Jason Newsted Wants You to Put Your Damn Phone Away
Wong Notes
Premier Guitar
4.9 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 16 October 2024
⏱️ 82 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jason Newsted spent 15 years holding down the low end in Metallica, playing bass for the band from 1986 through 2001. That era included records like …And Justice For All and Metallica—AKA The Black Album—plus the iconic S&M live album with the San Francisco Symphony.
But that was just the beginning for Newsted, an artistic polymath who has since pursued a life of balance and creative freedom. On this episode of Wong Notes, he opens up to Cory Wong about why he left Metallica, and details the “Olympian” physicality and discipline that hard international touring requires. Newsted needed a break; the band wanted to keep going. “You gotta sometimes give it a minute,” he says.
Newsted shares his thoughts on Dave Mustaine and his predecessor Cliff Burton, and goes deep on the issue of cellphone usage at concerts. (Spoiler alert: He doesn’t like it very much, and he’s got good reasons for his disdain.) But Newsted isn’t just a performer. He talks about his painting and the way that practice differs from music-making, plus his private artistic journeys with theremin, mandolin, and sequencers and loopers—rabbit holes he might not have gone down if he stayed in Metallica. “I don’t say no to any medium,” he says.
Maybe leaving Metallica created the need to explore. “I did not get to fulfill that journey,” he says, “so I’m making up for it.”
Listen to the full episode here: https://bit.ly/WongNotes
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Produced by Jason Shadrick and Cory Wong
Additional Editing by Shawn Persinger
Presented by DistroKid
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | What's happening? Welcome to Wong Notes podcast. I'm your host, Corey Wong. I'm so thrilled today. I am so thrilled today to have this episode out. Because today on the podcast, we have Jason Neustead. Are you kidding me? If you would have told 12-year-old Corey that I be here today to have this podcast out where I get to sit down with one of my heroes, 12-year-old Corey would be laughing. |
| 0:28.1 | No way. No way. So you know what? When I was younger, still to this day also, by the way, bands must have a dope bass player. I knew from the start okay i was hooked on bands like the |
| 0:42.1 | chili peppers primus and metallica i think a lot of cats don't really realize the technical prowess |
| 0:49.1 | that goes into the bass playing on metallica tunes and just like metal in general. |
| 0:55.7 | And Jason Neustead, the technical facility, the speed, the stamina, and the accuracy that is |
| 1:03.7 | required to play some of that music, dude, you got to be kidding me. |
| 1:07.6 | Jason Neustead is so great at the instrument. |
| 1:10.4 | And after this conversation really |
| 1:12.9 | realize how deep of an artist this cat is and just how much of a deep understanding of music and |
| 1:20.9 | life this guy has. I mean, he's been through a lot. He's gone through it. We've all heard the |
| 1:25.5 | stories. We've all heard all kinds of things. |
| 1:28.1 | But you sit and talk with Jason now and you understand the depth that this guy has. |
| 1:35.4 | And he's such a great person, such a nice dude, so excited to have this interview coming out today. |
| 1:42.9 | I couldn't be more thrilled. |
| 1:45.3 | Couldn't be more thrilled. |
| 1:47.9 | Also, you want to know what else I'm excited about? |
| 1:49.0 | I'm about to go on tour. |
| 1:51.6 | Doing a little Midwest East Coast tour. |
| 1:54.5 | If I'm coming to your city, come hang out. |
| 1:55.4 | Come say hi. |
| 1:57.2 | Corey Wong on tour. |
| 1:58.4 | Cory Wong, the band. |
... |
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