What's Old Is New Again

"The younger bands we play with come up and show respect through their words and actions, which makes me feel really good, like we're doing something right,” Jason Newsted comments of being back on the road with metallers Newsted. “It feels almost innocent in a way, because it's been just long enough for it to be that way; it's kinda wiped itself clean.”

It's taken more than a decade to reach this point. After departing Metallica in 2001 following a 15-year tenure, the bassist briefly joined Ozzy Osbourne's band, while also branching out via more melodic Echobrain, whose demise he still laments (“It could have been something; I think it was in the right place at the right time”). The less said about ill-fated supergroup Rock Star Supernova the better. A period of relative inactivity – at least in the mainstream's eyes – incorporated injury recovery, playing with prog-thrash legends Voivod and painting.

Newsted readily admits to initial naivety regarding certain changes which subsequently occurred within the music industry – the use of social media, for one. However, the reception while appearing at Metallica's star-studded 30th anniversary celebrations was a sizeable hint that he'd been away for an adequate amount of time for fans to miss him. The outpouring of support directed at his new venture simply confirms it.

Since heralding his return last year, matters rapidly snowballed for Newsted, on which he also handles vocal duties. Debut EP Metal's release earlier in 2013 whetted appetites, quickly followed by their inaugural full-length, engagingly titled Heavy Metal Music. “Once we got the EP out, within two or three weeks we had a new manager, new label, new this, new that and everybody wanted to get on board,” he explains.

The veteran readily waxes lyrical about Newsted, the band featuring drummer Jesus Mendez Jr, guitarist Jessie Farnsworth and recent addition, Staind axeman Mike Mushok. “We've been together five months, got 35, 40 shows under our belts, and it's pretty cool, man. [Mushok's] much more than just a great player. He's a good motivator for me, and also he's one of the only people I've met in my life that can calm me down. I'm a really spoiled fucker, and I was, like, conditioned to being very spoiled in a very big band for a long, long time. So I don't like to take no for an answer, and I don't like that… I want to get my way. So he can talk me down from some of my maybe unreasonable shit. Now that we're together and been doing what we're doing, and we've made the moves we've made recording and live-wise, this is karmatic. This is destiny; this was absolutely supposed to happen.”

On the topic of planets aligning, Newsted has remarked in recent interviews that his departure from Metallica was a necessary shock to their system – that if he hadn't made said call, the band would be dead – and likely, some members, himself including.

“As time goes on, whether you mature or not, you certainly learn other things, and you have more experiences to make you become what you are. So a lot of the things that I'm able to go through now… it just reinforces every day how grateful I am to them, as band, and as people. How proud I am to have been a part of the greatest metal thing that's happened since Black Sabbath. All that stuff, no one can ever take that away from me. I'll always be a part of Metallica, so I feel good about that. I walk very proud of all those things that we did; we've taken it to a taller mountain than anyone else ever has, as far as our kind of music. I have nothing ever negative to say about Metallica; they gave me my chance to live a dream life, and I'll never forget it.”

It was during his inauguration into the Metallica ranks that he was introduced to Australian audiences. Despite a lengthy break from our shores, he's thrilled to return, revealing that Newsted will appear at Soundwave 2014.

“Dig up some interviews from then until now and when people ask me, 'What's your favourite place to play?' my answer is always the same answer: it's 'Australia's number one'. 'Cause we were one of the first American bands playing our style,to ever get a chance to go down there and break down the walls. It's got a very special place in my heart.”