Former METALLICA bassist Jason Newsted recently spoke with Anthony Morgan at Metal Forces about his return to the spotlight fronting his own band, NEWSTED. An excerpt from the interview is available below:

As implied by the faction’s moniker, Jason is its sole decision maker. “I am the man, okay?,” he confirms. “I’m gonna be real clear about that. I am the man in this band, and there is a reason I wanna be the man. I could have put together a supergroup; I could’ve picked the best metal players, and made a super metal band. I could’ve very easily, but that’s not what I wanted to do. I don’t want people to bring in their baggage from other bands, or all that kind of stuff. I’ve been in bands like that, and I don’t want to do that. I want some players that I’ve been with who I understand, and who understand me. Players that are hard-working people, who aren’t distracted by Hollywood bullshit or wanting to be rock stars or any of that crap that happens in other bands when they try to make supergroups.

“Nobody’s trying to outdo each other, like ‘My band has sold more than your band’ and all this bullshit. I don’t want to deal with any of that and I don’t have to, so I’m not going to. I wanted to get players that are real and genuine musicians, musicians that are motivated, that aren’t drunk, that aren’t drug users, that aren’t any of that shit. I wanted to get people that are real and ready to work hard, so that’s why I chose to have the guys that I have. We recorded as a three-piece, but we’ll perform live as a four-piece. I’ll be taking on another guitar player as well. In the studio I play bass and guitar, and for live performances I play bass and guitar also. You’ll see me singing lead vocals the whole time, but switch instruments.”

The Newsted frontman was previously a member of ROCK STAR SUPERNOVA, a hard rock supergroup which additionally included drummer Tommy Lee (MÖTLEY CRÜE), guitarist Gilby Clarke (ex-GUNS N' ROSES), and vocalist Lukas Rossi. Occupying bass for the quartet, November 2006’s Rock Star Supernova was their sole full-length.

“When I was talking about a bad experience or a not so great experience in that particular instance, that was the one I was referring to, yes,” the Newsted frontman verifies. “If you think about that one, you’ve got the two biggest Hollywood rock star bands involved with a guy from the purest metal band. You’ve got Guns ’N Roses, which is so much fakey, Hollywood stuff. You’ve then got Mötley Crüe which is even more fakey, Hollywood stuff, and then you’ve got real metal. It was not easy to get them to come to rehearsals, or even play songs. We only got to have like five rehearsals in the entire existence of the band. That’s not the way I do things. I work hard and I practise hard, and I always have. I don’t do that kind of Hollywood shit, man (laughs).”

Go to this location for the complete interview.

The debut EP from Newsted, called Metal, sold approximately 6,200 copies in the US in its first week to enter the Billboard 200 chart at #62. Metal was released on January 8th exclusively via iTunes. The physical CD is available for pre-order at the official Newsted store here.

Newsted spoke to BraveWords recently about their new four-song EP. The four tracks on Metal make up the first of three batches of EPs to be released intermittently over the next year or so and were written and composed all by Newsted himself.

“These songs are old-school metal. I went back to what I know the best and what I spent the most hours of my life doing," Newsted explains to BraveWords. "That’s what we recorded on this. It’s an in your face, raw, present kind of music. I’ve been working on the lyrics for many years, they have a lot of meaning and each one tells a story. I’m really proud of that part and I’m looking forward to people seeing the lyrics again. I haven’t really been able to expose that kind of stuff out into the world since the FLOTSAM days. These are far different than the Flotsam lyrics, I’ve come a long way. Each song has its own thing as I see what’s around me. They very much are addressing issues of the world today.”

Read the entire interview here.

Newsted released their first video, for the track 'Soldierhead' this week. The song is featured on the band's new Metal EP, and the video - directed by Leon Melas, can be seen below: