NEWSTED frontman Jason Newsted (ex-METALLICA) is featured in a new interview with John Parks at Legendary Rock Interviews. An excerpt from their chat is available below:

LRI: You’ve been witness to other bands having issues getting along and of course over the decades there have been moments with Metallica not getting along but have you and your band mates in Newsted found a place where you’re all pretty copacetic and having a good time?

Jason: "I could have put together a supergroup, I could have called up, I think anybody I wanted to or convinced just about any player to get with me on this project and you probably could get behind me on that. There’s not many people who would say no, so when it came time to do this I had to find people that I get along with first and foremost who are my friends and my bros first. That’s because there are a lot of really talented cats who can play, but not everybody’s cool so I had to find people who were cool first and then once we were able to get it together and get along then we put on the instruments and made it rock and roll. That’s how it has to be and I learned that over the years like you said."

LRI: Has it ever occurred to you how rare or special your success of plugging into Metallica was? I love Jake E Lee more than most players but even Jake wasn’t able to plug into OZZYwith the relative ease that you did in terms of fan acceptance in Metallica after Cliff Burton died.

Jason: "Of course. But it did take a couple years for me to earn it from the people originally after Cliff passed. I get it. I was a bigger fan of Cliff than anybody on the fucking planet. To be put into his place like that…..the only way I can describe it to you is that his fate brought about my destiny and that’s a crazy thing. For people to accept that is even crazier, to be able to accept that while grieving, to accept that someone else is going to be standing there and it’s not Cliff is amazing. Especially when I think about the fact that I was mad that he wasn’t around (laughs) so I can only imagine what other people felt. I went through a couple of years of dealing with the fans but once they accepted me it was probably twice as lovingly or heartily as they would have otherwise because they realized I could put up with or stand up to anything and I took all that and still stood there proudly. I think that meant a lot to people. It was not an easy task but then again, no one could ever replace Cliff and I knew that going in. He did his thing, I did my thing and now Robert’s doing his thing and it’s all good."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Newsted will release their debut full-length album and follow-up to the Metal EP, Heavy Metal Music, on August 6th.

Heavy Metal Music tracklisting:

'Heroic Dose'

'Soldierhead'

'...As The Crow Flies'

'Ampossible'

'Long Time Dead'

'Above All'

'King Of The Underdogs'

'Nocturnus'

'Twisted Tail Of The Comet'

'Kindevillusion'

'Futureality'

The band are now offering a free download of the album's lead song, 'Heroic Dose'. Get your download at this location, and stream the track below:

On May 31st, Newsted performed at the Sonisphere Festival in Madrid, Spain at Auditorio Miguel Ríos. Sidestage footage of the band's entire set can be viewed below:

Remaining dates on Newsted's European tour include:

June

29 - Rock The Beach - Helsinki, Finland
30 - Graspop Metal Meeting - Dessel, Belgium