A Metallica legend opened up about his cancer battle and how it reignited his desire to tour.
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Former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted recently appeared on Nashville Now, the country music podcast hosted by Rolling Stone senior editor Joseph Hudak. In the interview, Newsted spoke candidly about his throat cancer diagnosis and how it fueled his desire to get back on stage.
“About a year ago, they found some throat cancer, and so I had some pretty serious procedure, and so I’m, yeah, 300 and whatever days out, nearing 400 days out,” Newsted told Hudak. “And I’ve got some healing to do. They told me to wait till about August or so to start trying to do anything, but I really want to bet on myself and have some incentive and all that kind of thing.”
Newsted was diagnosed last year and was declared cancer-free earlier this year… a remarkable triumph given the toll that cancer and its treatments can take.
“I had to claw back. I had to claw my way back. The depression, the level of depression was so severe that you just… A couple of times, I’d never been the kind of person that would say that or even had that kind of thinking, but [I felt], like, ‘Dude, f— this,’” Newsted, who played bass for Metallica from 1986 to 2001, continued. “I done did what I did, been blessed very much. Great friends, a way to be still, just f—ing let… Like,‘ Okay, man, just take me now, motherf—er,’ that type of thing, for a couple weeks.”
Jason Newsted Toured All of July Following Cancer Battle
Newsted added that his recovery was a gradual process of rediscovering life’s simple joys. “I started swimming again, got back on my bike…getting some sun, playing some music,” he said, describing how the pieces slowly fell back into place. Feeling “so close to dead,” he found his way back by deciding to perform again. “I need to go out and play these songs for people,” he said. “Let them hear your stories, your new songs. Tell your stories with your songs.” For Newsted, taking the stage again represents a new beginning: “stepping into new worlds…a bunch of new things for me, like starting over.”
Newsted has been on tour with his Chophouse Band all month, kicking off their North American tour at the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, Massachusetts. The tour wraps up this week, with a stop in Knoxville tonight (July 22) before concluding at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium on July 24 and 25.