Metallica’s The Black Album celebrates its 25th birthday today and propelled the band into the mainstream, selling more than 16 million copies in the US alone. Former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted reminisced about the album with Billboard.

"Everybody had built themselves up through hard knocks and scars and so forth to be ready for what was coming, to create this thing that was bigger than all of us and greater than any of us," Newsted recalls. "That includes all the people that worked with us, like the label and QPrime [management] and [producer Bob Rock]. [Rock] came in and he whipped us into shape about tonality of things and power of things and actual sound quality. We were ready for him, he was ready for us, the world was ready for the sound. We didn't sit down and say, 'It's gonna be like this,' no, but I think we pulled in somebody who could control us for a second, harness us for a second, and everybody put their nose to the stone and worked hard, like Metallica always did, and the floodgates just opened and we got the fruits from it. I'm really proud of what we did."

Newsted has scheduled a string of live shows with his mainly acoustic project, Jason Newsted And The Chophouse Band.

The Chophouse Band began in 1992 when Grammy Award winning, Hall of Fame bassist Jason Newsted founded The Chophouse Records Studio in San Francisco. Following the success of Metallica’s 1991 Black Album, The Chophouse Records Studio was conceived by Newsted to assemble friends and comrades from other established acts and groups, to have a special place to enjoy chasing ideas and sounds, having fun playing pure and wild music on breaks and downtime, mixing up wicked musical soup away from rigorous touring schedules and agendas.

Now, after 25 years of playing host to a diverse array of talent from varying genres, The Chophouse Band is finally offering a sampling of the musical flavors that have been cooking in these exclusive sessions and personal projects.

Tour dates:

September
2 - Crystal Bay, NV - The Crystal Bay Club/Crown Room
7 - Santa Cruz, CA - Moe's Alley
8 - Mill Valley, CA - Sweetwater Music Hall
10 - Napa, CA - Silo's
17 - Sebastopol, CA - Hopmonk Tavern

Check out fan-filmed video from Jason Newsted And The Chophouse Band’s show on July 15th at the Red House in Walnut Creek, CA: