METALLICA Bassist JASON NEWSTED Resurrects NEWSTED Project, Announces First Concert In Nearly 10 Years
Former METALLICA bassist Jason Newsted will perform with his NEWSTED project for the first time in nearly a decade on May 20 at Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Newsted, who plays bass and sings in the project, will be joined at the gig by original NEWSTED members Jesus Mendez Jr. (UNDERLORD) on drums and Jessie Farnsworth (UNDERLORD) on guitar, along with new guitarist Humberto Perez.
Back in February 2014, Newsted canceled an appearance at Australia’s Soundwave festival with NEWSTED, citing “private and personal circumstances.” The cancelation followed more than a year of intense touring and promotional activity surrounding the release of NEWSTED‘s “Metal” EP and follow-up album, “Heavy Metal Music”, both of which were positively received by the critics and fans alike.
STAIND guitarist Mike Mushok, who joined NEWSTED in March 2013 and played on “Heavy Metal Music”, told “The Jasta Show” in a 2019 interview that Jason ultimately pulled the plug on the band because it wasn’t financially viable for him to continue playing.
“I think he was happy with it [creatively],” Mike said. “I think the touring thing was hard. I don’t think it was exactly what he expected it was going to be. But listen, it was fun. I really enjoyed him. I really enjoyed our time together and playing. We’re still friends; we still communicate… We were playing smaller places, but the shows were always good; they were always fun. I just think it cost him a ton. ‘Cause he was footing the bill for everything. So I think that at the end of the day, he’s, like, ‘I’m doing this ’cause of my passion for it and what I love, but I’m bleeding here.’ We had this European tour that I think cost him a bunch.”
Explaining that he is “really thankful” for the “great experience” of playing with Jason, Mike praised his former bandmate, saying: “Jason is a hard worker, man. We would practice 10 hours, he’d record the whole thing, and when we were done, he wouldn’t walk out of the control — he’d sit there and listen to it. I’m, like, ‘Dude! Come on, man.’ I mean, there’s a hard work — I’m a hard worker, but this guy was next level.”
In a 2017 interview with Ultimate Guitar, Jason said that it was “too much of a load” having to “wear all the hats and doing the writing, singing, playing and paying for everything” while NEWSTED was alive.
Jason explained: “It cost me an awful lot of money — hundreds of thousands of dollars to take the NEWSTED band around to the 22 countries we played. But it was worth it for the lessons I learned and the respect that was shown to us and the camaraderie of the band. But I couldn’t continue because the business is such a harsh thing now and so different than what I had known.”
Explaining that he is “really thankful” for the “great experience” of playing with Jason, Mike praised his former bandmate, saying: “Jason is a hard worker, man. We would practice 10 hours, he’d record the whole thing, and when we were done, he wouldn’t walk out of the control — he’d sit there and listen to it. I’m, like, ‘Dude! Come on, man.’ I mean, there’s a hard work — I’m a hard worker, but this guy was next level.”
In a 2017 interview with Ultimate Guitar, Jason said that it was “too much of a load” having to “wear all the hats and doing the writing, singing, playing and paying for everything” while NEWSTED was alive.
Jason explained: “It cost me an awful lot of money — hundreds of thousands of dollars to take the NEWSTED band around to the 22 countries we played. But it was worth it for the lessons I learned and the respect that was shown to us and the camaraderie of the band. But I couldn’t continue because the business is such a harsh thing now and so different than what I had known.”
