Episode 3

Jason Newsted Wants You to Put Your Damn Phone Away

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.”

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Produced by Jason Shadrick and Cory Wong

Additional Editing by Shawn Persinger

Presented by DistroKid

Transcript
Corey Wong:

What's happening?

Corey Wong:

Welcome to Wong Notes podcast.

Corey Wong:

I'm your host, Corey Wong.

Corey Wong:

I'm so thrilled today.

Corey Wong:

I am so thrilled today to have this episode out because today on the podcast we have Jason Newsted.

Corey Wong:

Are you kidding me?

Corey Wong:

If you would have told twelve year old Corey that I'd be here today to have this podcast out where I get to sit down with one of my heroes, twelve year old Corey would be laughing.

Corey Wong:

No way.

Corey Wong:

No way.

Corey Wong:

So you know what?

Corey Wong:

When I was younger, still, still to this day, also, by the way, bands must have a dope bass player.

Corey Wong:

I knew this from the start, okay?

Corey Wong:

I was hooked on bands like the Chili Peppers, Primus and Metallica.

Corey Wong:

I think a lot of cats don't really realize the technical prowess that goes into the bass playing on metallica tunes and just like metal in general.

Corey Wong:

And Jason Newsted, the technical facility, the speed, the stamina and the accuracy that is required to play some of that music.

Corey Wong:

Dude, you gotta be kidding me.

Corey Wong:

Jason Newsted is so great at the instrument.

Corey Wong:

And after this conversation, really realize how deep of an artist this cat is and just how much of a deep understanding of music and life this guy has.

Corey Wong:

I mean, he's been through a lot.

Corey Wong:

He's gone through it.

Corey Wong:

We've all heard the stories, we've all heard all kinds of things.

Corey Wong:

But you sit and talk with Jason now and you understand the depth that this guy has.

Corey Wong:

And he's such a great person, such a nice dude.

Corey Wong:

So excited to have this interview coming out today.

Corey Wong:

I couldn't be more thrilled.

Corey Wong:

Couldn't be more thrilled.

Corey Wong:

Also, you want to know what else I'm excited about?

Corey Wong:

I'm about to go on tour doing a little midwest east coast tour.

Corey Wong:

If I'm coming to your city, come hang out, come say hi.

Corey Wong:

Corey Wong on tour.

Corey Wong:

Corey Wong the band again.

Corey Wong:

I do this sometimes.

Corey Wong:

I have to separate myself as a person from the band.

Corey Wong:

Corey Wong.

Corey Wong:

Because it just, it just helps the whole mental health thing, you know, the ups and the downs.

Corey Wong:

Anyways, I'm about to go on tour.

Corey Wong:

It's gonna be great.

Corey Wong:

Ten piece band.

Corey Wong:

Mark Lettieri is joining me in the band for the whole tour.

Corey Wong:

I have the band couch opening up all of the shows.

Corey Wong:

It's gonna be fantastic.

Corey Wong:

Lots of special guests coming out, different shows.

Corey Wong:

Theo Katzman's coming out for one of my shows at the Ryman in Nashville.

Corey Wong:

I'm playing two shows at the Ryman October 30 and 31 the 31st.

Corey Wong:

We're doing a big special Halloween party.

Corey Wong:

I just ordered a ton of costumes and some set pieces for the party that we're gonna be throwing.

Corey Wong:

It's a surprise.

Corey Wong:

So come hang, have some fun.

Corey Wong:

It's gonna be special.

Corey Wong:

Anyways, hope to see you there.

Corey Wong:

Hope to say hi, grab one of the vip ticks.

Corey Wong:

We're doing a little acoustic performance, a little private performance.

Corey Wong:

You get some merchandise.

Corey Wong:

We get to hang out, a little Q and A.

Corey Wong:

It's going to be a great time.

Corey Wong:

I'm just thrilled, stoked.

Corey Wong:

All right, enough of that.

Corey Wong:

Let's get to the podcast.

Corey Wong:

Jason Newstead, you guys know about Distrokid yet?

Corey Wong:

If you are an artist, musician, somebody who's trying to get your music on, Spotify, apple music, all of those things.

Corey Wong:

Distrokid is a digital distributor that can get your music on all of those platforms.

Corey Wong:

It's the easiest, fastest way to do so with accounts even just starting at $19.99 a year per artist.

Corey Wong:

So for me, I have several albums out.

Corey Wong:

I just pay one amount for the year.

Corey Wong:

For all the Corey Wong albums, I just pay one amount.

Corey Wong:

And distrokid takes 0% royalty, 100% of the royalties come straight to me.

Corey Wong:

Or you use their teams feature where you can dedicate a certain percentage to one member of your band, a certain percentage to the other or one of your collaborators.

Corey Wong:

I do this sort of thing.

Corey Wong:

It works amazing.

Corey Wong:

Distrokid is who I use for my album, and it has worked great for me.

Corey Wong:

The stuff gets up there fast.

Corey Wong:

They have a smart ISRC thing.

Corey Wong:

I don't have to worry about coming up with my own codes, registering a lot of the stuff.

Corey Wong:

They just have that.

Corey Wong:

And they also have these really cool design tools.

Corey Wong:

If you are not very design savvy, they'll help you come up with assets for social media and other things to help promote your album.

Corey Wong:

And if you want to use them, you can use my vip code.

Corey Wong:

Just go distrokid.com vip, Corey Wong.

Corey Wong:

And you get 30% off.

Corey Wong:

How about that?

Corey Wong:

Check them out.

Corey Wong:

Distrokid.

Corey Wong:

All right, let's hit this episode.

Jason Newsted:

Wait a minute.

Jason Newsted:

How's what's left of my hair doing?

Jason Newsted:

Good.

Jason Newsted:

All right.

Corey Wong:

Hey, it's looking great, bro.

Jason Newsted:

Hi, Corey.

Jason Newsted:

How are you today?

Corey Wong:

Great, man.

Corey Wong:

How you doing, Jason?

Jason Newsted:

Good.

Jason Newsted:

You can hear me okay?

Corey Wong:

Hear you perfect.

Corey Wong:

Well, my name's Corey.

Corey Wong:

I play guitar.

Corey Wong:

I have a band called.

Corey Wong:

We are big fans of what you do, man.

Jason Newsted:

You know, I came across you guys a couple of years ago.

Jason Newsted:

At first, it was rehearsal, might have been at a gig, but it might have been your own practice room.

Jason Newsted:

But it was before a gig.

Jason Newsted:

So I'm assuming it was at the arena or something.

Jason Newsted:

Might even have been a Madison Square garden where you were in dressing room going over some shit.

Jason Newsted:

That's the first time I saw you play guitar.

Jason Newsted:

I didn't know even the name of the band.

Jason Newsted:

I just saw these guys play something.

Jason Newsted:

Just gave it, like 15 seconds.

Jason Newsted:

You know, algorithms send you all that stuff when you're trying to keep learning and keep your feelers out for new music, you know, searching for new, younger heroes and all that stuff.

Jason Newsted:

And I was really taking.

Jason Newsted:

Of course, I gravitate to the bass thing.

Jason Newsted:

And then when you started playing super clean and really, man, beautiful human syncopation without any kind of false syncopation, I really fucking dug it.

Jason Newsted:

So from.

Jason Newsted:

From then on, I looked to some live stuff, maybe some european something or other.

Jason Newsted:

I can't remember what gig it was.

Jason Newsted:

But anyway, there was some real wild.

Jason Newsted:

The juice, you know, man.

Jason Newsted:

Like, the juice was real pure, you know?

Jason Newsted:

And I.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

And I really.

Jason Newsted:

And I dug the simpatico of the.

Jason Newsted:

Of the unit.

Jason Newsted:

Like, all you guys are bad motherfuckers by yourself.

Jason Newsted:

But as all of us know, when you're a part of an entity that's greater than yourself, you know, you play your role, and everybody understands their role.

Jason Newsted:

Every other player understands their role, too.

Jason Newsted:

So that shit becomes this gigantic thing you couldn't have imagined when everybody's paying attention to each other.

Jason Newsted:

And that's really what I got off of you guys yet really paying attention to each other.

Jason Newsted:

The action, reaction, counterpoint, fire.

Jason Newsted:

Fucking awesome.

Jason Newsted:

So that's how I found out about you.

Jason Newsted:

And that's why I said yes.

Jason Newsted:

Because I get asked to do this stuff a lot, and I do it very rarely.

Jason Newsted:

So I appreciate you.

Jason Newsted:

I appreciate what you're doing, man.

Corey Wong:

Well, thank you so much, man.

Corey Wong:

That's very flattering.

Corey Wong:

It's a high honor to be seen by you on the Internet, because I've been watching you since I was a kid, man.

Corey Wong:

I've been such a huge man.

Corey Wong:

I love what you do.

Corey Wong:

And you've got such an incredible approach to artistry and music and.

Corey Wong:

And actually, I also really loved and appreciate the way that you play bass.

Corey Wong:

Cause you're a pick bass guy.

Corey Wong:

So many people hate on pick bass.

Corey Wong:

I love the pick bass, dude.

Jason Newsted:

We should have this brief conversation, and I'll make sure everybody is recalibrated.

Jason Newsted:

Okay.

Jason Newsted:

So the way that the world measures things, not the rules that you and I made.

Jason Newsted:

Okay.

Jason Newsted:

But the way that the world measures things, no matter what language you speak or dialect, or what they call your money.

Jason Newsted:

Anytime that you're introduced, if it's Corey, it's this advance, this.

Jason Newsted:

This cv played with these cats.

Jason Newsted:

Corey Wong, it says.

Jason Newsted:

I'm just saying this, that once again, okay, disclaimer.

Jason Newsted:

They made this up.

Jason Newsted:

I'm just going along with it.

Jason Newsted:

So it says, rock and Roll hall of Famer, six time Grammy winner, fucking you.

Jason Newsted:

Fuck Jason Newstead.

Jason Newsted:

Right?

Jason Newsted:

That's how.

Jason Newsted:

That's how I'm introduced.

Jason Newsted:

No matter what happens, there's certain things that you have to just get your head around when they decide to say these things.

Corey Wong:

Sure.

Jason Newsted:

So also in our world, in our specific little niche of a world, in our little guitar me world, these cats are the baddest motherfuckers.

Jason Newsted:

This is the guy, the legend.

Jason Newsted:

This is a legend bass player.

Jason Newsted:

This is West Montgomery.

Jason Newsted:

This is, you know, whatever, man.

Jason Newsted:

The cream of the crop are these motherfuckers right here.

Jason Newsted:

And they eagles sold that many records.

Jason Newsted:

Michael Jackson sold that many records.

Jason Newsted:

Tom Petty sold that many records.

Jason Newsted:

Bob Marley, legend, sold Pink Floyd, Dyke side of the moon.

Jason Newsted:

All right?

Jason Newsted:

That's how they measure shit through and through and through.

Jason Newsted:

Yes.

Jason Newsted:

Right?

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

Okay.

Jason Newsted:

All right.

Jason Newsted:

So if we look at the bass players of rock music, all right, across.

Jason Newsted:

We'll call it 60 years.

Jason Newsted:

60 years.

Jason Newsted:

I'm 61.

Jason Newsted:

61 this year.

Jason Newsted:

So we'll call it 60 years.

Jason Newsted:

The guys that are at the top four and five and maybe six and maybe eight earning spots of basis over all those years, all the top ones are pick players of the top earning bassist of all time in rock music.

Jason Newsted:

Tell me those guys.

Jason Newsted:

Base the pick players.

Jason Newsted:

Tell me the top.

Jason Newsted:

Who's number one.

Jason Newsted:

Who's the.

Jason Newsted:

What's the biggest, biggest band of all time in rock music?

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Corey Wong:

McCartney.

Jason Newsted:

Thank you.

Jason Newsted:

Okay.

Jason Newsted:

Does he play with a pick?

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

Okay.

Jason Newsted:

And then there's a band called Kiss.

Jason Newsted:

You ever heard of them?

Jason Newsted:

Kiss?

Corey Wong:

Sure have.

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

Okay.

Jason Newsted:

Their bass player is.

Jason Newsted:

What's that guy's name?

Corey Wong:

Gene Simmons, baby.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

Does he play with a pick?

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

Uh huh.

Jason Newsted:

I thought so.

Jason Newsted:

There's a guy called Chris Novoselic.

Corey Wong:

Nirvana, baby.

Jason Newsted:

You heard of him?

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

Does he play with a pick?

Corey Wong:

Yes, he does.

Jason Newsted:

Okay.

Jason Newsted:

There is a guy named Sting who does a thumb and a pick.

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

But he doesn't do that.

Jason Newsted:

But he doesn't do this.

Corey Wong:

Correct.

Jason Newsted:

Okay.

Jason Newsted:

There's a guy named Jason Newstead.

Jason Newsted:

He's a man called Metallica.

Jason Newsted:

He played with a pick.

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

Okay.

Jason Newsted:

That's that.

Jason Newsted:

That's the way the world measures it.

Jason Newsted:

All right?

Jason Newsted:

So now we're calibrated now, let's look at the cool factor.

Jason Newsted:

The factor.

Jason Newsted:

The coolest bass player that ever was his name, Lemmy Kilmeister.

Jason Newsted:

And he's from a bank called Motorhead, right?

Jason Newsted:

The coolest one played with a pick.

Corey Wong:

I think, you know, I think you settled any dispute right there.

Jason Newsted:

We love Getty Lee is our God, and Steve Harris and Stanley Clark and Larry Graham and I go on and on and on, man.

Jason Newsted:

Of course, finger players.

Jason Newsted:

Fuck, yeah.

Jason Newsted:

I love the flesh, and it's all good.

Jason Newsted:

I'm actually a better finger player on guitar than I am on bass, so it's kind of a weird thing for people to look at in that way.

Jason Newsted:

Actually, I play more with my fingers on guitar.

Corey Wong:

I love the way you put that.

Corey Wong:

I mean, and also, it's like there's a certain drive to it.

Corey Wong:

You know, I was actually just.

Corey Wong:

I was talking to Dave Navarro, and they had Flea playing with him for a while.

Corey Wong:

And it's like Eric, in Jane's addiction was such a pick player, and I associate so much of that music with pick bass.

Corey Wong:

And it's interesting to hear the way that Flea approached it with fingers.

Corey Wong:

It's like.

Corey Wong:

It's not like it was wrong, but it was just different.

Corey Wong:

And I think Navarro was even saying, like, man, flea was having a hard time getting it right because it's pick based music.

Jason Newsted:

As I let my brain run with that a little bit.

Jason Newsted:

The most recorded bassist in history is Carole Kay.

Jason Newsted:

She played with a pic.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

And then the second most record is probably Leland Sklar or someone like that.

Jason Newsted:

It wouldn't be James Jamerson or Bobbitt or any of those guys because they didn't have as many records under their belt.

Jason Newsted:

And there might be a couple of the cats that I'm missing.

Jason Newsted:

But if the most recorded bassist of all time played with a pick also.

Corey Wong:

Well, even just hearing you talk about all these different people and listening to other things of you with your brother's record collections and stuff, listening to earth, wind and fire, listening to Queen, Hendrix, kiss, all these things, it's interesting to hear.

Corey Wong:

I think a lot of people that know your music wouldn't think, oh, yeah, Newstead grew up listening to some EWF, you know, or even that you're aware of some of these other people.

Corey Wong:

It's like, of course, this dude knows all these musicians and all this stuff, and it shows in the depth of your playing.

Corey Wong:

But I'm wondering, bands like Earth, Wind and Fire, what did you take from them and their bass players that you applied to, the way you play music or approach.

Jason Newsted:

Right?

Jason Newsted:

So earth, Wind and Fire has only ever had only one bass player in Verdean White.

Jason Newsted:

And he is, I think, the last member.

Jason Newsted:

I think, the last original.

Jason Newsted:

I know that Philip Bailey has been there for a lot of decades, but he was not original original.

Jason Newsted:

So Verdean is the only bassist they've ever had.

Jason Newsted:

Let's think about the grand picture of things.

Jason Newsted:

I was nine years old in:

Jason Newsted:

Ten years old, 73.

Jason Newsted:

Just let your mind go with it there.

Jason Newsted:

What's on the radio, what's popular coming out of the Motown thing up through the folk explosion.

Jason Newsted:

Then there becomes, like, kind of slabby rock music.

Jason Newsted:

Hendrix at the end of the sixties.

Jason Newsted:

That develops into that kind of thing.

Jason Newsted:

And what was starting to be played on the radio was all.

Jason Newsted:

I mean, always all the way from, like, mid sixties Motown music.

Jason Newsted:

And I'm sure in Minnesota, it reached over far enough in Chicago, Detroit.

Jason Newsted:

And I was with Kalamazoo, halfway in between those two.

Jason Newsted:

So there's always that wls and things playing Motown, rhythm and blues, those things.

Jason Newsted:

It developed into getting away with Ohio players.

Jason Newsted:

Because it's Ohio, and it says it in the name.

Jason Newsted:

So it's going to be played on that midwestern radio.

Jason Newsted:

And they get away with a few things.

Jason Newsted:

They can get away with love, roller coaster and fire and these things.

Jason Newsted:

So everybody's already got a little bit of it.

Jason Newsted:

It's okay for the white folks to groove to it, you know.

Jason Newsted:

And so that became a thing.

Jason Newsted:

And then that developed into disco.

Jason Newsted:

And that was really a wide reaching type of thing.

Jason Newsted:

Because popularity and the power of the radio at the time.

Jason Newsted:

So that was kind of inundated with that music.

Jason Newsted:

Because that's what was being played.

Jason Newsted:

Not just in my brother's record collections, but also in the discotheque itself and that kind of thing.

Jason Newsted:

So always gravitated to the bass dominant music, which it was all the funk music.

Jason Newsted:

All.

Jason Newsted:

Everybody riding on the concrete, man.

Jason Newsted:

Everybody riding on that funk from the.

Jason Newsted:

From the bait, from the thumb.

Jason Newsted:

So that was just automatically all of us, even if we're just am radio listeners, normally know how to do.

Jason Newsted:

That's all the technology we got, is turning it up.

Jason Newsted:

You know, automatically you're kind of infected with that thing wanting to tap your foot.

Jason Newsted:

Because the space in between the bass notes and stuff, you know.

Jason Newsted:

So I think I gravitated to that naturally.

Jason Newsted:

And then once kiss showed up that I wanted to play bass.

Jason Newsted:

But I didn't play too funky for a long, long time.

Jason Newsted:

Didn't play funky until much.

Jason Newsted:

Didn't play funky till much later.

Corey Wong:

Well, the other thing that's interesting, hearing you talk about that and listening to the radio and being a heavy metal bass player and musician, singer songwriter, I think you were tapped into something.

Corey Wong:

When I listen back and I think about all the bands that you've been a part of, you guys were able to have a general public appeal that many of your peers in the heavy metal realm didn't have.

Corey Wong:

Is there something in particular that you were paying attention to or that you guys were aiming for that others weren't?

Jason Newsted:

I think the target was the same, but the.

Jason Newsted:

What was in the quiver would be different for each outfit.

Jason Newsted:

Metallica.

Jason Newsted:

Metallica was blessed with two very gifted natural talent players.

Jason Newsted:

And Cliff Burton and James Hetfield and mustaine before that.

Jason Newsted:

Mustaine is a motherfucker, man, from the.

Jason Newsted:

From the go.

Jason Newsted:

He just is.

Jason Newsted:

Always has been what?

Jason Newsted:

Idiosyncrasies of personalities, man, whatever, and give a shit.

Jason Newsted:

He's always had a gift.

Jason Newsted:

Always.

Jason Newsted:

Still to this day he does.

Jason Newsted:

And how he fought back to keep playing fucking.

Jason Newsted:

Hey, dude, that's nothing but respect, you know?

Jason Newsted:

And so those guys having James and Cliff in it, when that.

Jason Newsted:

When the chips are down, the red lights on, and people are paying attention, you know, that having those two gifted guys automatically Lars grasp of it all already a very worldly young man, you know, at 19, he already been around the world five or seven times, you know, with his dad.

Jason Newsted:

Right?

Jason Newsted:

He already been around the world probably one time by the time he was five and shit.

Jason Newsted:

So just that kind of worldliness and the grasp of the.

Jason Newsted:

Of the.

Jason Newsted:

Now we all look at a global reach, Mandy.

Jason Newsted:

You look at the global reach from your pocket.

Jason Newsted:

You expect every show, bro.

Jason Newsted:

If you're paying for nine people in the kitchen somewhere, it's still a global gig.

Jason Newsted:

It's going to be a Vietnam four minutes from now.

Jason Newsted:

You better not fuck up, and you better be dressed nice.

Jason Newsted:

You know, that's.

Jason Newsted:

It wasn't like that before.

Jason Newsted:

It was one fan at a time and all that thing they felt.

Jason Newsted:

But those fans were won over by the actual construction of those tracks.

Jason Newsted:

They were, they were.

Jason Newsted:

They were always head and shoulders above the other guys that were going for the same target.

Jason Newsted:

If we're talking about anthrax and Slayer and different cats that start, man, oh, guys that started the same time having the same intentions.

Jason Newsted:

Right?

Jason Newsted:

They got some attention from the.

Jason Newsted:

Got same intentions, different amount of attention because of the appeal of their songs to people.

Jason Newsted:

Like things that people could sink their teeth into.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah, anthrax had a couple songs like that.

Jason Newsted:

You could sing along to about a second chorus.

Jason Newsted:

You sing it along a little bit, you know, but Metallica had stuff that you can get in, and by the time the second or at least third chorus came in, you're singing along with it, you know, that's just like this certain hooky shit.

Jason Newsted:

Even though it had the slabs and it had all the fuzz on it, you know, it still was super, super appealing in that way.

Jason Newsted:

Combine that with always the right place, the right time, and who you know and when you know them.

Corey Wong:

Sure.

Jason Newsted:

That Michael Elago saw them at the time that he did in New York playing brought them to the attention of Cliff Bernstein.

Jason Newsted:

And from that day in:

Jason Newsted:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

But because the management had so much already, so many miles under their feet with AC DC and Nugent Leopard, I mean, all legendary shit that they already knew where they were going.

Jason Newsted:

They saw the commitment and conviction of this band and of Metallica and the appeal that James had as a frontman and that thing and the actual dexterity, bro.

Jason Newsted:

Agility and dexterity, something you're very familiar with like that.

Jason Newsted:

He just had that shit above everybody else.

Jason Newsted:

I play with some bad motherfuckers, man.

Jason Newsted:

Those guys in flotsam are no slouches, man, ever.

Jason Newsted:

You know, even they were ahead of their time, too, Mikey when he was 16, you know what I mean?

Jason Newsted:

So I was used to those kind of play, but not at that caliber like these cats.

Jason Newsted:

I know.

Jason Newsted:

I don't know if, you know, I don't know if you are one of them or that, you know, some of them, but I would have to practice, like, 5 hours to get to where Hetfield gets out of bed and plays cold, you know what I'm saying?

Jason Newsted:

These people that have this certain give, fucking pick it up and go fucking hey, ba ba da.

Jason Newsted:

You know, the accuracy and the precision, it's just there.

Jason Newsted:

And really, actually, no matter how many beers and stuff at that time, somehow it still was able to fire like that, you know?

Jason Newsted:

So, I mean, long answer to the question, but it comes down to a bunch of different elements.

Corey Wong:

Mm hmm.

Jason Newsted:

The band had the songs.

Jason Newsted:

The band had the personnel.

Jason Newsted:

The band had the conviction as a unit.

Jason Newsted:

The management set them up for these shows.

Jason Newsted:

Those who was venom in Europe.

Jason Newsted:

They become big in Europe first, start catching on.

Jason Newsted:

Second album is a gigantic leap from the first one.

Jason Newsted:

As far as the appeal that you're speaking of.

Jason Newsted:

The listen ability.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

That.

Jason Newsted:

The sonic awesomeness, you know, so appealing to so many people that were ready for it.

Jason Newsted:

Okay, here's the last element, the demographics.

Jason Newsted:

So if there's how many hundred thousand white males, twelve to 18 years old, that are down with the devil and they want to hear that thing.

Jason Newsted:

Okay, there was that many people on the.

Jason Newsted:

On our planet, in our country at that time for them to catch on in America.

Jason Newsted:

A whole bunch of bands catch on in Europe and never catch on in America.

Jason Newsted:

It happens.

Jason Newsted:

But they did it.

Jason Newsted:

They were able to do because they were set up for success by the management, gave them a chance to go and hit the ball.

Jason Newsted:

They hit it out of the park most of the time.

Jason Newsted:

So they got asked back to that city the next time in the bigger venue and then the bigger venue, and then the biggest venue in the same town.

Jason Newsted:

But because, but because of all those same elements, continued perpetually.

Jason Newsted:

Band retained conviction, players retained talent.

Jason Newsted:

Managers kept.

Jason Newsted:

Kept the nose to the stone.

Jason Newsted:

People were there to buy the tickets and the album and pay for them, and the band could take the money and reinvest it in themselves and make something happen and go to the next five countries that we couldn't last time.

Jason Newsted:

This type of stuff, we were selling tangible product back then to make the world go round.

Jason Newsted:

That has been removed.

Jason Newsted:

That has been removed from the equation.

Jason Newsted:

Right.

Jason Newsted:

So that, yeah, we have to talk about that later or whatever, but that's why Metallica hit, because those things all kind of came.

Jason Newsted:

The planets aligned with those elements.

Corey Wong:

Yeah, I'd love to get into the current stage of the industry in a little bit, but there's something you said that a lot of people don't really realize as musicians, even those that are right in it, but especially a lot of people that just watch their favorite band play and it's like, wow, these guys have a lot of technical facility.

Jason Newsted:

Cool.

Corey Wong:

Some people think, oh, it's just a thing, but at the end of the day, you're an athlete, especially at the level that you've been playing at.

Corey Wong:

And that many of us have to maintain is there's a real physical and athletic element in taking care of your body, taking care of your chops, and, you know, maintaining that.

Corey Wong:

I'm curious for you, when you were really coming up and, and over the years, what has that physical demand been like for you and how did you get to that level?

Jason Newsted:

I always kept myself pretty much the same.

Jason Newsted:

And I rode a lot of bicycle.

Jason Newsted:

I still do.

Jason Newsted:

There's still just a certain.

Jason Newsted:

Certain things that are innate in the beginning when you're all young and rubbery and shit and you can bounce off a bunch of things and things can bounce off of you.

Jason Newsted:

You can have that vodka that night, get back up and still do the show with that thing.

Jason Newsted:

One really important part, just mentioning that part of it.

Jason Newsted:

I didn't ever drink any alcohol or just.

Jason Newsted:

We would maybe we'd sometimes share community beer and everybody takes a hit and then we go on like that.

Jason Newsted:

But I didn't.

Jason Newsted:

I didn't imbibe in anything like that for any performances in my life.

Jason Newsted:

You know, afterwards.

Jason Newsted:

Afterwards have a cold sapporo and do the thing and all that.

Jason Newsted:

But I never went too far with any product, any.

Jason Newsted:

Any of the inebriation stuff.

Jason Newsted:

I still, like, have a little herb in the thing, but I never went too far with any of those things.

Jason Newsted:

Fortunately for us, for me in particular, I was still so green, still so wet behind the years, you know, they already had a couple tours under their belt.

Jason Newsted:

They had those three albums that were the blueprints for all the shit, you know?

Jason Newsted:

And I was stepping into that.

Jason Newsted:

They were.

Jason Newsted:

They were full fucking locomotive going, how many are a mile an hour?

Jason Newsted:

I just got to jump down.

Jason Newsted:

Trying to hang on.

Jason Newsted:

I didn't.

Jason Newsted:

I haven't been through what they've been through, you know?

Jason Newsted:

What the fuck, man?

Jason Newsted:

Trying to catch up with all of that thing and say, I was in this mode.

Jason Newsted:

Fuck.

Jason Newsted:

Trying to catch up the whole time and being expected to just step in and be where they are, even though they already did all that.

Jason Newsted:

And I've just been playing at clubs in Phoenix and I supposed to be.

Jason Newsted:

Here we.

Jason Newsted:

Oh, fuck.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah, I got that.

Jason Newsted:

You know, dude.

Jason Newsted:

Whoa.

Jason Newsted:

The.

Jason Newsted:

Thrown into the blue flames.

Jason Newsted:

t ahold of it all by the time:

Jason Newsted:

So we played 20 or 25 countries by that time and started to get my stride a little bit, find my role.

Jason Newsted:

Find my role in the band and how to play it.

Jason Newsted:

I know I wasn't going to be the main songwriter or the leader anymore, like in Flotsam or this or this or this.

Jason Newsted:

I was going to be the base guy and the live guy.

Jason Newsted:

I was going to show him what's up with the juice.

Jason Newsted:

And that's what you're talking about.

Jason Newsted:

So the physicality of it all, when you're younger, you can go through a lot more and bounce back quicker as time went on and the demand became greater physically and mentally.

Jason Newsted:

Okay.

Jason Newsted:

At the beginning when you're jamming with your band and you're just doing the gigs where you're in control, you're your own manager and all that stuff, you wearing all the hats in the early days, yeah, your plate is filled up with 85 or 90% of the music and the jam and making the flyers and writing the songs and being cool and developing all your stuff.

Jason Newsted:

And then that 10% is like, going, talking to people a little bit, making sure to let somebody know where you're playing, sell some tickets, and this business part of it, promotion part of it, as the time goes on and the demand of popularity goes up and demand on your time and youre attention and the plate begins to fill up with other things that have really nothing to do with the physicality of the music and the flesh on the strings that starts being removed a little bit, and you got video, photo shoot, award show, longer tour, less days in between, all this thing starts adding up and the plate gets filled up with all the kind of apparatus of it.

Jason Newsted:

You know, you still got 100 people out on tour with you that need to get a check for their kids that week, all that shit.

Jason Newsted:

So you got that.

Jason Newsted:

You know, there's always something coming.

Jason Newsted:

There's always something two weeks away, three weeks away, eight weeks away, four days away.

Jason Newsted:

There's always something coming at you like that.

Jason Newsted:

So the mental part of it, I think, is actually more difficult than the physical part.

Jason Newsted:

You can go and lose some weights and ride your bike and keep yourself stretched and hydrated and stuff.

Jason Newsted:

What you learn to do as the demand becomes greater and you get a little more money, you get a dude out on the road that does your diet and does your thing so you can be the athlete, you know, you're not just going to get up and run the fucking marathon the next day.

Jason Newsted:

You got to work up to that shit, you know what I'm saying?

Jason Newsted:

Six weeks before the tour, you're on your bike sweating every day, making sure the thing chops, vocal stuff, all that before you hit the first day, you got to be ready.

Jason Newsted:

Like an athlete, like a boxer, like an olympian.

Jason Newsted:

It is, it is like that.

Jason Newsted:

So, but the, but the.

Jason Newsted:

A lot of people can jump high and run fast and all that, that's, that's that thing.

Jason Newsted:

Okay?

Jason Newsted:

But when you tie it to the middle and always have to know what's coming next from here, whether it's on your instrument or in the interview question or in this thing, it presented that way representing the entire outfit.

Jason Newsted:

When you're on your own, when there's nobody else in the band or the entity there with you, you're just there dressed up, and you're there to represent the make a wish foundation for the band and all that name, all that shit.

Jason Newsted:

That's when it starts, you know, being a little more challenging, in my opinion.

Corey Wong:

Sure.

Jason Newsted:

You don't so many people.

Jason Newsted:

It affects so many people.

Jason Newsted:

You don't know where you're going to reach, man.

Jason Newsted:

You don't know how far you're going to reach.

Jason Newsted:

My mom shows me this picture inside of National Geographic.

Jason Newsted:

For all I know, the guy's got.

Jason Newsted:

He's in the middle of a rice paddy in some Malaysia somewhere, up to his knees, you know, in mud with a metallica shirt on.

Jason Newsted:

Like, dude, what the what?

Jason Newsted:

How do I.

Jason Newsted:

How do we know?

Jason Newsted:

How do you know where your music's gonna go?

Jason Newsted:

Who's gonna watch your Madison Square garden video today?

Jason Newsted:

You don't fucking know.

Jason Newsted:

It could be guy Tim Buck, too, man.

Jason Newsted:

You don't know.

Jason Newsted:

You don't know where you're gonna reach.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah, yeah.

Jason Newsted:

So people that come and see the shows, and they get really emotional.

Jason Newsted:

They're so tied to it, they see that they're part of something bigger themselves, too.

Jason Newsted:

All singing the songs together become like a community, like an army, you know, there's.

Jason Newsted:

It's not that you don't care about what goes on with the people and all the things, but you can't be responsible for everybody, you know?

Jason Newsted:

And so this kind of challenge, like, you want to represent the bandaid and yourself the best that you can consistently, because you could have 300 shows that were just, holy fuck.

Jason Newsted:

And then one where you wiped out or your had, you know, bronchitis and you couldn't sing, right.

Jason Newsted:

That's the one that.

Jason Newsted:

And especially today with the global thing we're talking about, you know?

Jason Newsted:

So answering your question, the physicality.

Jason Newsted:

Physicality.

Jason Newsted:

If you eat right and keep your hydration and do your thing, then that could be maintained for quite a while.

Jason Newsted:

But this guy right here, you gotta sometimes give it a minute.

Jason Newsted:

And that's kind of what came down.

Jason Newsted:

That's what came down for me in that entity.

Jason Newsted:

I just.

Jason Newsted:

Sure, I need it.

Jason Newsted:

I needed a minute.

Jason Newsted:

I just fucking needed a minute.

Jason Newsted:

That's all.

Jason Newsted:

You know?

Jason Newsted:

But they'll know, man.

Jason Newsted:

We got to keep fucking going.

Jason Newsted:

I'm okay.

Jason Newsted:

Well, you got to go without me, dude, because I want to be alive next year.

Jason Newsted:

And right now it says 20 whatever years later.

Jason Newsted:

And I'm here smiling at you, buddy, you know?

Jason Newsted:

Yeah, but it's mentally, physically, I think.

Corey Wong:

Yeah, I think we're in an interesting era with that because we're at a point where all that stuff is so immediate.

Corey Wong:

It's not just, we had one bad show and there was a few write ups about it, and then the write ups got shared around and blah, blah, blah.

Corey Wong:

People were on the phone talking about it.

Corey Wong:

It's like, it is immediate.

Corey Wong:

Somebody posts a video from that gig, and everywhere in the world now everybody else can see some random cats video of you wiping out or whatever.

Corey Wong:

And it is a lot more mentally taxing on us and our availability that we have with social media and kind of the need for it.

Corey Wong:

And honestly, I enjoy the fact that I can be somebody who can connect with the fans on a personal level, and hopefully it maintains a healthy balance and a healthy barrier in certain cases.

Corey Wong:

But I think with the immediacy of where we're at in society, we're noticing a lot more need.

Corey Wong:

And just like, a call to, like, yo, we all got to look out for each other, and we have to have a little bit of.

Corey Wong:

A little more awareness of our mental health, maybe more.

Corey Wong:

So maybe we're talking about it a little more now, I don't know, than what it was in the nineties or.

Corey Wong:

But it's definitely a huge conversation that's been going on.

Jason Newsted:

I have a question for you.

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

So.

Jason Newsted:

And it's the thing that really, it gets in my craw the most.

Jason Newsted:

It gets under my skin the most these days.

Jason Newsted:

How have you been able to manage or get along with or accept the screen between you and.

Jason Newsted:

And your audience?

Jason Newsted:

Like, I'm right fucking here.

Jason Newsted:

Why do you have to have this in between us?

Jason Newsted:

I am out here trying to share with you.

Jason Newsted:

I didn't.

Jason Newsted:

You came here for me, right?

Jason Newsted:

I did come here for you, but you came here for me.

Jason Newsted:

You paid to come to see this.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

And I came out because I like doing it.

Jason Newsted:

But if the respect is not there and you're not paying attention, I ain't fucking come right.

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

I'm just not.

Jason Newsted:

I'm not doing anymore because I was.

Jason Newsted:

I came up a few minutes ago.

Jason Newsted:

We're talking about visceral man.

Jason Newsted:

Fucking sweat and blood and broken bones and the beginnings of what became mosh pits, the origins, you know, and the real fucking thing.

Jason Newsted:

And so as I got out of the big act just in time before everyone had a camera in their pocket.

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

You know, it used to be that when you wanted, man, take a photo.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

They pull out their instamatic and we do a picture.

Jason Newsted:

That's what I knew.

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

So I'm asking you from my.

Jason Newsted:

From my era, or what do you want to call it to your era now?

Jason Newsted:

I want to know the pros and the beauty somehow.

Jason Newsted:

Like, I get the connectivity.

Jason Newsted:

I think harness, like, you're speaking of harnessing it to their advantage and yours.

Jason Newsted:

So it could be a blossom, like every.

Jason Newsted:

Like it's supposed to be.

Jason Newsted:

What I'm talking about is the hindrance of why you're there, the connection that is the most important thing and why we do this, why we keep going back to it.

Jason Newsted:

Why do I keep going back to it?

Jason Newsted:

Because of the feeling that we feel when we end the song together and it goes, fuck.

Jason Newsted:

And we go, fuck.

Jason Newsted:

Like, that strength, that beauty and the juice and the adrenaline and all the thing that comes from it.

Jason Newsted:

We know it.

Jason Newsted:

We've tasted it frequently.

Jason Newsted:

We want to keep tasting it.

Jason Newsted:

When it's good, it's so sweet.

Jason Newsted:

When it's bad, it's fucking sour.

Jason Newsted:

So that connection being removed, is it removing the connection or enhancing the connection?

Corey Wong:

I think it's both, honestly, and I think it's the listener or the audience members intent.

Corey Wong:

A lot of times.

Corey Wong:

I mean, this has been part of.

Corey Wong:

Every time I've done a gig that quote unquote mattered, it's been in the phone era.

Corey Wong:

It's been in the social media era.

Corey Wong:

So, yes, I do think that the presence and being present is so important, and it has such a deeper thing.

Corey Wong:

I remember years ago going to.

Corey Wong:

To prince shows here in Minneapolis at Paisley park, where it's just like you're putting your phone in a little bag, and we're locking it, and all of a sudden, it's like, yeah, we're waiting around for 2 hours for prince to come out, but guess what's happening?

Corey Wong:

There's a dj playing, and people are talking to each other in a different way.

Corey Wong:

There's a community thing that all of a sudden, it felt more special.

Corey Wong:

So, yes, I long for that.

Corey Wong:

But I am also aware that, you know, we're just in a time where we're all.

Corey Wong:

I mean, I'm guilty of it sometimes, tied to our phones and certain things.

Corey Wong:

And sometimes, you know, like I said, the intention of somebody.

Corey Wong:

A lot of times, people go to a concert, and it might be the cool thing to go to that concert.

Corey Wong:

So they want to take videos, and they want to let all of their followers and people know I'm the kind of person that does cool things, like go to Coachella or whatever.

Corey Wong:

And I'm the kind of person that's into cool, young, hip bands.

Corey Wong:

So I'm going to post a video of the band so people know that I'm cool.

Corey Wong:

You know, I think that sort of thing, it's like, oh, come on.

Corey Wong:

Like, all right, whatever.

Corey Wong:

But there is also some people that they just.

Corey Wong:

In their mind, they're like, I have to have some way to remember this thing.

Corey Wong:

And the only way that I know how to capture what I can remember is through my phone, rather than just like, you know, my dad telling stories about seeing Hendrix for 750 in the front row.

Corey Wong:

You know, he has that memory so locked in.

Corey Wong:

Cause he was so present.

Corey Wong:

And I think many of us have a hard time being present enough and having the practice of being present enough.

Jason Newsted:

Yep.

Jason Newsted:

And you got it because it's the generation.

Jason Newsted:

It's what they came up with.

Jason Newsted:

You guys didn't have phones on the wall or hooked to the, you know, to the house and stuff.

Jason Newsted:

It's just a different thing.

Jason Newsted:

So it's.

Jason Newsted:

It's just normal.

Jason Newsted:

It's just normal.

Jason Newsted:

But.

Jason Newsted:

But I've been part of the change, or those from my era have been, you know, through all of the change of technology in that way.

Jason Newsted:

And it's really.

Jason Newsted:

It's different than, you know, hey, there's radio, then there's screen.

Jason Newsted:

The silver screen, then there's television, then there's, you know, it's not like that.

Jason Newsted:

I don't think.

Jason Newsted:

I think it's way more.

Jason Newsted:

Way more distracting and kind of forms the person.

Jason Newsted:

And I want to speak to what you said there.

Jason Newsted:

There's maybe a little percentage of people that are doing it for, you know, posterity and that they're gonna have.

Jason Newsted:

That.

Jason Newsted:

They have a collection.

Jason Newsted:

They want to get that.

Jason Newsted:

That's their own thing, and they're keeping it for themselves.

Jason Newsted:

That's.

Jason Newsted:

That's minor.

Jason Newsted:

And then the people that.

Jason Newsted:

Unless.

Jason Newsted:

Unless I have a picture of it over a video of it showing me doing it, nobody believes I did it, and maybe I don't either.

Jason Newsted:

You know, that.

Jason Newsted:

That.

Jason Newsted:

That's.

Jason Newsted:

That's a little fucked up, and it's real shallow.

Jason Newsted:

And speaking to the last thing you said, you know, I wrote in a.

Jason Newsted:

It was a song for a Newstead band about tiny trains of thought, right?

Jason Newsted:

And when you read a book or you.

Jason Newsted:

Or you take, you know, a lesson like this, not.

Jason Newsted:

Not from somebody showing you on the Internet.

Jason Newsted:

No.

Jason Newsted:

Goes like that, but actually, like, used to learn off the lp and fuck till you got it, you know, that type of stuff.

Jason Newsted:

The stuff that I learned from Sabbath and Russia and everything when I was 15.

Jason Newsted:

I could whip up for you right now for the stuff that I looked at and learned from Jason Isabel or John Prine or something.

Jason Newsted:

Just cheating on the chords.

Jason Newsted:

I couldn't really play unless I looked at some notes.

Jason Newsted:

You know what I'm saying?

Jason Newsted:

So that the tiny trains of thought and the shallow depths that are created from just having this instant gratification thing there.

Jason Newsted:

And the thought that I am not worth anything unless I can prove to somebody I was taking part in something else and being around someone famous.

Jason Newsted:

So that therefore, I am somehow precipitously famous as well.

Jason Newsted:

You know, this kind of thing, it's like in different places that you go where there's a lot of stellar athletes and musicians camp out down in Florida, kind of where we hang with golfers and baseball players.

Jason Newsted:

And all the people kind of converge in those places.

Jason Newsted:

There's a thing, and I wish I could tell you the terminology.

Jason Newsted:

I can't remember the term for it, but it is a term where people, you know, to rub elbows with those persons that have achieved something in the spotlight, then that gives them their own spotlight somehow.

Jason Newsted:

This is an inference or a little tributary of this type of shit.

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Corey Wong:

One.

Corey Wong:

I mean, it's a.

Corey Wong:

Some people get tensed up talking about this.

Corey Wong:

Or some people even are like, oh, well, this is a guy who's just kind of got this old curmudgeonly approach to it.

Corey Wong:

But.

Corey Wong:

But.

Corey Wong:

And there is that.

Corey Wong:

Yes, there is some people.

Corey Wong:

But honestly, I really appreciate the way that you're talking about it, because the.

Corey Wong:

When I hear you talk about it, it feels like it's coming from a posture of, I care so much about the art.

Corey Wong:

I care so much about what I'm doing.

Corey Wong:

I place so much value on this.

Corey Wong:

I really just wish that you would pay attention to this.

Corey Wong:

Don't just go to the museum and take a picture of the Van Gogh and then move on.

Corey Wong:

Like, go there, take a look at it and absorb it.

Corey Wong:

Take a look at the tone, colors, the intention.

Corey Wong:

Why did this painting happen in the first place?

Corey Wong:

What decisions were made for this painting to exist?

Corey Wong:

What was this person going through in their life?

Corey Wong:

So, for me, when I hear you talk about this, it actually does not at all come across as, man, I wish it was back in the old days.

Corey Wong:

It comes from a place of, like, you know what?

Corey Wong:

Back in the day, we had this.

Corey Wong:

Here's what I'm noticing now.

Corey Wong:

Oh, man.

Corey Wong:

I feel like some of these people are missing out.

Corey Wong:

You know, I almost feel like you come from an empathy stance rather than an anger.

Jason Newsted:

So the thing I spend most of my time doing now, if I am to play music, I choose four to six shows a year, and they're all benefits, and they usually go to kids art programs and music programs.

Jason Newsted:

And we did a veterans benefit just a couple nights ago, and this kind of stuff, whatever I put my name on my logo with the chop house band next to.

Jason Newsted:

It's got to be something.

Jason Newsted:

It's got to be something that's up to snuff.

Jason Newsted:

It's got to be something that's sound.

Jason Newsted:

And so the feeling that we were speaking about a little while ago that you and I feel all the time when we play, and the reward that comes from it, whether you recorded something that you had in your mind and you're able to develop the structure and the arrangement and make it all cool like you want or as sparse as you want or whatever, being able to do that and feel the feeling of the completion, the anticipation of it being done, that reward and all kind of thing like that.

Jason Newsted:

So anticipation is probably top three most valuable things a human can have.

Jason Newsted:

And feeling the feeling of hitting those chords together, remembering a three minute song, even if it's just Mary had a little lamb, or this land is your land or something, where you remember the structure of it to that place and you feel good about doing.

Jason Newsted:

That relationship that you have with your instrument is something no one can take from you.

Jason Newsted:

No matter how many people are in the symphony or in the ensemble or whatever, you got your own thing, so it's your own voice and your.

Jason Newsted:

And your own guitar, then nobody could take that from you, man, no matter what happens.

Jason Newsted:

So developing that relationship with an instrument, no matter which one you choose, man, whichever one you gravitate towards, go for it.

Jason Newsted:

Just because your dad played violin don't mean you can't play bassoon or whatever the fuck.

Jason Newsted:

It's up to you what you gravitate towards if you feel like doing music.

Jason Newsted:

But if you go that way, I want kids to feel that feeling that I still chase every day, you know, and that.

Jason Newsted:

And it is at its highest high, its highest conclusion, you know, of success when the connection is made with the other human.

Jason Newsted:

Right.

Jason Newsted:

When we hear somebody really good, Adele or someone sing a capella, we get wiped out, man.

Jason Newsted:

Our bodies are covered with bumps, and we didn't try.

Jason Newsted:

We didn't try.

Jason Newsted:

There was no effort involved.

Jason Newsted:

It just fucking happened.

Jason Newsted:

The music just floats through the air, man.

Jason Newsted:

It just floats through the air.

Jason Newsted:

So if you can attract somebody like that and make a kid feel that way.

Jason Newsted:

I want as many people as possible to feel that feeling.

Jason Newsted:

So the highest feeling that you can feel is that way is without a fucking interrupter in between.

Jason Newsted:

Whatever generation does whatever they do, peace.

Jason Newsted:

I'm not telling you what you can and can't do.

Jason Newsted:

That's not what I'm doing at all.

Jason Newsted:

I'm just trying to say all the software in the world, all the greatest holy fancy shit that they even showed anybody yet is never going to outdo our receptors that we're already born with.

Jason Newsted:

To feel the female fucking base pull the sternum out of your chest, you know, like the vacuum of the fucking power and that kind of thing.

Jason Newsted:

Let allow yourself to take it in and get crushed by it, get enveloped by it, get enlightened by it.

Jason Newsted:

This is only hindering your enlightenment.

Jason Newsted:

And it's like, it fucks with me, man.

Jason Newsted:

I thought, everybody's going to do whatever they do, man.

Jason Newsted:

And it helps promote people and get that, and they see the show, and if it's a good show, it helps you suck.

Jason Newsted:

Peace, man.

Jason Newsted:

Peace.

Jason Newsted:

I just one time would like to look across the crowd and see not all those cameras come up and just everybody going, instead of that, putting their pocket going, fuck, yeah.

Jason Newsted:

You know?

Jason Newsted:

Feel the feeling, man.

Jason Newsted:

That's what I want.

Jason Newsted:

That's all I want.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah.

Corey Wong:

Honestly, hearing you talk about this stuff now in a lot of ways answers an earlier question about what are you paying attention to?

Corey Wong:

And so much of.

Corey Wong:

So much of the way that I'm hearing you talk about this and just looking at.

Corey Wong:

At the things that you've done through your career, show me that you're a real artiste.

Corey Wong:

I mean.

Corey Wong:

I mean that in a lot of ways, and you approach things in a way that's so respectful to the art.

Corey Wong:

I know that I've watched a lot of.

Corey Wong:

There's two examples that I really lat latched onto preparing for this interview.

Corey Wong:

One was hearing some of your solo bass performances in concerts where it's like, I've heard a lot of people do stuff where it's just the bass guitar, and it's either, you know, there's a lot of ways to approach it, but I felt like you did it in a way that showed technical mastery only for the sake of, this is what the song is that I want to play, and technical mastery is just part of what needs to happen to get this thing across.

Corey Wong:

And then also, when hearing about you having some injuries, you didn't just say, I'm hanging up the spikes I got nothing left to say.

Corey Wong:

You say, I am still a person who has something to express.

Corey Wong:

There's a certain part of myself to express, and then looking at some of your paintings, it's like there's depth in there.

Corey Wong:

There's so much that I can tell that you're wanting to express, and there's a real, like you're saying a human connection that you're wanting to make a real self expression with that self expression.

Corey Wong:

I'm curious, when it comes to painting, is there something you're able to express in your artistry that you're not able to express in your music?

Jason Newsted:

Yes, because it's best, usually, Corey, when the instruments in tune, you know, and with the paint, very few rules for me, you know, there doesn't have to be in tune, and sometimes I really don't want it to be in tune at all.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

So it's the opportunity and the boundaries are pretty much non existent, so I don't say no to any medium.

Jason Newsted:

Mix whatever I need to with whatever I need to to make the thing for that day, whatever it happens.

Jason Newsted:

So it's really a lot broader chance to express and a lot freer.

Jason Newsted:

There's.

Jason Newsted:

I don't have things to answer up to and stuff, you know, I.

Jason Newsted:

I made a full record with chop.

Jason Newsted:

I spent a couple years back to the full thing, all the dough.

Jason Newsted:

Real studios hired people to play all the shit, man, and it came out pretty good.

Jason Newsted:

Let's do it again for the first time in months yesterday.

Jason Newsted:

But I didn't share with anybody other than just like, q prime here and stuff.

Jason Newsted:

It wasn't like that for me, you know, if I eventually let people hear that and everything, it's cool, but it's the thing that I went all the way.

Jason Newsted:

I'm relating it to the canvas.

Jason Newsted:

So it's the only time that I've been able to do that kind of what we're just speaking over the canvas.

Jason Newsted:

I have a lot less limitations.

Jason Newsted:

So, of course it's going to have this bass thing and it's going to have this.

Jason Newsted:

It's going to have this, but the other stuff and the female vocal and army's a vocal and cellos and french horns and whatever it is to make the textures of these songs that cover all the way from the softest kind of mandolini stuff all the way to full fucking tomb down slabs, all within an hour and hours worth of music.

Jason Newsted:

But I was able for the first time to do that.

Jason Newsted:

All the stuff that I actually heard when I first wrote the song, like if it had this and this and this and this towering shit and, oh, all that, first time I got to do it.

Jason Newsted:

The reason I brought it up, I guess, is because I hold myself back from doing anything too big of a step, because I am so conscious of protecting the legacy.

Jason Newsted:

And I think that I've hindered myself sometimes.

Jason Newsted:

I'm not maybe just releasing everything.

Jason Newsted:

the chop house since probably:

Jason Newsted:

And so we did three or 4 hours or 5 hours on the GoPro last week.

Jason Newsted:

It's just, I got all of it on video, audio, whatever.

Jason Newsted:

Actually, whatever was the medium of the day, the mode of the day.

Jason Newsted:

So I have the big tape and I have that other real tape and I got dats and all the shit through all the years of the different formats.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

But everything is recorded.

Jason Newsted:

So someday is my nephew's son going to go through that shit and find something magical?

Jason Newsted:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

Yep.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah, there's cool shit.

Jason Newsted:

There's incredible shit in there.

Jason Newsted:

And I think probably if I played you a couple things, you'd go, okay, you know, because it's.

Jason Newsted:

It's beautiful, man.

Jason Newsted:

It's fucking beautiful.

Jason Newsted:

But it's not.

Jason Newsted:

I don't necessarily want to put it out there as that foot.

Jason Newsted:

I.

Jason Newsted:

People want to come and see the band play and hear the songs, or I share a couple with somebody, wherever.

Jason Newsted:

That's that.

Jason Newsted:

It's no longer a goal to compete or do these things like that.

Corey Wong:

Sure.

Corey Wong:

I think that's beautiful.

Corey Wong:

I mean, honestly, I love your awareness in all of it and your never ending desire to just keep creating and keep exploring.

Corey Wong:

I mean, I watched a video, sorry, yesterday, of the chop house bandaid, and I was like, oh, Jason's playing an acoustasonic fender guitar and singing.

Corey Wong:

And I was listening to you play all these songs that I thought, wow, I would not have.

Corey Wong:

This isn't necessarily what I expected, but it's so dope and it just has, it has a thing to it that's really cool.

Corey Wong:

And hearing your voice and your tone and the way that you approach.

Corey Wong:

And then that's where I realized I was like, oh, I didn't know.

Corey Wong:

The pick thing, it's like, oh, yeah, the pick thing just comes so natural.

Corey Wong:

And then seeing you play some finger style on guitar, like you're saying, it's really interesting to see that side of your artistry, but it also is, I can understand why you might be a little bit conflicted on how it is a part of your legacy or something of how people know who you are?

Jason Newsted:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

I think enough time.

Jason Newsted:

I'm really getting to the point.

Jason Newsted:

I think enough time has passed because my really.

Jason Newsted:

My peak was probably, I guess, what, 31, 30 or 31 years ago, black album, second year of the black album tour.

Jason Newsted:

That's probably a peaky peak, you know, so that's a while ago.

Jason Newsted:

That's a few generations for people to remember or whatever.

Jason Newsted:

So I get away with just about anything now, if I wanted to release some stuff, and it's.

Jason Newsted:

I'm not gonna say never, you know, on any of that, but something just came across my mind when you said that.

Jason Newsted:

I think it's fantastic.

Jason Newsted:

And that's why.

Jason Newsted:

That's why, when I do say yes to these things, this is what I expect, because you've got, you know, depth and everything, and it just.

Jason Newsted:

I love it.

Jason Newsted:

I really do.

Jason Newsted:

What I just realized, if.

Jason Newsted:

If I wouldn't have made the move that I did out of the big ban, would I still have this hunger now?

Jason Newsted:

Would I still want to learn mandolin and theremin and guitar and every other fucking thing that I've tried to come up and play with sequencers and all the shit that I'm still messing with all the time.

Jason Newsted:

I was doing loop stuff before any of those cats even knew what a fucking loop was, dude.

Jason Newsted:

I mean, way back when, the.

Jason Newsted:

When the.

Jason Newsted:

Probably by DD four or DD five had that little looper guy on it for 30 seconds worth or something.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah, I fucked that up all the way from back then, dude, always.

Jason Newsted:

And I had my rig where it had the Roland VG eight, and so I would take the VG eight synthesizer guy and put it on the P bass setting, 59 p bass setting, and then just run that through my SVT.

Jason Newsted:

And then I would have the guitar, regular pickup with the EMG, the 81, and the whatever.

Jason Newsted:

Metallica setup going through my old basement and that shit going, right.

Jason Newsted:

So it was a one voice thing like royal blood.

Jason Newsted:

I was doing royal blood in:

Jason Newsted:

So I'd been experimenting, but would I have gone to the place of collecting songs still on a pretty much on a weekly basis?

Jason Newsted:

Finding heroes, like I talked about earlier, finding younger heroes.

Jason Newsted:

You know, we're always going to be able to go to whichever.

Jason Newsted:

You go to Picasso and the thing and the thing, or you can go to Eric Clapton.

Jason Newsted:

What do you want to.

Jason Newsted:

There's always going to be the people that came before you, that made it possible for you that you call your heroes, be an author, an athlete, a musician, a lawyer, whatever the hell.

Jason Newsted:

But then when the younger people, like yourself, Jason, is.

Jason Newsted:

Well, we've been friends for some years now, you know, this kind of thing.

Jason Newsted:

Trying to get my foot in the door with a little americana vibe, hoping I can get a little osmosis, just kind of hang out a little bit, you know?

Jason Newsted:

But taking that all in and taking on younger heroes, and it's so healthy.

Jason Newsted:

And I'm not sure if my spoiled, arrogant ass wouldn't have gravitated toward.

Jason Newsted:

If I stayed in the big band and only played bass, would I stayed in that tunnel vision?

Jason Newsted:

Would I have just worried about collecting only bases?

Jason Newsted:

And would I only done that and try to be a better bass player?

Jason Newsted:

Or would I gone on to learn as much acoustic or really want to be a songwriter?

Jason Newsted:

Would I have ever done that more than just writing on bass?

Jason Newsted:

I don't know.

Jason Newsted:

I don't know.

Jason Newsted:

There's not.

Jason Newsted:

You know, all I know is it happened, and they're still going, and I'm still going.

Jason Newsted:

And Buck, I don't know.

Jason Newsted:

But I'm not sure if the hunger would be the same if I.

Jason Newsted:

I didn't get to fulfill that thing.

Jason Newsted:

That's simple as fuck.

Jason Newsted:

I did not get to fulfill that journey that got cut short for me.

Jason Newsted:

So I'm making up for it.

Jason Newsted:

There's something that Brian Sagafino, the drummer of Echo Brain, we've been playing since he was, like, 16 years old, and he's, I don't know, 40 something now.

Jason Newsted:

But back then, we were making the first Echo brain album, and he said, jay, what are you gonna do now?

Jason Newsted:

I'm like, what do you mean?

Jason Newsted:

And he goes, well, you already climbed the tallest mountain.

Jason Newsted:

I mean, what are you gonna do?

Jason Newsted:

Everything else from now on?

Jason Newsted:

The rest of your life is gonna pale in comparison.

Jason Newsted:

There's nothing you're ever gonna do that's gonna reach this.

Jason Newsted:

And I didn't really take too seriously at the time, but now that a couple decades have gone past since the Echo brain tour, I'm like, fuck it.

Jason Newsted:

Hey, man, that kid had it back then.

Jason Newsted:

He knew when he was 19 exactly what it was so plain to see that a young person could see it.

Jason Newsted:

But I was so I just.

Jason Newsted:

I just came down last year, you know, I've been still floating from all that shit for 20 fucking years.

Jason Newsted:

I'm just now coming down and getting my feet on the earth and like, oh, this is what normalcy is.

Jason Newsted:

It took a long time.

Corey Wong:

Well, there's a huge difference between success and fulfillment, and obviously, you've achieved an objective amount of success.

Corey Wong:

Like you've said, you know, as one of the top bass players in the world, one of the top bands in the world, and so many other projects that.

Corey Wong:

That have, you know, brought so much meaning and success as well for you.

Corey Wong:

Now, what are you.

Corey Wong:

What are you doing to define fulfillment or success in your life?

Jason Newsted:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

As I contemplated Brian's statement, I thought about, you know, that way, what we talked about, maybe part of our theme of conversation about how.

Jason Newsted:

How the world measures it or how public measures it or fandom measures it.

Jason Newsted:

Voivod is a far more challenging outfit to perform in and record with than Metallica, ever.

Jason Newsted:

Washington.

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

Okay.

Jason Newsted:

So people looking at, like, that, okay, you did that.

Jason Newsted:

And that's the thing.

Jason Newsted:

Everybody looks at the awards and the sales and the thing.

Jason Newsted:

The challenge as a musician, the only way that I could not only either go straight across and just stay at that, you know what I mean?

Jason Newsted:

Or I could go up a different mountain that was equally as challenging.

Jason Newsted:

It might not be as tall, but it's harder to climb.

Jason Newsted:

So you come and play with piggy.

Jason Newsted:

Okay.

Jason Newsted:

This is a different universe, bro.

Jason Newsted:

Right.

Jason Newsted:

His tune.

Jason Newsted:

He always did his.

Jason Newsted:

I can't even matter.

Jason Newsted:

Like, in.

Jason Newsted:

Is there a thing such as tenths?

Jason Newsted:

Like, he could tune in tenths?

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

Is that a thing?

Jason Newsted:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

Okay, so I remember specifically, we told this story a few times, and I think Michelle probably has, too, but his kids in a.

Jason Newsted:

It was in the guitar premier.

Jason Newsted:

Not premier guitar, but one of the, you know, guitar magazines from back in the day.

Jason Newsted:

And they were.

Jason Newsted:

It was from maybe around the nothing face turn in the nineties, where they were getting a lot more attention.

Jason Newsted:

Like, Soundgarden opened for him that year, that type of shit.

Jason Newsted:

You know, they were.

Jason Newsted:

They were finally getting somewhere, and so they had some tablature of Piggy's parts on a certain song in the magazine.

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

And it showed this.

Jason Newsted:

It showed the thing.

Jason Newsted:

And fucking, you know, you need another finger coming out over here to do it, you know?

Jason Newsted:

And he goes, no, this.

Jason Newsted:

This is wrong.

Jason Newsted:

This is wrong.

Jason Newsted:

See?

Jason Newsted:

It's wrong.

Jason Newsted:

And he goes, like, then they put one finger across.

Jason Newsted:

Like, I was sh.

Jason Newsted:

All fucking sideways dissonant thing, you know, he goes, say, that's so stupid.

Jason Newsted:

Like, he outsmarted the guitar somehow.

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

You know, he would only.

Jason Newsted:

I can use one finger when they needed nine something.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

So there was just.

Jason Newsted:

And French as their dominant language or their first language.

Jason Newsted:

And I didn't know anything other than greeting and ordering a cheese sandwich or whatever goes on.

Jason Newsted:

And so he's donating me fuss a lottie, and I may be CDFG.

Jason Newsted:

And so when he said, doll feed.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah, like this.

Jason Newsted:

And I'm going, what the fuck, man?

Jason Newsted:

Right?

Jason Newsted:

So I just have to watch it.

Jason Newsted:

Like, if you were.

Jason Newsted:

If we were jamming, right?

Jason Newsted:

And you said, jay, follow this thing.

Jason Newsted:

And you go, not too complicated, you know, just for me.

Jason Newsted:

Right.

Jason Newsted:

So just do, like a little thing there.

Jason Newsted:

Three or four chord structure there.

Jason Newsted:

And, uh.

Jason Newsted:

And I go, okay, watch your hand.

Jason Newsted:

And I watch your hand.

Jason Newsted:

I see it, and then I go, boom, here we go.

Jason Newsted:

Right?

Jason Newsted:

Okay.

Jason Newsted:

But.

Jason Newsted:

Because I can.

Jason Newsted:

I can see it.

Jason Newsted:

But when you did it, it was.

Jason Newsted:

It's not.

Jason Newsted:

That's not a fucking d and that's not a g.

Jason Newsted:

That's like.

Jason Newsted:

That's a q.

Jason Newsted:

Flatulent, demented something or other.

Jason Newsted:

And that's a.

Jason Newsted:

Whatever this is, dude.

Jason Newsted:

I don't fucking know.

Corey Wong:

Ah, that's good.

Jason Newsted:

That's what I'm saying.

Jason Newsted:

I tried to find a different angle to climb as tough of a mountain, and so playing with those guys, that totally lit my head up.

Jason Newsted:

Talk about having to be on your toes, dude.

Jason Newsted:

I mean, it's so much different than anything I really ever played.

Jason Newsted:

We got how many other songs I play with the metallic?

Jason Newsted:

110 or something, and 90% of them is e minor.

Jason Newsted:

E flat.

Jason Newsted:

You know, minor.

Jason Newsted:

It's a yemenite.

Jason Newsted:

That's not, I don't know, living on that big string.

Jason Newsted:

I could have just had four of the big strings on the base, you know, and I just kept snapping them off, and it wouldn't have mattered.

Corey Wong:

You might be selling yourself short on that.

Jason Newsted:

You have some.

Jason Newsted:

You know what I'm saying?

Corey Wong:

Yeah, I know.

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Corey Wong:

Well, I mean, you've seen, like, you're saying you're paying attention.

Corey Wong:

You are.

Corey Wong:

It's cool to me hearing you say, oh, I want to find some younger heroes.

Corey Wong:

So, clearly, you're on the Internet.

Corey Wong:

You're looking.

Corey Wong:

You're basically doing the equivalent of crate digging, but on the Internet, which is cool when you see a lot of artists that are younger, that are wanting to get to that place where they're known, and they might not be known.

Corey Wong:

They can't quite put a finger on why I'm good at my instrument, but why don't people care?

Corey Wong:

Do you have any advice for those folks, or do you have some just kind of general.

Corey Wong:

The things from your experience?

Jason Newsted:

I think that the competition is so much greater, and the one thing that I would say specifically about that is I got it from somebody else and they said that the Internet was the killer of creativity or whatever, because you or seeing some 900 other people that can play faster than you or whatever, there's always somebody that can play faster.

Jason Newsted:

But now you're aware of it right there.

Corey Wong:

Sure.

Jason Newsted:

I remember in Scottsdale, Arizona, where we were working on flotsam in the early years, and it was probably.

Jason Newsted:

I worked two jobs, bro.

Jason Newsted:

I really worked hard to get to keep the van going and stuff like that.

Jason Newsted:

And I was looking out over, over Scottsdale.

Jason Newsted:

pretty, pretty small place in:

Jason Newsted:

It wasn't like it is now.

Jason Newsted:

Fucking psycho.

Jason Newsted:

But.

Jason Newsted:

But it was just nice little village almost.

Jason Newsted:

It was two or three in the morning, and I got my bass, and I played very, a lot more without an amp than I did with an amp because there wasn't little compact shits or anything, a little headphone set up or anything back then.

Jason Newsted:

So it's kind of what got me where I got to because I beat the piss out of it with a really heavy pick and the heaviest gauge bass string.

Jason Newsted:

And so I just would be this fucking ticket.

Jason Newsted:

Even when there's not plugged in, you could hear what I was playing.

Jason Newsted:

And so when that got plugged in, it went, because I still played with the same intensity like I'd always practice without an amp.

Jason Newsted:

So it kind of came in that play.

Jason Newsted:

So I'm doing that, doing that thing, and I look it over Scottsdale, I'm like, you know, 230 in the morning.

Jason Newsted:

There's a few lights on out there.

Jason Newsted:

I know for a fact that I am the only person right now doing this.

Jason Newsted:

I am the only one, as far as I can see, up at 230, beating the piss out of a base.

Jason Newsted:

I know it.

Jason Newsted:

And whether it was true or not, I believed it all the way through.

Jason Newsted:

I didn't have any screen or any kind of other connection from the fucking globe to tell me that I wasn't the only one doing that.

Jason Newsted:

So my confidence and my self esteem and all that shit top this motherfucker.

Jason Newsted:

Because there wasn't anybody.

Jason Newsted:

I didn't see any competition, didn't view that, didn't view the world like that at all.

Jason Newsted:

We were going to crush.

Jason Newsted:

That's it.

Jason Newsted:

There wasn't.

Jason Newsted:

I wasn't any.

Jason Newsted:

Any option at all.

Jason Newsted:

We were only going to win.

Jason Newsted:

And that was my take on it.

Jason Newsted:

All that, all that time.

Jason Newsted:

So now if you can keep a little bit of that, how much ever you can keep present in your balance, something I want to talk to you about earlier when you're saying a few things.

Jason Newsted:

If you.

Jason Newsted:

How much you have your music or your art or these things that make up your balance.

Jason Newsted:

If you got your circle of 13 or 15 or 17 people are your closest people.

Jason Newsted:

And what makes up your balance is your love of your children, your yoga, your guitar, your production, your touring, your wife, your.

Jason Newsted:

Whatever these things, church, whatever the people, whatever people do, you start taking one of those major pieces out of that balance, you start going all fucking wobbly.

Jason Newsted:

Any of those.

Jason Newsted:

But especially the music.

Jason Newsted:

You take the music away because of how it is all encompassing, right?

Jason Newsted:

It can throw you off so severely.

Jason Newsted:

And that's really what I am afraid for people like, you know, if you don't give up on yourself, if you really like it, man, if you like feeling the feeling, okay, there's only.

Jason Newsted:

There's only this many bands that have lasted 40 years with close to the same members, and there's only this many with the original members for 40 years, you know?

Jason Newsted:

And so there's always going to be that.

Jason Newsted:

You're not going to the upper echelon.

Jason Newsted:

The thing, the prince, Madonna, Metallica thing.

Jason Newsted:

That's just.

Jason Newsted:

That's fucking Netherland.

Jason Newsted:

That's so nearly impossible.

Jason Newsted:

Especially today.

Jason Newsted:

Especially today with a whole band, not just one person that they push up the charts.

Jason Newsted:

And the girl is cute this week and put her up there and do that thing and pump the shit out of it and formulaic pro tools shit and all that false shit.

Jason Newsted:

It's not that.

Jason Newsted:

It's four or five males getting along without any diffuser within it for 40 years and helping each other reach each other's dreams and stuff.

Jason Newsted:

Individual and collective, you know, that's a fucking big ask.

Jason Newsted:

So just be realistic about your expectations.

Jason Newsted:

Be realistic about your expectations.

Jason Newsted:

Be realistic about your expectations.

Jason Newsted:

You know, don't fool yourself about you're better than you're not or whatever.

Jason Newsted:

But if you feel that feeling and you create that relationship with the instrument that we spoke of, don't let anybody take that from you.

Jason Newsted:

Try as hard as you can when it feels good, if it's not right, you'll know it, okay?

Jason Newsted:

And most people are going to fall off.

Jason Newsted:

Most people are.

Jason Newsted:

But if you really mean it and you really love that feeling, to keep chasing it, that's all I can say.

Jason Newsted:

That's my words.

Jason Newsted:

Just keep chasing it.

Jason Newsted:

That's it.

Corey Wong:

I love that.

Corey Wong:

I love that.

Corey Wong:

Well, man, you are so well spoken and it's so fun to chat with you and understand how deep you go.

Corey Wong:

I mean, I could go for hours, but I want to respect your time, and we try to keep these things around an hour.

Corey Wong:

So I really appreciate you being with us today and sharing your wisdom, sharing your knowledge, and just the depth that you have.

Corey Wong:

I really am excited to continue to follow your journey, and I hope everybody else listening continues to just be excited about the stuff that you're making, the songs that you're writing, the americana and folk and explorative things that you're doing.

Corey Wong:

I'm here just stoked, man.

Corey Wong:

I'm here for it all.

Jason Newsted:

Cool.

Jason Newsted:

Cool.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

Everybody just keep your.

Jason Newsted:

Keep your ears open, you know, keep taking on the influences you're speaking of earlier.

Jason Newsted:

I don't spend a whole lot of time on the Internet or that, but a lot of people send me stuff, and my friends or whatever from different parts of the world was the.

Jason Newsted:

Jay, have you seen this yet?

Jason Newsted:

Jay, you seen this yet?

Jason Newsted:

This is a band from our local and thing like that.

Jason Newsted:

And every once in a while, one of them will catch me, and I'm like, holy shit.

Jason Newsted:

Thank you.

Jason Newsted:

So, this is the kind of stuff that I encourage people to do.

Jason Newsted:

Don't get overloaded by the distraction of this thing.

Jason Newsted:

Please.

Jason Newsted:

Skin your knees and chip your teeth and break your bones.

Jason Newsted:

For real.

Jason Newsted:

Not like this, okay?

Jason Newsted:

Please just get it.

Jason Newsted:

Get an instrument in your hands.

Jason Newsted:

Make it loud.

Jason Newsted:

Do all the things.

Jason Newsted:

Splatter some paint.

Jason Newsted:

Feel alive.

Jason Newsted:

Do something each day that shows you were here, that kind of shit.

Jason Newsted:

Time is the most valuable thing that you have.

Jason Newsted:

You can only make withdrawals.

Jason Newsted:

You can't make deposits from that account.

Jason Newsted:

So just live each moment that you can.

Jason Newsted:

The best, and try to.

Jason Newsted:

Like we were speaking of before.

Jason Newsted:

If you're going to make the time to go see a band, then be respectful to the band when you're there.

Jason Newsted:

If it's the metal show, get loud as fuck.

Jason Newsted:

But if it's the Americana show and Isbel's playing or somebody like that, show respect to the player.

Jason Newsted:

Let's hear the notes of the guitar, that kind of thing.

Jason Newsted:

You can have your phone out and all that, but don't be yelling, screaming in my ear when I'm trying to enjoy the show.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah, but also, I.

Jason Newsted:

I just want to talk a little bit about what you pour into the funnel, and then whatever comes out at the bottom of the funnel.

Jason Newsted:

That's you, right?

Jason Newsted:

That's you.

Jason Newsted:

And then you get to go, and then somebody else will pick it up, and then they'll go on with it and put in their funnel.

Jason Newsted:

So you've already done that for a bunch of people, in your own way.

Jason Newsted:

But I saw Larry and Les and Tim a couple weeks ago.

Jason Newsted:

They played like a mile from my wife's mom's house down out in the middle of fucking nowhere in New York here.

Jason Newsted:

And I hadn't seen, we've been friends since, you know, 87 or something.

Jason Newsted:

And so I hadn't seen him in a long time.

Jason Newsted:

And it was so cool.

Jason Newsted:

And the bass tone.

Jason Newsted:

Jesus Christ, dude.

Jason Newsted:

What the fuck?

Jason Newsted:

I mean, I hadn't been her up on the stage with live music for, like, at that volume for a couple years.

Jason Newsted:

But the actual, they're, they're so specific in their tones.

Jason Newsted:

Like, Larry's got the next to the biggest pedal set up other than Frusciante.

Jason Newsted:

And then less has got all that crazy shit going on over here.

Jason Newsted:

And it has its own, it's always got that almost Tom Waitzian push pull clock.

Jason Newsted:

Just barely making it around the thing and, you know, like this kind of shit.

Jason Newsted:

So it's fucking beautiful.

Jason Newsted:

So unique and respectable.

Jason Newsted:

And they've been doing it for 40 years, right?

Jason Newsted:

They were 82, 82, 84 for Primus, I think.

Jason Newsted:

And same with Chili's.

Jason Newsted:

And they're still out there doing it.

Jason Newsted:

I mean, they flee both those guys.

Jason Newsted:

Base tone, but especially less this last time.

Jason Newsted:

I was, I was fucking floored, man.

Jason Newsted:

Just floored by it all.

Jason Newsted:

And I think that for me right now, I think Larry.

Jason Newsted:

Well, Larry's always been one of the very best of ever, ever, ever.

Jason Newsted:

As far as a soundscape guitarist.

Jason Newsted:

Oh, yeah.

Jason Newsted:

I.

Jason Newsted:

How did, how do you find a place to fit in when the bass covers everything, when the bass already plays the whole fucking song for you?

Jason Newsted:

You know, where do you find, you know, how do you find that place?

Jason Newsted:

You know, like Mark Rebo and Tom waits fan or Joe Gore, all these cats that.

Jason Newsted:

Just the most sideways possible approach.

Jason Newsted:

And it sounds so perfect.

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

You know, the application is so unique.

Jason Newsted:

So like him, Joe Bonamasa, I think even Corey Wong.

Jason Newsted:

These kind of cats that are right now firing that way, though, that's what I want the kids to pour in their funnel.

Corey Wong:

Oh, man, that means a lot.

Corey Wong:

That means a lot.

Jason Newsted:

There you go.

Corey Wong:

Well, thank you, man.

Jason Newsted:

So now you're gonna.

Jason Newsted:

Now you tell me what you're doing, and you tell me just a little bit about your bass player and a couple other things about Volf pet, because I need to know.

Corey Wong:

Well, yeah, we have been doing our thing for a while.

Corey Wong:

Kind of took a little bit of a break for a couple years with the whole thing that happened.

Corey Wong:

And then you know, the global thing.

Corey Wong:

And then now we're back at it and we're going to be recording an album live on stage in front of an audience, which will be fun.

Jason Newsted:

Balls.

Jason Newsted:

Balls.

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Corey Wong:

Bass player Joe Dart.

Corey Wong:

I mean, he's incredible.

Jason Newsted:

He's.

Jason Newsted:

That's a Joe Darren.

Corey Wong:

He's a finger and slap cat, but just like me, he grew up listening to flea and Primus and Jamerson and all the rock stuff.

Corey Wong:

I mean, we were kids of the nineties watching MTV, so everything that was on there, we watched all that stuff, listened to all that.

Corey Wong:

But then also we're deep into jazz and deep into the fusion thing and deep into Jaco and.

Corey Wong:

Yeah, so, you know, Joe's got an incredible thing happening.

Corey Wong:

He's.

Corey Wong:

He's kind of a rocko Jaco type approach.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah.

Corey Wong:

When I hear him play.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah, he's tough.

Jason Newsted:

He's tough as fuck.

Corey Wong:

He plays high action.

Corey Wong:

He plays really hard on the strings and it's.

Corey Wong:

It's cool, man.

Corey Wong:

His articulation is sick.

Jason Newsted:

That's why he has his own stage on the stage.

Corey Wong:

Yeah, he's incredible.

Jason Newsted:

That's super cool, man.

Jason Newsted:

It really is.

Jason Newsted:

Well, yeah, I think the complexity of your stuff, it's just really kind of.

Jason Newsted:

It's way beyond me, so I appreciate it, man.

Jason Newsted:

It's fucking amazing how you remember all that.

Jason Newsted:

I'll never know.

Jason Newsted:

I'll never know how you keep track of all that shit.

Corey Wong:

Well, we'll have to sit down and jam together sometime, man.

Jason Newsted:

I would.

Jason Newsted:

I would really like that.

Jason Newsted:

And I also.

Jason Newsted:

I think we should maybe just nerd out for 2 seconds on the guitar stuff.

Jason Newsted:

I think that your attention.

Jason Newsted:

Your attention was brought maybe to this one.

Jason Newsted:

I put the instruments up on the reverb a few weeks ago and I wanted to speak about like getting instrument kind of what we talked about before with the kids, with the little kids rock and music wheel and these different foundations that put guitars and kids hands over the time.

Jason Newsted:

And being able to go around the world a few times and collect for 30 years as we went around, picked up cool shit, you know, the collection was actually collected.

Jason Newsted:

Right.

Jason Newsted:

I went to.

Jason Newsted:

To the pawnshop in Timbuktu and pulled that guitar out and shipped it home.

Jason Newsted:

And this stuff, I collected it one by one or seven by seven or whatever.

Jason Newsted:

There would always be.

Jason Newsted:

There would be cats that would come in.

Jason Newsted:

The reason I say that is in the tuning room where the amplifiers and little jump set, you know, warm up room.

Jason Newsted:

In those years through, just as we were starting to get people's attention issue 91 four.

Jason Newsted:

There would always be guys that came from whichever guitar shop or play was, you know, 60, 70, 90 miles radius of the vintage place.

Jason Newsted:

When we walked into the room, there would be all these cases, you know, opened up like, oh, is that what I think it is?

Jason Newsted:

You know, this kind of shit.

Jason Newsted:

57 strat, you know, all this shit.

Jason Newsted:

These guys got money coming out of their ass.

Jason Newsted:

They're gonna bought this stuff, and we're looking at, like, you know, even in that day, we're still playing high performance instruments.

Jason Newsted:

We had.

Jason Newsted:

It wasn't about cool vintage shit.

Jason Newsted:

That's.

Jason Newsted:

You don't bring that on the road, man.

Jason Newsted:

You crazy.

Jason Newsted:

So.

Jason Newsted:

But that's how we did it, though.

Jason Newsted:

The guy would come and say, here, these are these ones.

Jason Newsted:

t the beginning of the night,:

Jason Newsted:

All this.

Jason Newsted:

We're looking like a whatever, dude.

Jason Newsted:

Because back then, that was not it.

Jason Newsted:

And so we talked to the tour manager, say, I want that one, that one, that one, that one.

Jason Newsted:

And just wait and leave the cases there and not let the guy go back in the room.

Jason Newsted:

And they wait till everything is done.

Jason Newsted:

They're rolling out the road, cases and shit.

Jason Newsted:

The crew is wrapping everything up for the big fucking show, and the guys.

Jason Newsted:

And nobody said anything to about no money.

Jason Newsted:

And the tour manager goes, we'll take those seven for next to nothing.

Jason Newsted:

And he'll go, well, okay.

Jason Newsted:

Because he's got a pile of money in his hand like that.

Jason Newsted:

I'll give you this for those.

Jason Newsted:

And they're like, okay.

Jason Newsted:

And so we.

Jason Newsted:

We get the ones for much less than he was asking.

Jason Newsted:

But that's how we would accumulate that many at a time, that people, they would bring them to us that way.

Jason Newsted:

So it was kind of the combination of those two things.

Jason Newsted:

You end up accumulating way more than you ever need.

Jason Newsted:

It's neat because once you get bit by it, it's hard to get on bit right now, right, exactly.

Jason Newsted:

I know you do.

Jason Newsted:

So now I got to this place where over time, you know, like you're saying about, you could tell a guitar with, if you're blindfolded, you could tell it this strat from the same strat and the serial numbers only two digits off or whatever.

Jason Newsted:

But that.

Jason Newsted:

That's how it is.

Jason Newsted:

You know, that's how it is.

Jason Newsted:

Some of them have a bunch of fucking songs in it.

Jason Newsted:

Some have a couple songs.

Jason Newsted:

Some are great to look at and all that shit, but that's not going to stay in the collection ain't got no songs in it.

Jason Newsted:

It just got no songs in it.

Jason Newsted:

So get to that place where those were just sitting in the case for 20 or 30 years.

Jason Newsted:

Just in the case.

Jason Newsted:

That's not fucking cool at all.

Jason Newsted:

You just have somebody out to a young hero that maybe can get a hold of that thing that I couldn't get a hold of and make something out of it.

Jason Newsted:

I mean, you guys, now that.

Jason Newsted:

Who's the kid?

Jason Newsted:

The tattoos all up his neck, that.

Jason Newsted:

All that fucking crazy shit.

Jason Newsted:

You got the neck to same width all the way down.

Corey Wong:

Yeah, yeah, Tim.

Jason Newsted:

What the fuck?

Jason Newsted:

What the fuck?

Jason Newsted:

So let's have.

Jason Newsted:

Give me.

Jason Newsted:

Take that ten string, a lebbic and do some shit with that thing.

Jason Newsted:

Take that three string Tony Levin bass and play bass.

Jason Newsted:

Slide on it or some psycho shitter.

Jason Newsted:

Do something inventive.

Jason Newsted:

You young people, you know, that's what I see, that there comes a time we're, like, hoarding all this stuff.

Jason Newsted:

And I got all these guitars and they come to the spot like, you know, it's really fucking pretty asinine that you only got two hands and you already picked the ones you like.

Jason Newsted:

Those are the ones that are all beat up and shit.

Jason Newsted:

It's already obvious which ones are which.

Jason Newsted:

You know, you don't have to know.

Jason Newsted:

Eventually go back after the two and look at one's got the most wear.

Jason Newsted:

That's the one you're keeping.

Jason Newsted:

Right.

Jason Newsted:

So I try to just kind of purging a bit and hopefully get some of those out there for the people that know better to make some noise with them.

Jason Newsted:

You know, there's a lot more people.

Jason Newsted:

We're talking about competition and bands and all the things.

Jason Newsted:

There's a lot more people out there to enjoy the instruments.

Jason Newsted:

So I hope that can happen.

Corey Wong:

That's great.

Jason Newsted:

I'm going to say it's.

Jason Newsted:

I was going to say that it's more about giving people opportunity to play the thing that is about anything else.

Jason Newsted:

There's no kind of thing, you know, you don't.

Jason Newsted:

It's just try to.

Jason Newsted:

Try to make sense of it and have them sitting there rotten instead of being.

Jason Newsted:

Instead of creating something.

Jason Newsted:

Makes no sense.

Jason Newsted:

I just want to ask one more question about the.

Jason Newsted:

You.

Jason Newsted:

You don't use a full amp rig.

Jason Newsted:

You use some kind of emulator, something or other.

Jason Newsted:

You like.

Jason Newsted:

You have your own custom made.

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Corey Wong:

I worked with neural DSP on a plugin called the archetype.

Corey Wong:

Corey Wong plugin.

Corey Wong:

I'll send it to you.

Corey Wong:

And it's a plugin where we basically modeled a bunch of amps that I really like.

Corey Wong:

And we dove deep.

Corey Wong:

I mean, I put them through the wringer, if I'm going to be honest.

Corey Wong:

They were like, oh, this is an exact replica of this.

Jason Newsted:

This, this.

Corey Wong:

It should be perfect.

Corey Wong:

I'm like, maybe on paper and, like, the graphs say it's perfect, but, like, it doesn't feel right, you know?

Corey Wong:

So we went back and forth a ton and found something that works great for my clean tone and for what I do.

Corey Wong:

So we've been working on putting that in the quad cortex unit, which is their floor unit.

Corey Wong:

And now when I play live, I just use, I use that.

Jason Newsted:

Okay, so that's what I'm asking about.

Jason Newsted:

So, yeah, the plug in.

Jason Newsted:

The plugin can be put on before, after or otherwise when you do stuff.

Jason Newsted:

Right.

Jason Newsted:

That can be this, whatever.

Jason Newsted:

Yes.

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

Okay, so, but the actual physicality, the actual physic.

Jason Newsted:

Physical one that I know when I plug it into.

Jason Newsted:

In and plug it out, out and go to the right amp, then I.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah, they have everything to work with.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

So they're gonna make that.

Jason Newsted:

Okay, that's what I was wondering.

Jason Newsted:

That's what I was wondering.

Jason Newsted:

Because a lot of you cats do, like, fly dates or you don't carry really big amplifiers anymore, stuff like that.

Jason Newsted:

Right?

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Corey Wong:

I mean, I still backline kind of any really clean amp.

Corey Wong:

But really what I do is the outputs one and two on my quad cortex are what goes to front of house.

Corey Wong:

And then output three.

Corey Wong:

I just put it into kind of any clean amp or an FRFR speaker.

Corey Wong:

Just to have a little bit of air pushing at the back of my legs.

Jason Newsted:

All right.

Jason Newsted:

So they set you up with just whatever fender or decent something or other in the back.

Corey Wong:

Give me a twin.

Corey Wong:

Give me whatever, and I'll make.

Corey Wong:

I mean, it's not the exact tone I want out of the amp, but it doesn't really matter because it's just for a little bit of stage volume and for some air.

Corey Wong:

But what's coming out of the monitors and what's coming out of front of house is straight from the Unitex.

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

Okay.

Jason Newsted:

And, but your, but your base guy carries around proper cabinets and stuff.

Corey Wong:

He always has a backline amp rig or sometimes his own rig.

Corey Wong:

810 market base rig.

Jason Newsted:

I just wonder about how things have been minimized over time for efficiency.

Jason Newsted:

But you can still get the big sound out of it.

Jason Newsted:

I'm fascinated by that.

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Corey Wong:

I mean, it's a constant battle with it.

Corey Wong:

But I mean, you know, we're using in ear monitors now and it kind of helps so it's not so blasting at us.

Jason Newsted:

God damn, that's such a different world.

Corey Wong:

Imagine, dude, I couldn't imagine.

Corey Wong:

I mean, I saw you play in the nineties and I remember thinking, how loud must it be on that frickin stage, dude?

Corey Wong:

Cause out here it is screaming.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

The Mesa boogie built me special wedges.

Jason Newsted:

So the wedges in front of me were the one for the vocal and all the rest were coming from my bass rig blowing back at me.

Jason Newsted:

So I had the SVT's and the four by twelve boogies in between.

Jason Newsted:

I have my four by twelve boogies with Marshall Hunter Watt heads and then SVT is on either side, right.

Jason Newsted:

And then powering all that with the old mesa boogie up front.

Jason Newsted:

So all that pushing back were base cabinets in the front.

Jason Newsted:

So I was, and I never.

Jason Newsted:

That's why like the in ear, I always wore earplugs, but the in ear stuff really fucked with me.

Jason Newsted:

It was very new when I was asked to use it, you know, it's just coming into it, just a little bit of kind of precision.

Jason Newsted:

When we did this, the symphony gig started out with one SVT on the cabinet, one SVT cabinet on the stage, I mean, and even that could fly.

Jason Newsted:

It was all the old wooden instruments from the 17 hundreds just going, fuck, you know, they couldn't get any.

Jason Newsted:

When they played, when they played a note, they played a note.

Jason Newsted:

My shit would just negate.

Jason Newsted:

It didn't matter if they were fucking.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah, it didn't matter.

Jason Newsted:

So eventually had to buy by necessity.

Jason Newsted:

I had to learn that moment.

Jason Newsted:

I never had done it before.

Jason Newsted:

So before that, 3 hours before we recorded the symphony performance.

Jason Newsted:

Wow.

Jason Newsted:

Was my first, was my first time within years.

Jason Newsted:

And playing bass is way different within ears, I would assume, than having drums in the higher frequencies because it's all about the physicality of the feeling of it.

Jason Newsted:

And so that was pretty weird, I got to tell you.

Jason Newsted:

That was pretty fucking weird.

Jason Newsted:

So I still go back, I'm still full punk rock and still have the stuff blasted back at me.

Jason Newsted:

Even to this day.

Jason Newsted:

I just, I don't know.

Jason Newsted:

Can't get away from it.

Jason Newsted:

I don't want to.

Corey Wong:

Yeah, it feels better.

Corey Wong:

It does feel better.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

But the precision of being able to hear yourself sing and hear the actual thing, I'm sure that over time that becomes really quite a wonderful thing.

Jason Newsted:

I bet.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

Okay, well, thank you for answering that.

Jason Newsted:

I was, I was wondering about that.

Jason Newsted:

Like to get one of those someday and see what's all about.

Corey Wong:

Yeah, I'll talk to Nerl.

Corey Wong:

I'll have them send you one.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah.

Jason Newsted:

Whenever you guys put that together.

Corey Wong:

Yeah.

Corey Wong:

I'll connect with you and we'll get one sent over to you.

Corey Wong:

I'm sure you'll love it.

Jason Newsted:

Yep.

Jason Newsted:

We could go on forever, so.

Jason Newsted:

God bless you.

Jason Newsted:

Yeah.

Corey Wong:

Well, thank you so much, man.

Corey Wong:

There you have it.

Corey Wong:

Jason Newstead.

Corey Wong:

Dude, what did I tell you at the beginning?

Corey Wong:

I said this cat was deep.

Corey Wong:

I said this cat was an artiste.

Corey Wong:

All right?

Corey Wong:

Now you get it.

Corey Wong:

If you didn't get it before, now you do.

Corey Wong:

I love the way he talks about what gigs he wants to do now and just the meaning behind things and the exploration that's still just deep within him.

Corey Wong:

The curiosity and just the.

Corey Wong:

The eagerness to.

Corey Wong:

To grow and learn more as a musician.

Corey Wong:

Even after having how many platinum records, how many millions of tickets sold across the world?

Corey Wong:

Incredible.

Corey Wong:

Inspiring.

Corey Wong:

I hope you had as much fun listening to this as I had interviewing Jason.

Corey Wong:

And I hope to see you again sometime soon.

Corey Wong:

Stay safe out there.

Jason Newsted:

Peace.

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About the Podcast

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Wong Notes
Cory Wong meets up with icons, legends, and all-around hip people to talk about music.

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