Former METALLICA bassist Jason Newsted recently discussed whether he listens to any albums the band released after he left the legendary metal band.
Speaking with U.K.’s Metal Hammer magazine in a new interview, Jason responded: “Never. I heard the one where they made the video in prison [for the ‘St. Anger‘ title track]. I heard one song with my dad while we were riding in the car in Michigan, because the radio is still pretty wed to METALLICA, and it went on for-fucking-ever. It was eight minutes on the radio, and I went, ‘What the fuck are they doing?’ No disrespect, but I didn’t get it. It was maybe harking back to the longer songs and the aggression and the tempo. And that stuff takes a lot of energy to play, and with James [Hetfield, METALLICA frontman] going up and down the fretboard like that, no one can touch it. I have a lot of respect for that thing, but I am quite a distance away from that type of music now.
“I still like my heavy songs, but I sing for real now,” he continued. “I play the bass right up high, sing those backing vocals way up high. I still love SEPULTURA and stuff… but it really isn’t the way that I used to. I’d be happy to join them to do that stuff if they wanted me to. I still talk to Lars [Ulrich, METALLICA drummer] a fair bit, and I send him my stuff and he’s always super-supportive. I really appreciate it, and I respect his opinion. If he called me and asked if I wanted to throw down, I’d say yes, but I’m not sure if I’d say yes to anyone else.”
“St. Anger” was released back in 2003 and the newly vacated Jason Newsted publicly bashed the record’s production, stating that METALLICA appeared to be more concerned with following the latest production trends than putting out an actual METALLICA album.
The largely despised LP was released after a turbulent two-year period which saw Newsted walk away from METALLICA and frontman James Hetfield vacate the band for a lengthy stay in rehab, all of which was captured in the 2004 documentary film “Some Kind Of Monster“.
