In a shocking move, bassist and vocalist Jason Newsted has reformed his project Newsted for a show on May 20 at Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
According to a report by Blabbermouth, Newsted is currently Jason alongside original Newsted drummer Jesus Mendez Jr. and guitarist Jessie Farnsworth, plus guitarist Humberto Perez. No word on if this is the "new metal band" Newsted said he was working on, but it does seem pretty likely.
In a February 2023 interview, Newsted said of recent musical endeavors "Actually, I spent six months of last year putting together The Chophouse Band Volume 1. The Chophouse Band has been together [and] making music since 1992. So it was our first album after 30 years. I spent a lot of time on that. And then, once I got that under my belt, I'm kind of stepping back into the heavy now.
"So the last couple of weeks I've been auditioning guitar players for a heavy project. I'm back on bass and singing with a metal drummer — double bass, you know; getting' loud again. So I've got a couple of irons in the fire. I'm putting two new projects together right now — but loud."
Newsted originally existed between 2012 and 2014. The project put out a full length titled Heavy Metal Music in 2013, as well as an EP called Metal that same year. Newsted revealed in a 2016 interview that he had a whole second record written, but the project fell apart because he had too much going on.
"I was trying to take on too much stuff at once. You can only do so much and make it work right. I won't call it over 'cause I did write a whole 'nother record, but it just hasn't been put together. It hasn't been recorded all the way. It's not ready for the people. That's something that's just on the backburner right now."
Newsted's final show (up to now) was on August 11 at the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto, ON. This is also the second metal endeavor for Newsted in 2023, the first being a guest spot on his former band Voivod's new record.
