Ever since quitting Metallica twelve years ago, Jason Newsted has kept a relatively low profile. Sure, he helped out with some bass duties for Voivod and Ozzy Osbourne, but that was temporary. He popped up a year ago with a band called Papa Wheelie but it seems like that project was just for goofs and didn't go very far.
Now, Newsted is serious about relaunching his career. How serious? He just launched a new website.
Newsted posted the above video saying new music is coming from his project. He also appeared on this weekend's "Friday Night Rocks" radio show with Eddie Trunk to give more details on the project (transcribed by Blabbermouth):
"I've thought about this for a long time, putting my name on a project other than just coming up with a clever name, like Echobrain or Papa Wheelie or something. We have a lot of cool names for projects, but this is the first time with my name and really trying to get out to the people that I played for by the millions in the past with Metallica. I think I've waited just long enough, and I think the people are ready, and I'm ready, so I'm gonna try to get some music together and see what I can do for some people. We'll see what comes about in the next couple of months here."
"It'll be called Newsted Heavy Metal Music. Whatever it ends up being — if it's five songs, 20 songs, 50 songs… I don't even know what the heck I'm gonna do. I have so much music from over the years. I have a bunch of new stuff, I have so many mixes of projects with people — new players, young players, old-school players like myself — so I'm just trying to figure out exactly what I wanna unleash on everybody first. That's kind of what it's coming down to — the timing of things and how I wanna hit people with it, and which stuff [to release first]."
Newsted went on to say that while he hasn't figured everything out yet, he is a fan of the EP model, putting out a few tracks every six months or so for fans to consume, and may be going that route. We'll be keeping an eye on his new website and tracking the progress.
