Jason Newsted briefly had his Newsted group active from 2012 to 2014, at which point the band abruptly just came to an end. In an interview with Ultimate Guitar, Newsted reveals that the band had cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars to make it work, and coupled with a changing music industry, he decided to call it quits.
"It cost me an awful lot of money – hundreds of thousands of dollars to take the Newsted band around to the 22 countries we played. But it was worth it for the lessons I learned and the respect that was shown to us and the camaraderie of the band.
"But I couldn't continue because the business is such a harsh thing now and so different than what I had known."
He adds that having to basically do everything in the group eventually got to him, though he really did enjoy performing at festivals and getting himself out there again for a little bit.
"There was a couple things that were very good and then a couple things were very bad. When it came down to the money stuff and just having to wear all the hats and doing the writing, singing, playing and paying for everything, it was just too much of a load.
"The good things that happened were the shows came off very well and was received very well. The European stuff was fantastic and I got a couple good opportunities opening for Iron Maiden at Sonisphere and the Download Festivals.
"Those were wonderful – respect being shown that I couldn't have maybe predicted. We got respect from the generations of bands that followed Metallica and Voivod and people we taught without knowing it."
It sounds like it took a serious financial toll on him, but at the same time if it was fun and he had the money to do it at the time, it was probably worth it!
