JASON NEWSTED: 'I Would Have Rejoined METALLICA'

November 18, 2002

Former METALLICA and current VOIVOD bassist Jason Newsted would have rejoined the San Franciscan metal superstars "in a fucking heartbeat" had frontman James Hetfield invited him to contribute to METALLICA's eighth studio album.

"James and I had a really good sit-down back in February this year," Newsted told Kerrang! "We hadn't seen each other in a long time, and we got to look into each other's eyes with nobody around and no cameras or managers. We hung out as friends, probably for the first time in eight years. We just sat and had lunch together and talked about family and things that people talk about in the real world. I felt pretty confident from that meeting, and I thought maybe three or four months later, he might give me a call. And that's how it would have to be — James calling me and saying, 'Jay. Come and help me with my music. Help me make my good songs great.' Then I would be there in a fucking heartbeat to help him out. I would have done it this year, but now they've waited too long and now I'm in a band that I really love."

"This [VOIVOD] makes me feel so alive, and I can't say that I had that feeling in the last years of METALLICA," Newsted added. "I felt rather downtrodden. I had a great time in METALLICA, way, way more good than bad. But we'd been together 15 years, and things happen. But it's important for people to know that you can never say never on certain things. If it comes about in some amount of time, down the road, and James says, 'Dude, you wanna go do these 12 shows with us? Do you wanna go do this song with us?' and he calls me and he asks me straight up? Fuck yeah. But it has to be the right timing. VOIVOD is my focus, and it's what I'm dedicated to. It could come some day, but not in the near future, because we have a master plan for VOIVOD."

Jason Newsted is currently producing VOIVOD's forthcoming album, "The Multiverse", at The Plant studios in Sausalito, California. The album is scheduled for a Mar. 4, 2003 release through his own Chophouse Records label.

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