thing, but now it's more of an approval and an appreciation. James had heard some of the tapes I made in my studio and knew I had been playing a lot, so he just showed me the songs. He knew I could do it.”

So you're happy with the outcome?

“I really am. Five years ago, I'd be kind of down if I didn't have a writing credit for the initial riff of a tune on a record, but being the bass player in Metallica and making James's songs better is how I have to approach it. When we did the tour for the black album and the record was selling 14 squillion copies and every show was sold out, it seemed like I could do a freakin' four-minute speech and the crowd would always go crazy. Then I'd do eight minutes of bass meandering, but I would never subject people to that again. Now, I do a one-minute-long bass solo and that's it – no more words, unless I have something to say that day.”  

I hate to use the word "maturing," but.... 

“I don't mind that, because I think that's good – although sometimes it sounds more like aging. I'm still young inside and I'm such a big fan of music. You don't have to grow up, but you can get older and become more considerate. And you can make grown-up decisions, which we all have to do.”  

It sounds as if you've been through some musical changes since the last Metallica record?

“My musical interests keep getting wider. I love listening to tribal, indigenous music and to Alan Lomax's recordings and the Smithsonian Institution stuff. There's a custom in some cultures where there's one song that's your name. And when it's time for customary celebrations, you sing your song and present it to the village. The idea that music can be so internally instilled makes me think very deeply. I've also been reading about blues and jazz players to see how certain types of music were created. Its purity has opened me up to the 'no rules' thing – just lettin' it fly and not worrying about how long a song is.”

Any favorites? 

“Son House, man. He's tops for me. And Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf, Leadbelly... there are tons of others. As for jazz, I like some of Miles Davis's older stuff, some Coltrane, and older big-band stuff, such as Duke Ellington and Count Basie. Louis Armstrong did amazing things as far as presenting crazy music to white people and eventually getting mixed bands to play for mixed audiences. I like Charles Mingus, too; I just bought a video recorded in 1968 that shows him in his apartment loft shootin' holes in the ceiling with a shotgun. He'd walk around, sing to himself, and then go over to the piano and knock it out.” 

There are a couple of tunes on Load that will surprise Metallica's more hardcore fans. 

“Hey, I'm down with the guys who want Napalm Death and Sepultura – that shit is cool. Sepultura is my favorite band on the planet. And I can appreciate the people who want us only to go fast, but don't disrespect the people who paved the way and broke down the doors for so many of the groups you enjoy now. One of the bands that played a big part in that was Metallica. We're the guys who wrote Damage Inc., Fight Fire with Fire, Whiplash ... you name it, we helped to invent it. And we can still play it better than anyone. I'll go up against any death-metal band – pound for pound, hour for hour, we'll crush 'em. I have great for respect them, but those are the facts.” 

Load is available to buy or stream.

Headbangers of a certain age will appreciate what it means to play bass in Metallica. If you’re familiar with the San Francisco foursome’s early material, you’ll already be fan of Cliff Burton’s astounding classically-influenced lines.

If you came onboard for the band’s 1988 album… And Justice For All, you’ll recall the arrival of Jason Newsted, recruited to fill the huge boots of Cliff Burton, who lost his life in a coach crash at the age of 24. 

In his time with Metallica, Newsted became known as the guy with the massive bass guitar collection. Google any photo of him back then and you’ll see him with a wide range of instruments. “For Load, I used a '58 P-Bass and a 1981 Spector NS 4-string,” he told BP. “The Spectors were built really well, played well, and sounded excellent, but I had a lot of trouble with sweat getting inside. All of my instruments had to be salt-water proofed.”

“We’d done an outside show on the last tour,” said Jason. “And by the end of the gig, there was one functioning bass out of six – bad news. And when a bass going through 250,000 watts of PA all of a sudden shorts-out, people are not happy.”

By the time Metallica began their 1996 Poor Touring Me concert tour in support of Load, which was Newsted's fourth record with Metallica since leaving metal outfit Flotsam & Jetsam, Jason had begun a new relationship with Roger Sadowsky and Sadowsky Guitars. Many of his Sadowsky’s can be seen in the 1997 live show Cunning Stunts.

“When I was trying to figure out who was going to build my basses for the tour, I’d have to test each bass. I'd fill up a big tub with super hot water, dump in some salt, and submerge the bass. Then, I'd take it out of the tub and put it in front of a coil heater for a few minutes. I'd repeat this same process three times with each bass. Then I'd beat the crap out of it for a while in my studio, and finally I'd let it sit on a stand for a couple of days. Usually, the bass corrodes and doesn't play anymore. None of the basses passed that test except for the Sadowsky.”

“Jason voiced his concerns about moisture and reliability,” explained Roger Sadowsky. “Apparently some of his basses were having an intermittent output, and when his tech would remove the output-jack plate, water would literally run out of the control cavity! It turns out the humidity levels at the shows are so high from the heat, water runs down the front of the amplifiers! And moisture was building up inside the control cavities from condensation."

"Our solution was to put a thin rubber gasket on the back of the control-cavity plates and underneath the football-shaped output-jack plate. We also sealed the holes going from the pickup cavities to the control cavities with silicone sealant to keep any moisture that might come in through the pickup routs from flowing into the cavities.”

To accommodate Jason's aggressive, downstroke-heavy pick attack, Roger Sadowsky also placed the neck pickup on the 24-fret models about an inch closer to the neck than normal. "Everything else is stock," said Roger. "We didn't charge Jason any extra for the waterproofing service, but at the same time, I really want people to know he paid full price for eight instruments. I sent him a ninth bass as a gift. He didn't try to do the typical artist-endorsement thing with me; he was a real mensch.”

Jason’s arsenal of 4-string Sadowsky’s included a Lake Placid Blue Vintage model with an alder body and a morado fingerboard, a black Vintage model with an ash body, and two PJ models with quilted-maple tops. The 5-strings included three Vintage models (two black, one cherry sunburst) and two black 24-fret models with EMG-40J pickups.

“I didn't get my Sadowskys until after we had mixed Load,” said Jason, “but the Sadowskys are the shit in my book. Roger built nine basses for me, and they all have a warm tone with great mids. They were like a ‘turbo' Fender for the ‘90s."

Load is available to buy or stream.

Born on February 10, 1962, in Castro Valley, California, Cliff Burton had three years in Metallica, recording three groundbreaking albums.

1983’s Kill ‘Em All, featured jaw-dropping bass guitar solo (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth, which stamped Burton's identity firmly on the emerging thrash metal movement. Ride the Lightning, released a year later, saw Cliff at his best on Call of Ktulu and For Whom the Bell Tolls, while Metallica fans would argue that his creative peak came on 1986’s Master of Puppets.

“Cliff was absolutely amazing for Metallica,” said Robert Trujillo, Metallica’s bass player since 2003. “His ideas, his presence, and where he was taking the bass and taking metal, were so special. And his stage presence – he was such a physical player. He played what he felt, and that was the bottom line. His approach was, “I’m gonna play what I feel, and if you don’t like it, screw you!'”

Cliff would undoubtedly have made an even greater impact on the heavy metal and hard-rock worlds had his life not been cut short at the age of only 24. Following his tragic death in a bus accident in 1986, the band hired Jason Newsted, who helped them reach superstardom before his departure in 2001, which led to the appointment of Robert Trujillo.

“When I auditioned for Metallica in 2002, I was playing in Ozzy Osbourne’s band with one of Cliff’s best friends, Mike Bordin of Faith No More,” says Trujillo.

“I was staying at Mike’s house in San Francisco and in the guest room at Mike’s house, where I would be practising Metallica’s music, there is a big photo of Cliff - and at a random moment at two in the morning, I looked up and saw that photo. I actually spoke to the photo. I said, ‘Cliff, I won’t let you down, I promise. I’ll give it my best shot.’ So in a weird way I feel connected to Cliff. I feel like I know him."

For Trujillo, learning Cliff’s basslines presented quite a challenge. “When I learned The Call of Ktulu, I really directed Cliff’s bass parts and took a lot of pride in doing that. I really wanted to know it, and feel it, and get it into my soul, so I spent time with it.”

Cliff gave the band’s early albums a unique charisma that has never been obscured, despite the enormous success which the group achieved in the 1990s and beyond. “No disrespect to my brothers in Metallica, but Cliff was older than the other guys, and in a lot of ways a better musician,” says Trujillo. “He had a very broad creative skill set – a musician’s musician, in a lot of ways.

"He could play the piano and he knew classical music, as well as being a fan of Lynyrd Skynyrd. He used to ask Kirk to show him Lynyrd Skynyrd guitar solos so he could play them on bass, and not many bass players were doing that back then. I thought that was so cool. Cliff was a force on a lot of different levels.”

• Joel McIver’s book, To Live Is To Die: The Life and Death of Metallica’s Cliff Burton, is available now.

Enter Sandman and Nothing Else Matters might be two of Metallica's biggest songs, but not all members of the band were convinced by the tracks during the recording of the Black Album.

While former bassist Jason Newsted says he was sold on Sad But True in a new interview with Metal Hammer – calling it the “highlight of the whole project”, he admits he “struggled” with Nothing Else Matters, and thought Enter Sandman was “kinda corny” when he first heard it.

“I knew [Nothing Else Matters] made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, it was undeniable,” he recalls, “but I was kinda scared of it, to be honest, because I still wanted ‘crunch’!”

He continues, “The beautiful thing was that we all sat in the room together and played it out; 70 takes of Nothing Else Matters. After a while, you're too close to it, [asking yourself], ‘How much more delicate can I make it?’”

But he admits retrospectively that including the ballad on the record was instrumental in the band's subsequent success. “Our softest song ever took down the biggest walls to allow our hardest songs ever to penetrate the world,” he says.

“When it was Number One in 35 countries in one week, and seven of those countries we hadn't even been to yet? Dude, that doesn't happen to a band who go ‘Die! Die!’ most of the time.”

Newsted also touches upon 1988's ...And Justice For All – which he said he was “fucking livid” after hearing for the first time due to its largely bass-less mix – and the ...And Justice For Jason fan remixes that have appeared more recently.

“I love people's enthusiasm, their determination, their love and their appreciation,” he says. “If the Justice album had been mixed like a regular record, we wouldn't be talking about it to this day. But because that isn't the case – and I don't necessarily think that's that big a deal – we're still talking about it all these years later.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Newsted recalls working with producer Bob Rock on the 1991 album, explaining that he doesn't feel he “ever earned his respect like he had for James [Hetfield] and Lars [Ulrich]”, as they were the ones “writing the cheques”.

Earlier this month, Jason Newsted revealed he was approached to join a new Van Halen tour with Alex Van Halen and Joe Satriani, with discussions reportedly going far enough for him to travel to California to jam with the pair.

But as the former Metallica man explained, the idea eventually “fizzled”, as he “didn't want it to be viewed as a money grab”.

Last week, Newsted made clear his anger that his comments regarding the proposed tour were published, adding that the situation made him consider never being interviewed again.

“I'm really, really not happy about that,” he told 98.7 The Gater (per Ultimate Classic Rock), adding that he'd only agreed to the interview with The Palm Beach Post to promote a benefit concert in aid of a kids' arts charity.

“I mentioned two little things over here about the calls that I've received in the past 20 years from whoever it is... I talked about two seconds about that, and that's what they chose to go for. They didn't talk about the conservatory, the kids' classes, the things that we're doing.”

Read the full interview with Jason Newsted in the new issue of Metal Hammer, on sale Thursday (April 28).

On September 27, 1986, Metallica bassist Cliff Burton was tragically killed when the band's tour bus crashed in Sweden.

The surviving three members of the thrash metal group decided to carry on, but not without a great deal of discussion first, not to mention the blessing of Burton's family. 

Out of the dozens of bass guitar players who auditioned to be Burton's replacement, it was Flotsam and Jetsam bassist Jason Newsted who impressed the group the most during his initial audition in the band's home base of San Francisco, California. 

Newsted – asked back for another, more in-depth audition – quickly returned to San Francisco a second time, where he received the seal of approval from Metallica's inner circle, including Jan Burton, Cliff's mother.

In a new interview with Metal Hammer, Newsted recalled his emotional first encounter with Burton's mother.

“That evening, it was the third day that I played with the boys, I think I stayed overnight in San Francisco for the first time,” Newsted said. “That third night, they had ‘the elders’ come in for their blessing. So Torben Ulrich, the Burtons, a couple of the crew guys, people that had been there from the get-go. We got through about six tunes: Master, Fade To Black, …Bell Tolls, the masterpieces.

"So I am just composing myself for a second, putting my bass down, turning off Cliff’s amp – I’m playing fucking Cliff’s amp dude! Jan [Burton] comes walking in the room by herself, and she grabs me, and gets my attention. 

"She says, ‘Great job, son’ and I’m like, ‘Oh fuck!’ She embraced me, and it seemed like it was quite a while, and she said, ‘You’re the one, you must be the one. Please be safe, we love you,’ and she gave me a kiss. That was 35 years ago, and I'll never, ever forget it.”

The Newsted interview is part of Metal Hammer's ‘Metallica 40’ issue, which celebrates the metal pioneers' 40th anniversary with 40 exclusive new interviews with a breathtaking all-star cast of band members, famous friends and other important figures in the band's history.

To pick up a copy of the magazine, stop by Magazines Direct.

Of all the releases to emerge from Metallica’s much-anticipated Black Album reissue, which is set to celebrate the historic record’s game-changing success, the most recent is bound to be up there with the very best of the lot.

Why? Well, it’s an ear-opening, four-and-a-half-minute instrumental blueprint hailing from the Riff Tapes of Jason Newsted, one that sees the former Metallica bass guitar player perform the demo of what would later go on to become My Friend Of Misery.

Of course, it is only a demo track – a bass-only one at that – but remains a revelatory listen for fans, who are now able to hear from where the seminal Black Album hit originated.

The instantly recognizable intro melody hook maintains a note-for-note similarity to the eventual studio version, though relies on some tasty octave work in the absence of Ulrich’s hi-hat rolls and Hetfield and Hammett’s punchy electric guitar thrashes.

Those aren’t the only changes that can be discerned from the original, though, with My Friend Of Misery co-writers Hetfield and Ulrich cutting away Newsted’s extended melodic exploration – which centered around the main motif – to make room for what became the verse and extended sections.

All in all, it’s a hauntingly beautiful version of the track, one that gives us an insight into Newsted’s compositional talents and the inner workings of Metallica’s mythical, masterpiece-producing songwriting sessions.

Newsted has previously spoken about My Friend Of Misery’s inception while in conversation with British documentary series Classic Albums, saying that he initially thought it would be released as an instrumental track.

“I was hoping it was going to end up being the instrumental song for the Black Album,” he explained. “I thought we were going to follow suit and keep having an instrumental song. We didn’t. That’s how it worked out.”

He added, “That was something that I came up with by myself on my old four-track machine when we were just working on tapes. 

“The whole idea was to just listen to as much music as possible or different bands and different styles, take it in through your funnel and through your filter, and whatever happens to come out, you know, if you listen to more stuff it’s going to come out more colorful.”

Now, thanks to this new release, we can finally hear exactly how Newsted envisaged the track, for which he received his only songwriting credit on the Black Album.

Newsted will be pleased to see his track finally released to the world, though any displeasure he may have harbored over the tweaks introduced to his original demo are sure to pale in comparison to the fury he felt toward the ...And Justice For All mix, which left his playing almost inaudible.

“I was fucking livid!” Newsted said in a recent interview with Metal Hammer. “I was ready [to go] for throats, man! I was out of my head, because I really thought I did well. And I thought I played how I was supposed to play.”

The mix of Metallica's 1988 masterpiece, …And Justice For All has long been one of the most controversial artistic choices in the metal titans' discography (rivaled only by That Drum Sound on their famously polarizing 2003 effort, St. Anger).

In short, in case you didn't already know, on …And Justice For All, the bass playing of then-newcomer Jason Newsted – who replaced original bassist Cliff Burton after his tragic death in 1986, in a tour bus crash – was mixed low enough to render it almost inaudible.

Though fans have long been quite vocal about their distaste for the mixing decision, Newsted himself hasn't rocked the boat too much about it in the three-plus decades since. In a new interview with Metal Hammer’s Stephen Hill, however, Newsted revealed the depths of his shock and fury when he heard the final mix of the record.

“I was fucking livid!,” Newsted said. “Are you kidding me? I was ready [to go] for throats, man!”

“No, I was out of my head, because I really thought I did well,” he elaborated. “And I thought I played how I was supposed to play.” 

Newsted went on to reflect on how the frameworks of Metallica songs were almost always worked out (as they are to this day) by James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich before recording, and how this affected their decision-making in regards to the mix.

“Lars and James were the original garage band duo, as far as that goes,” he says. "They always made the records that way, from [the 1982 demo cassette] No Life ’Til Leather, it was Lars and James, guitar and drums. On the original No Life ’Til Leather cassette – if you happen to ever see a real copy or a photo of a real copy – in Lars’ handwriting, in ink pen, on the label of the cassette, [it reads] ‘Turn bass down on stereo’. On No Life ’Til Leather!”

“They mixed it how it was supposed to be mixed: there’s the bass and there’s the guitar from all the way back. But Lars didn’t want [that] because it messed with his drums somehow, so when he sends the demo out to fucking Combat Records and wherever, [his instruction is] ‘Turn the bass down before you even listen to this.’ Before you even get it going, just turn the bass down. 

"Right from the get go. Before you even start. That’s where he’s been his whole goddamn life, so why would it be any different when it came to […And Justice For All]? They made Kill ’Em All that way, they made Ride… that way, they made Master… that way, all of them. Those two guys in a room [mimics drum beats and playing], that’s the way it always happened. [For] the most successful metal band of all time. So you argue with this shit? I’m not really sure.” 

“Now it’s become the best garage band album ever [for artists such as] Black Keys, White Stripes, Duo Jets, the different ‘power duos’ of garage stuff.”

Hetfield, Ulrich and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett – who remain with the band to this day, while Newsted departed in 2001 – have all individually defended the mix in the intervening years.

“The bass was obscured [on Justice] for two reasons,” Hetfield told Guitar World in 2008. “First, Jason tended to double my rhythm guitar parts, so it was hard to tell where my guitar started and his bass left off. Also, my tone on Justice was very scooped – all lows and highs, with very little midrange. My guitar sound ate up all the lower frequencies. Jason and I were always battling for the same space in the mix.”

In a December 2008 interview with Decibel, Hammett offered a similar rationale for the decision.

“The reason you can't hear the bass so well is because the bass frequencies in Jason's tone kinda interfered with the tone that James was trying to shoot for with his rhythm guitar sound, and every time the two blended together, it just wasn't happening,” Hammett said. “So the only thing left to do was turn the bass down in the mix. It was unfortunate.

“It was an experiment, too. We were totally going for a dry, in-your-face sound, and some people really like that sound. A lot of the newer-generation bands, especially, think that album sounds great. But at the end of the day, it was an experiment. I'm not really sure it was 100 percent successful, but it is a unique sound that that album has.”

Ulrich, for his part, maintained that there was no malice in the decision in the same interview, saying, “No, it wasn't intentional. Justice… was the James and Lars show from beginning to end, but it wasn’t, ‘Fuck this guy – let’s turn his bass down.’ It was more like, ‘We're mixing, so let's pat ourselves on the back and turn the rhythms and the drums up.’ But we basically kept turning everything else up until the bass disappeared.” (Laughs)

“If the Justice… album had been mixed like a regular record, we wouldn’t be talking about it right now,” Newsted himself offered in conclusion. “It would’ve did what it did and we still would say it sells a couple thousand copies a year, or month, or week, whatever, and it does its thing, and it just sounds like it sounds and there you go. But because of the way it all came out, it became such an unnecessary big fucking deal, [and] we’re still talking about it again. I think it was brilliant they didn’t even realize how fucking brilliant they were in their drunk stupor to do what they did!”

Jason Newsted was born in 1963 in Battle Creek, Michigan, and learned bass after becoming a fan of Gene Simmons of Kiss. After high school, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona and formed a thrash metal band called Paradox, then Dogz, and then Flotsam And Jetsam. 

This band became a cult success thanks to its ferocious 1986 debut album, Doomsday For The Deceiver, but Newsted gained worldwide recognition when he joined Metallica the same year, replacing that band’s late bassist Cliff Burton, who had lost his life in a coach crash in Sweden.  

Newsted’s 15-year stint with Metallica, now the biggest heavy metal band in the world, was commercially successful but also creatively inconsistent. While his bass playing was always exemplary, delivered on a range of basses including his beloved Sadowskys, he was inaudible on the 1988 album ...And Justice For All, while other, less assured records such as Load (1996) and Reload (’97) divided the fanbase. 

Still, 1991’s self-titled LP – the ‘Black Album’ – was a massive success, selling over 30 million copies worldwide, and Newsted’s post-Metallica albums with cult Canadians Voivod and as a solo artist were acclaimed. Now a fine artist as much as a musician, he lives in what appears to be happy semi-retirement.

Must-have album – Metallica (Metallica, 1991)

Like Back In Black or Hotel California, Metallica’s so-called ‘Black Album’ is just too big to be ignored, although whether it’s their best work or not is endlessly debated. The simple truth is that it’s a rather good, well-crafted heavy rock record rather than a metal album. 

It sounds clean, cared-for, and thought-out: Radio and TV loved it, fans worshipped it, even non-metal fans turned towards it, thanks to its chunky sound. It also came as a relief to fans of Newsted: He had, drummer Lars Ulrich explained, been slightly cheated on the practically bass-free 1988 album, ...And Justice For All.  

“With Jason,” said Ulrich, “I guess we misfired on Justice, but this time around I didn’t want to make the same mistake again, so very early on we steered the bass more towards the drum kit and away from the guitar a little.”

He added: “I guess the bass guitar has always been this weird instrument in the band: it’s always been overlooked because [Cliff] was always off on Planet 9. I mean, there were always times when me and James [Hetfield, frontman] would try and get Cliff to adapt his bass playing, but Cliff was Cliff, and he just did it in his own way and that was that.”

Worthy contender: ...And Justice For All (Metallica, 1988)

Few negative points are ever made about the music or lyrics of ...And Justice For All, but one enduring point that fans still make today, 32 years after it was released, is that its mix sounds very strange. 

As its producer – but not mixer – Flemming Rasmussen once said: “The sound was totally dry, totally in-your-face, and no reverb. Thin and hard and loud. It’s unbelievably dry.” To put it bluntly, it’s ice-cold, with the guitars and kick drums providing a powerful mid-tempo tapestry, but there’s no bass, other than the occasional audible plectrum click. 

This was all the more surprising given that Newsted’s 1987 debut with Metallica, the Garage Days EP, had featured a full bass presence. 

Why this happened has become clearer over time. Newsted once explained of his bosses Hetfield and Ulrich: “They had kind of an attitude about the bass – it’s not Cliff, and yadda yadda – and they go in and tell the [mixers], get the bass just where you can hear it, and then take it down a half a DB. Then turn all of the frequency up on the guitars, and all that stuff. And then try to make the bass drum to fill in all the space, so it can be all percussive and all that kind of thing. And that is why it is.”

Cool grooves: Doomsday For The Deceiver (Flotsam and Jetsam, 1986)

Flotsam And Jetsam were the classic '80s thrash-metal underachievers, unleashing their astounding debut album Doomsday For The Deceiver in 1986. At least, it can reasonably be described as ‘astounding’ within the confines of the thrash genre, with the songs performed at ridiculous speeds, suffering a comparatively lo-fi production, and a ‘very metal’ image.  

If you’re not into the music  or the visuals, you’ll probably think it’s all a bit silly, which is absolutely fine. If not, though, you’ll love this adrenalized music, fuelled by Newsted’s lightning-speed bass parts and addressing classic metal lyrical tropes such as warfare, the devil, societal decay and so on.  

The album was famously so popular at the now-defunct Kerrang! magazine that the reviewer awarded it six out of a maximum five points, a move which guaranteed it instant success but which also became something of a millstone around its metaphorical neck.

Later F&J albums were more polished  and less snotty, favoring musicianship over attitude, but they didn’t come close to matching the swivel-eyed madness of Doomsday. Flotsam And Jetsam continue to perform today, although they’ve never outgrown the stigma of being a famous musician’s old band.

Wild card: Voivod (Voivod, 2013)

It’s taken some years for all the reasons why Newsted quit Metallica in 2001 to emerge, but essentially it boils down to James Hetfield, then in the grip of a serious booze addiction, being too much of a control freak to allow his bassist to work on side projects such as this one. 

In fairness, Hetfield has since admitted to this failing, and Newsted has enjoyed a varied and energetic career since leaving the big band.  

Alongside his membership  of these fantastic Canadian prog-metallers, Newsted has powered through a series of more or less short-lived projects such as the pop-rock band Echobrain; a band with Strapping Young Lad’s Devin Townsend and Exodus’ Tom Hunting called IR8; another collaboration with Hunting, Sepultura’s Andreas Kisser and Machine Head’s Rob Flynn entitled Quarteto Da Pingo – and many, many other groups.  

Some of these never progressed beyond the ‘ideas and jamming’ stage; others yielded up some excellent music, such as this self-titled album from 2003. Newsted jammed with Metallica when they entered the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2009, and his relationship with his old band seems to be good; there’s a lesson there for all of us. 

Avoid at all costs: Reload (Metallica, 1997)

This dull album has one decent song on it, Fuel, which starts the record: a powerful, staccato statement of intent with a neatly-executed gasoline/blood metaphor, and admirable in its economy and precision. It’s mostly downhill from there. 

The Unforgiven II is well-constructed, at least, but Slither is just terrible, turgid rock. Where The Wild Things Are is seven minutes of moderately interesting, dark chords, but it inevitably outstays its welcome. Attitude is a kind of sub-Kiss, sub-Aerosmith, sub-everything attempt at horrible FM rock, and Fixxxer is the pointlessly long album closer, all undefined riffs strung together with far too much wah pedal.  

Still, Newsted’s bass playing is as solid as ever – inventive when he is allowed to be, and mixed reasonably high. None of this is his fault by any means, but it is depressing to see Metallica – once, and arguably now – standard-bearers for an entire generation of metal kids, fall so deeply into a swamp of tediousness. 

No wonder he left to do his own thing, leaving Metallica just before they recorded the worst metal album of all time, 2003’s St. Anger. Fortunately, they recovered from all this mediocrity and got good again.

It’s been years since Jason Newsted has played in Metallica, and these days he doesn’t even play much bass, opting instead to reach for a guitar while fronting his own Americana-steeped Chophouse Band.

But the former Metallica man still has plenty to say about the old days, in particular about how some people took issue with the fact that he was a bassist who chose to play with a pick rather than his fingers.

Regarding his approach, he told the Palm Beach Florida Weekly, “Lemmy played bass with a pick, and I played bass with a pick. And I got made fun of for playing bass with a pick.

“Back in the day, I wish I had the answers now when somebody talked shit like that. The most successful bassist of all time plays left-handed, and his name is Paul McCartney. He’s the only billionaire bassist that ever lived. He played with a pick.

“Gene Simmons is pushing a beat: 840 million. He plays with a pick. Metallica, 100 million records sold. The Black Album is one out of four all-time that’s been on the Billboard charts 500 weeks or more. So this guy played with a pick, too.”

Regarding the Chophouse Band, in which Newsted sings and plays guitar (including, in one photo accompanying the article, a Fender Acoustasonic Tele) he explained:

“We all get along great because there’s not money involved. They’ve got their own bands, their own families, their own gigs. We do benefit gigs, six a year, and that’s it. I record and write and play songs the whole rest of the time.

"They could all run circles around me musical theory-wise. They could tell you everything they’re playing, and all the relating chords.

"I surround myself with the bad-asses, and they make me look really good. I’m playing cowboy chords the whole time, and they’re doing their fancy shit to make me look good. I just concentrate on singing, and getting across the things I want people to hear.”

After suffering a shoulder injury in 2006 and being unable to play, former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted decided to put down his instrument and pick up a brush. It was during this time that he began to express himself through painting. Since then, he’s become an accomplished modern artist.

Newsted’s trademark style includes mixing soil—from wherever he happens to be painting—into his acrylics, creating a highly dramatic effect.

Although he’s kept a fairly low profile following Metallica’s 2009 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and his successful Newsted project, nearly a dozen of Newsted’s uniquely inspired works will be on exhibit as part of this year’s Art New York.

Art Miami, the leading producer of international contemporary and modern art fairs, will present the third edition of Art New York and the second edition of CONTEXT New York at Pier 94 May 3 through May 7. The two highly anticipated fairs will showcase more than 120 international contemporary and modern galleries from 50 countries.

I recently spoke with Newsted about his upcoming exhibit, Metallica and more.

How did you become involved in this year’s Art New York?
I had the chance to meet with the owner of Art Miami. He loves metal, and after we hung out he saw some of the pictures I had and invited me. So I’ve been traveling around to different parts of the country these last few weeks getting canvases together from the past seven to eight years. It’s my first time in an international exhibit, and I’m very excited about it.

Was art something you were always interested in as a child?
I grew up in a rural area and took some classes when I was younger. That was where I was first introduced to acrylics and mixing colors together. Then about three years later, I got hit by music and everything else went on the back burner for 30 solid years.

When did you get back into painting?
Once I got in Metallica and started working on other projects, I was always keeping myself super-busy doing a lot of things and moving around a lot of gear. I wound up injuring my shoulders and needing surgery. During my recovery, I was disabled from playing my instrument in any way I had been used to, and I had to learn to use both of my hands out of necessity. For me, music was a full-time thing, and when I wasn’t able to release that way, I started using my hands to get out all of the creative energy I had usually put into the music.

I was in Montana at our ranch with only one arm going and felt the need to go out in the barn and paint. I found these old drum heads and whatever paint was lying around—Rust-Oleum and John Deere green and yellow. I turned the drum head over and oozed the paint in. Then I soaked a snow brush in the color and splattered the paint onto whatever I was painting on.

I got to the point to where I wouldn’t even have to touch the canvas to make circles, faces and figures. That was the introduction. Then as my arms got better, I started touching the canvas more. That’s how the transference of the energy went from the fucking metal monster to putting it on canvas. The consensus from people who have the works is that the paintings look like the music sounds.

What do you love most about the creative process?
The creatures, colors and images of tapestry that come out are things I never would have known existed in my mind until seeing them in front of me. It’s like you step out of yourself and see it with different eyes. There’s also never a real plan going in. I never know where it’s going to start or where it’s going to end, but whatever comes out is always a pleasant surprise.

Where did the idea of mixing soil into your painting medium come from?
I was influenced a lot by Jean Dubuffet, who he did a lot of that. When you put the right combinations together and then mix in the sand, it turns into moldable, sculptable paste that you can shape and cut through. You can never predict where the colors are going to push out.

What was your first exposure to proper art?
I’m going to give some serious props to Lars [Ulrich]. He was exposed to some really cool works early on because of his international upbringing. I remember one of the first times I went over to his house, he had all of these framed pictures in the game room that looked like children’s art. He told me it was actually art by grown people with mental impairments. It was so new to me and was really interesting. Then we go upstairs and there’s that [Jean-Michel] Basquiat painting [Profit I] he eventually sold hanging up above the stove like some fucking knick-knack [laughs]. It was so huge, and the simplicity and complexity of it was so appealing. Through Lars, I was able to be introduced to a lot of different people. So I’m going to tip my hat to him for exposing this art to me.

Let’s talk a bit about music. Following Newsted, you took a break from music and got off social media. What lead to that decision?
Originally, I said to myself that I was coming up on 50 years old and had to prove something to myself. So I assembled a bunch of bad motherfuckers for Newsted and wrote songs. I immersed myself in it and had a great time and learned so much. Once I got done, I was a bit disheartened with the whole social media vibe and the falseness of it all. I was always more of private guy when it comes down to it.

But I did 30 shows last year with the Chophouse Band with my acoustic bass and a handful of shows this year in Florida with the same outfit and some people from different musical circles. It’s the same vibe and intensity, just a different feel. Collecting songs and playing guitar is still very important to me.

Of all the highlights of your time with Metallica, what stands out as most memorable?
The early, pioneering things are what come to mind when you ask me that question. What jumps up are the things we did first in places that had never had our kind of music before. Like going to Japan in 1986 and blowing their heads up because they didn’t know what to expect. Going to countries that had never had the music played before and taking it to the people was the best part. Breaking down those walls and paving the way for everything that’s happened since then.

James Wood is a writer, musician and self-proclaimed metalhead who maintains his own website, GoJimmyGo.net. His articles and interviews are written on a variety of topics with passion and humor. You can follow him on Twitter @JimEWood.

In this new extract from That Metal Show, which was posted to YouTube by VH1 November 30, bassist Jason Newsted discusses his Metallica audition and the death of Cliff Burton.

Newsted joined Metallica in 1986 after Burton's death and remained a member until 2001.

For more about That Metal Show, visit vh1.com.

He’s the former bassist of Metallica, has a new project with Mike Mushok, and he almost got killed by the members of Danzig. But what Guitar World readers really want to know is…

Dude! Doomsday for the Deceiver is amazing! What was the experience like recording that with Flotsam and Jetsam, compared to Metallica on …And Justice for All? — Jeff Handy

The entire Doomsday LP was recorded, mixed and mastered in five days for $5,000. That’s the main difference right there. [laughs] Everybody just went in and they played their parts, in tune or out of tune, as you can hear. It was about the feeling. And the charisma carried us. In Metallica, it became very much “meticula” after a while. By the time we got around to the Black Album, we started learning from Bob Rock’s microscope thing and making everything as perfect as possible. That’s the polar opposite of a Flotsam album.

You have a writing credit on the Black Album [“My Friend of Misery”], which is one of the best-selling records of all time. Do the residuals from that alone pay your mortgage? — Curtis McMahon

Well, that’s kind of a personal question. I don’t really know what to say. [laughs] I think you’re being jokey, so I’ll give it right back. My answer is: I’ve been able to do what I want to do when I want to do it for 20 years. [laughs]

I really dug the albums you did with Voivod. I’ve always thought Piggy [Denis D’Amour, who passed away in 2005] was a super-underrated guitarist that never got enough recognition. What was it like to work with him? — Josh Blackstone

Piggy was one of the most underrated guitar players in hard-rock music. Voivod have been playing longer than Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth or whoever else you want to pull up in our generation of thrash-metal music. Voivod came first. Piggy put all that sideways dissonance in those songs first. Everybody needs to remember that. Piggy mathematically outsmarted the guitar and tuned it differently than anybody. He was a nice, gentle, absolute genius type of person. But when it came to the music, there was absolutely zero tolerance for fucking around. You do not make a mistake.

The first time you play a song, you don’t make a mistake. He’d give me my parts and I’d go and practice. Then I’d come back and play it. About three minutes in, he’d go, “No! Wrong!” I’m like, “Fuck, dude. It was my first time playing it with you!” He was that far in it and that good. I mean, playing with [Metallica’s James] Hetfield was always a challenge. And you have to be on your toes playing with guys like Warren Haynes or Zakk [Wylde]. But Piggy was a different thing: a very prolific, intelligent, well-read cat.

What’s your favorite, and worst, onstage memory? — Cindy

Worst is James getting burnt [on August 8, 1992, from an onstage pyrotechnics accident]. No two ways about that. Getting pelted with shit onstage is difficult. But nothing compares to James blistering. And the best time onstage? There’s been quite a few times. Playing the Grammys was pretty cool. When we were doing the dress rehearsals, I looked out and saw these poster boards in the seats with an 8x10 [photo] of the person who would be sitting there for the show: James Brown, Tom Petty, Buck Owens and Prince.

And when we went out to actually play, they were all sitting there…and their skin is blowing back. It was such a proud moment. Afterward we saw James Brown backstage and he was just nodding his head and telling us we really knew how to take care of some business. Those are the best moments: when your heroes tip their hat to you, or even call you by your first name.

There’s a lot of rumors surrounding when you joined Metallica after [original Metallica bassist] Cliff Burton’s death. Did the guys really give you a hard time and haze you? — Thomas Hawke

The first few months were definitely testing, just as they should be. If you think about the exclusivity of the club I was joining, I’m surprised that they didn’t go further. Plus, they were in the throes of losing their teacher and brother, Cliff. Lars is Metallica’s logistic leader, but Cliff was the musical and spiritual leader.

Everybody looked up to him. They’d just spread their friend’s ashes, and I joined their band. I come in, standing in his place, playing his bass out of his amp with his blown speakers and wah. We knew that his shoes couldn’t be filled. It’s not even fucking possible! So they already don’t like me because I’m standing there and Cliff’s not.

So, yeah, the hazing lasted for four to six months. One well-known instance is the time we went out in Japan to eat sushi. It was my first time, and they said, “That big ball of green right there? That’s mint ice cream, Jason. Take a spoonful.” So I did. But of course it was wasabi. [laughs]

Then there was the one time where there was an actual chance of me being hurt. We were staying on 48th Street in New York City at the same hotel as Danzig, or they might have been Samhain at the time. They were all way into the freaking “product” at the time: just fucking huge dudes with the greased black hair and devilocks. They’re out drinking—and ’roids and booze are a great combo, by the way—and they get back at six o’clock in the morning. They come knocking on my door. I’ve got my earplugs in, but I heard ’em. I’m like, “No fucking way.” They start pounding on the door, and I hear, “Son of a bitch! I know he’s in there.” Ka-crack! And the fucking door busts off its hinges.

And these big, bulky fuckers come in. They go, “Hey, welcome to the band, fucker!” And they started smashing and throwing shit everywhere, including out the windows. Then they pick up the edge of this big-ass old walnut bed and turn it over, with me on it. So then they start throwing all the smashed furniture on top of the bed. Some hotel dude comes up because of the disturbance. But he sees the door off the hinges and these big fuckers, and doesn’t say a thing! [laughs] He didn’t even call the police. That incident was definitely the height of the hazing.

I read that while you were recovering from your shoulder injury you took up painting. What kind of stuff do you paint? — Vaughan Moorhouse

My shoulder was first torn in 2004, like almost all the way separated, bicep and everything. And that took quite a while to get fixed. In the meantime, I was doing everything with my other arm, and then I tore the other shoulder. During that four-year span, I was on Vicodin the whole time. There wasn’t enough of a time span for me to withdraw from it without getting back on it again. So that was the ugliest part.

But the painting thing is the blessing that came from that. Big pictures. Mostly acrylic things. And they’re giant abstract creatures. Sometimes you see the creatures. Sometimes it takes you a long time before you can see the creatures. Sometimes it’s just layer and layer of expression. And I had to become ambidextrous by necessity. So I’m doing all of the paintings with both hands. I do all the text in the pictures with my left hand and all the painting with my right. And now I can play my instruments a little better, too, because I can use both.

You co-wrote “Blackened” off of …And Justice for All, which I think is one of the greatest album openers of all time. What do you remember about how that song came together? — Billy Burton

Yeah, the main riff is mine. I wrote it on bass, though. I’ve never told this story before, and it warms me a bit. I’d only been in the band for a very short time. I was still in a little one-bedroom rented apartment. And James would come over to the house, like [we were] buddies. He’d come over for dinner. We’d hang out and play guitars on the couch. It’s was pretty fucking dreamy for me. Metallica was my favorite band.

It was pretty surreal. I had a little four-track Tascam set up in the bedroom. So we went in there, and he’s got a guitar and I’ve got a bass. I’m fucking around with this riff. And then he started playing along, and the song started forming right at that time. I’m sitting up in my chair, like, Holy shit, dude. This is something! That was the first thing we ever constructed together. And him going, “Dude, that riff’s good enough to open our fucking album,” really gave me a feeling of victory, because I looked up to him greatly, and still do to this day.

I loved the Metal EP from your new band, Newsted. Will you be releasing a full-length anytime soon? Will Mike Mushok play on that? — Keith Sando

Yes. The full LP is completed. It’s called Heavy Metal Music and will be out in August. It’s a four-piece band performing the LP, and Mushok plays on it. So it’s about an hour’s worth of metal, and we have a couple bonus tracks for Japan and Australia as well.

Photo: Mick Hutson/Redferns/Getty Images

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Two former members of Metallica were part of this year's Gigantour 2013 — Megadeth‘s Dave Mustaine and Newsted's Jason Newsted.

As a result, fans of both musicians were hoping the guys would — at some point — take the stage together to run through one or two Metallica tunes.

It finally happened August 11 in Toronto, when Newsted joined Mustaine and the rest of Megadeth to perform Metallica's "Phantom Lord." You can check out a fan-filmed video of the performance below (fan-filmed, as in, we apologize for the quality).

Not long before the live collaboration, it looked like it might not even happen at all.

"We’ve traded lyric sheets,” Newsted told Team Rock Radio. “We’ve traded down-tuned versions of ‘Phantom Lord’ and ‘Metal Militia’ to try to figure out what song we’re gonna play. But it has never come to fruition, and we only have a few shows left. So I’m not sure if it actually ever is.”

Although Gigantour wrapped up over the weekend, Megadeth will appear with Iron Maiden September 3 in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Jason Newsted and his band, Newsted, are streaming a new song — "Ampossible" — and you can check it out below.

The song is from the band's debut full-length album, Heavy Metal Music, which will be released August 6.

Besides Newsted on bass and vocals, the band features Staind guitarist Mike Mushok, guitarist Jessie Farnsworth and drummer Jesus Mendez Jr.

A press release announcing the album describes several tracks, including "the throwback Sabbathian strut of 'Ampossible,' the breakneck gallop of 'Long Time Dead' [and] the full-speed-ahead-charge of breakout single 'Above All'.”

For more about Newsted, visit the band's official website and Facebook page.

NEWSTED ON GIGANTOUR:

• July 18 Bloomington, IL @ US Cellular Coliseum
• July 19 Milwaukee, WI @ Eagles Ballroom
• July 22 Winnipeg, Canada @ MTS Center
• July 23 Regina, Canada @ Brandt Center
• July 25 Calgary, Canada @ Stampede Corral
• July 26 Edmonton, Canada @ Rexall Place
• July 27 Dawson Creek, Canada @ EnCana Events Centre
• July 29 Abbotsford, Canada @ Abbotsford Entertainment & Sports Centre
• July 30 Everett, WA @ Comcast Arena
• Aug 1 West Valley City, UT @ Maverik Center
• Aug 2 Broomfield, CO @ 1st Bank St
• Aug 4 Fargo, ND @ Scheels Arena
• Aug 9 Camden, NJ @ Susquehanna Bank Center
• Aug 10 Heavy MTL Montreal, Canada @ Parc Jean Drapeau*
• Aug 11 Toronto, Canada @ Molson Canadian Ampitheatre
• * show is not part of Gigantour

At their June 23 Hellfest show in Clisson, France, Canada's Voivod were joined by a pair of special guests.

In the 12-minute video below, you'll see former Pantera frontman Philip Anselmo join the band for a cover of Pink Floyd's "Astronomy Domine," one of the many highlights of Floyd's early Syd Barrett era.

Then, at around the 7:06 mark, Voivod are joined by their former bassist, Jason Newsted, for "Voivod."

Check out a professionally shot video of the two songs below.

Jason Newsted has announced that he and his new band, Newsted, will release their debut full-length album on August 6.

The disc, titled Heavy Metal Music, is the followup to the Metal EP, which was released earlier this year.

Besides Newsted on bass and vocals, the band features Staind guitarist Mike Mushok, guitarist Jessie Farnsworth and drummer Jesus Mendez Jr.

A press release announcing the album lists and describes a few tracks, including "the throwback Sabbathian strut of 'Ampossible,' the breakneck gallop of 'Long Time Dead' [and] the full-speed-ahead-charge of breakout single 'Above All'.”

You can check out one of the new tracks — “Heroic Dose” — below.

Newsted are currently in Europe playing festivals, and they'll be at the Download Festival in England on June 16. They'll return to the US in early July for Megadeth’s Gigantour, which also features Black Label Society, Device, Hellyeah and Death Division. Check out all the Gigantour dates below the video.

“There is a chance Mustaine and I will bust out some old Metallica that he was a part of. It has been talked about, “ Newsted said. “I’m willing to throw down 'Phantom Lord.' Actually, whatever he calls out, I’m gonna throw down.”

For more about Newsted, visit the band's official website and Facebook page.

NEWSTED ON GIGANTOUR:

• July 5 Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun Arena
• July 6 Canadalgua, NY @ Marvin Sands PAC
• July 8 Clarkston, MI @ DTE Energy Music Theatre
• July 9 Chicago, IL @ Allstate Arena
• July 10 Youngstown, OH @ Covelli Center
• July 13 Lubbock, TX @ Lonestar Ampitheatre
• July 14 Corpus Christi, TX @ Concrete Street Ampitheatre
• July 16 Oklahoma City, OK @ Zoo Ampitheatre
• July 18 Bloomington, IL @ US Cellular Coliseum
• July 19 Milwaukee, WI @ Eagles Ballroom
• July 22 Winnipeg, Canada @ MTS Center
• July 23 Regina, Canada @ Brandt Center
• July 25 Calgary, Canada @ Stampede Corral
• July 26 Edmonton, Canada @ Rexall Place
• July 27 Dawson Creek, Canada @ EnCana Events Centre
• July 29 Abbotsford, Canada @ Abbotsford Entertainment & Sports Centre
• July 30 Everett, WA @ Comcast Arena
• Aug 1 West Valley City, UT @ Maverik Center
• Aug 2 Broomfield, CO @ 1st Bank St
• Aug 4 Fargo, ND @ Scheels Arena
• Aug 9 Camden, NJ @ Susquehanna Bank Center
• Aug 10 Heavy MTL Montreal, Canada @ Parc Jean Drapeau*
• Aug 11 Toronto, Canada @ Molson Canadian Ampitheatre
• * show is not part of Gigantour

Photo: Fran Strine

VH1 Classic’s centerpiece in original programming, That Metal Show is returning for its 12th season.

The hard rock and heavy metal talk show hosted by Eddie Trunk, Don Jamieson and Jim Florentine kicks off the latest season 11 p.m. ET/PT June 1.

That Metal Show is back with fan-favorite segments like “Stump The Trunk” and “The Vault” but also will feature some new additions this season: “Metal Modem” features an online video chat with the biggest names in metal and hard rock from the far reaches of the globe, “Take It Or Leave It” where the hosts discuss an array of current topics and share their overly biased opinions, and many other surprise segments this season.

Also returning this year is the “Guest Musician” where a legendary guitarist or drummer performs as a one-man house band throughout the show. This season’s guest musicians feature Ex-Ozzy Osbourne guitarist, Jake E. Lee, Winery Dogs guitarist Richie Kotzen, and on drums, the brothers Carmine and Vinny Appice.

The season premiere of Season 12 of That Metal Show welcomes to the show for the first time, Jason Newsted, former long-time bassist of Metallica. Newsted is currently the front man and bass player for his latest project, Newsted, but is also known for his work in the past with Flotsam and Jetsam, Echobrain, and Voivod, to name just a few. During this episode, Jason talks about his time in Metallica, the injuries sustained on the road, and his new music and regrets.

Season 12 will also feature the 100th episode of That Metal Show, featuring the bassist for Pantera, Rex Brown, and his long time friend in the industry, Sebastian Bach, formerly of Skid Row. The two of them became friends on the road when Pantera and Skid Row toured together, and they retell some of their greatest stories from those days. We saved the funniest episode for the 100th.

Season 12 guests and airdates (all times at 11 p.m. ET/PT):

• 6/01 – Jason Newsted (former Metallica bassist/Newsted)
• 6/08 – Corey Taylor & Josh Rand (Stone Sour)
• 6/15* – Rex Brown (Pantera, Kill Devil Hill) and Sebastian Bach (*100th Episode)
• 6/22 – Jake E. Lee (former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist / Badlands) and Rick Allen (Def Leppard)
• 6/29 – Queensrÿche (Scott Rockenfield & Todd La Torre) and Dave Mustaine (Megadeth)
• 7/06 – Rob Zombie & John 5 and Tom Keifer (Cinderella)
• 7/13 – Scott Gorham & Ricky Warwick (Thin Lizzy/Black Star Riders) and Neil Fallon (Clutch)
• 7/20 – Buck Dharma (Blue Öyster Cult) & Kix (Steve Whiteman & Brian Forsythe)

Former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted walked away from one of the world's biggest bands to explore his own music. In the process, he worked with progressive metal veterans Voivod and played with Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and many others.

Now Newsted is back with a new band — Newsted, featuring Jesus Mendez Jr., Jessie Farnsworth and Staind's Mike Mushok — and a debut EP, Metal, which was released in January. The EP finds Newsted doing double duty on bass and vocals.

I recently spoke to Newsted about his EP and his past and current success.

GUITAR WORLD: You're on the road with your new band. What led to the Metal EP and the forming of Newsted?

In 2011, during the fall, I had put together my punk band, Papa Wheelie, to do some shows. We’d been playing improvisational slabs of metal since 1996 in the Chophouse [Newsted’s studio]. I played guitar and hollered a bit. I only played the top four strings and hacked around at it. We opened for Anvil and had some pretty cool shows locally in the Bay.

During those same weeks, Metallica was putting together the roster for their 30th-anniversary shows. Lars asked me to come and play some songs. I was really excited about that, mostly to see the family again. Most of the people that were with Metallica when I was there still work for them. They are a major reason they are what they are. I spent one third of my life with that camp, so they are my brothers and sisters.

It’s always fun to jam with the boys, so I wanted to do that. It was a fan-club-based show where there were representatives from many counties. I didn’t know what to expect, but they were all so happy to see me. I knew it was going to be fun, but I had no idea of the sheer joy and excitement. I got bit real solid. At that point, I thought I had to get back to this thing. This is what I’m meant to do. I just started thinking about getting serious.

Jesus Mendez Jr. and Jessie Farnsworth had already been with me for about five years at the Chophouse jamming. I asked them if they wanted to do something serious with me and if they’d want to commit. They said they’d support me. My wife at that time got me my very first computer. She got me an iPad for my art. It had Garage Band on it. I used to have to carry four or five cases of mixers and stuff in order to make music. Now I can carry a guitar, a bass and the iPad, and I can make whole songs.

Once I got bit by that, I was really taken in. The immediacy of getting my ideas on there is fantastic. So I put together 11 compositions by August 2012. I gave them to Jessie and Jesus, and they learned everything. I had played all the instruments and constructed the entire songs for all the instruments. I used to write the bass lines for Flotsam [and Jetsam] on bass, and then the guys would add their stuff.

One of songs was an acoustic song I played 12-string on, and we got a cello player and it was for my wife for a wedding present. Jesus and Jesse agreed to go and record it with me. We recorded at a buddy’s studio. We went in and played her songs I had “Soldierhead," “Skyscraper” and “Godsnake” in my back pocket, so we recorded those as well. The initial intention was to have a cool recording to blast in our cars and for my girl to have her song. It ended up that one person heard it and then another long-time guy from the Metallica camp let someone else hear it. About two weeks later, had label's calling my old management. I had to piece together a team of new management to handle this. I wasn’t going to let the opportunity get by if someone was interested.

It wasn’t really planned, but it is what transpired. Once we got that attention, I decided to do something myself and sell all the CDs myself through my website and iTunes. We have gotten really exciting reception by everybody. Everyone has been so supportive and positive. On January 8, we released it to everybody. Three months later, we have a world tour going. We have an LP with Mike Mushok [Staind] done. I wrote about 21 songs since August of last year. We put another batch together. I’m very excited about it.

What's it like working with Mike Mushok?

I didn’t really know about Staind. I wasn’t really a fan. I knew their radio stuff a little. I had no idea about their early stages when they were crazy heavy and down-tuned. He surprises me every day when he plays. He had such a shredder vibe from the Tony MacApline school. He's a great song writer as far as what goes under Aaron’s [Lewis] voice. But when he comes in and starts shredding, he brought a dimension I couldn’t have dreamed of for my songs. He does the 7-string, the baritone, adding color, making the heavy things heavier. Mike made such a difference. I’m very happy to have him as an addition to our band.

Obviously your name is recognized throughout metal from your prior work. Did the fan reaction to the EP take you by surprise?

I didn’t know what to expect because of what you mentioned with the bands I’ve played with before, and the styles I’ve played. Voivod, for example, was an underground thing. We knew how many records we would sell. There was a certain way to market it. I didn’t know who would be interested in my stuff anymore and who would give a crap. For the first time since starting Flotsam and Jetsam I’ve started my own band with my own songs, top to bottom.

This is a whole new role playing bass and singing vocals. Playing guitar and singing in Papa Wheelie is considerably different. There aren’t many bass-playing singers. It’s hard to lay down a line and keep a vocal melody going. I’ve been developing that for years and years. It’s very challenging, and I like that. I wanted to make sure on this that people knew what they were getting.

Newsted and “metal” ... those two words leave no room for confusion. When people see that, they know what they are going to get. It’s amazing to see people’s reaction all over the world on social media. I used to have to be in the town to ask the fans to know. Now I can find out by the push of a bottom. Quite a different world, but it really is overwhelming.

Can catch Newsted on tour in the US through May and in Europe in June. Newsted will participate in Gigantour 2013 with Megadeth, Device, Hellyeah and Death Division. For more information, visit newstedheavymetal.com.

John Katic is a writer and podcaster who founded the Iron City Rocks Podcast in 2009. It features interviews with countless rock, hard rock, metal and blues artists. In 2013, he started Heavy Metal Bookclub, a podcast and website devoted to hard rock and metal books.

Former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted has announced — by way of a handwritten note circulated to media outlets — a January 8 release date for the debut EP from his new project, Newsted.

Dubbed simply Metal, the four-song EP will be available exclusively through iTunes. Pre-orders for the EP are set to launch next Tuesday, December 18, and fans who order Metal early will receive a copy of Jason Newsted's handwritten lyrics.

Newsted recently resurfaced in the public eye, launching a new Facebook page and website

"It's time for me to reconnect with all my fans and friends out there around the world with the launch of my official online presence," Newsted said in an official posting on his website.

You can watch an in-studio update from Newsted here.

The guest lineups for Metallica's first two 30th anniversary shows should have many of us slapping our foreheads for not being a member of Met Club and not being in San Francisco right now.

The second show of Metallica's San Fran residency not only saw the band perform "To Live Is To Die" for the first time ever, but again featured a myriad for friends and guest performers.

Marrianne Faithful was on hand to reprise her vocal performance on "The Memory Remains," and Lou Reed showed up to play "The View," "Iced Honey" and "White Light/White Heat" with his new bandmates.

Perhaps most exciting was a near-reunion for Mercyful Fate when Metallica were joined by King Diamond, Hank Shermann, Michael Denner and Timi Hansen for a Mercyful Fate medley. Also present was Sweet Savage bassist/vocalist Ray Haller who added a classic touch to "Killing Time."

Friend of the band and fellow Bob Seger fan Kid Rock made a guest appearance on a rare live performance of "Turn the Page."

Jason Newsted made another appearance last night, taking bass duties on "Creeping Death" and "Battery."

Armored Saint/ex-Anthrax vocalist John Bush -- who legend has it was approached by Lars Ulrich to sing is his new band back in 1981 -- contributed vocals to "The Four Horsemen" before again joining the band on the encore, "Seek and Destroy," which also featured his former bandmate Scott Ian, Armored saint members Joey Vera and Gonzo Sandoval, Jason Newsted. Ray Haller and the Soul Rebels.

A film crew was on hand at Papa Wheelie's recent show in Walnut Creek, California to record the concert for a possible future release. You can check out footage of the band -- comprised of former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted on guitar/vocals, Steven Wiig on drums and Joe Ledesma on bass -- covering Van Halen's "D.O.A." and Motorhead's "We Are the Road Crew" below.

Newsted and his bandmates made a recent appearance on San Francisco's 107.7 The Bone to chat about a number of topics, including Metallica. You can watch the full interview here.

Former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted appeared on San Francisco's 107.7 The Bone for a lengthy interview, during which the bassist discussed his time in Metallica as well as his "new" band, Papa Wheelie, who were also in the studio with him. You can check out the full interview below.

Of course, we say "new band" with a catch, as the band have technically been around since 1996. Newsted formed the band during his years with Metallica -- the band even includes Lars Ulrich's former personal assistant, Steven Wiig -- and released an album, Unipsycho, back in 2002.

The band was put on hiatus for an extended period, but as of August of this year has been resurrected.