Former METALLICA, VOIVOD and FLOTSAM AND JETSAM bassist and current NEWSTED frontman Jason Newsted was interviewed this past week by Nikki Blakk on the San Francisco, California radio station 107.7 The Bone. You can now listen to the chat in the YouTube clip below.

NEWSTED's first song, "Soldierhead", was premiered on the December 17 edition of the "Eddie Trunk Live" show on SiriusXM satellite radio and can now be streamed in the YouTube clip below. The official video for the track was filmed on Saturday, December 15.

"Soldierhead" comes off NEWSTED's four-song EP, entitled "Metal", which will be released exclusively via iTunes on January 8, 2013.

"Metal" will contain the following tracks:

* Soldierhead
* Godsnake
* King Of The Underdogs
* Skyscraper

By purchasing all four songs, you will receive a copy of Jason's handwritten lyrics.

NEWSTED is:

Jason Newsted - Bass, Lead Vocals
Jesus Mendez Jr. (THE NAPOLEON BLOWNAPARTS) - Drums
Jessie Farnsworth - Guitar, Backing Voice

In a recent interview with Sonic Excess, Newsted stated about his new band: "NEWSTED is the project that's happening now, I would like to see it grow, get somewhere, of course, and be able to share it with everyone who wants to share it with me. It has been a lot of years coming. It's ready for me, and I'm finally ready for it. I never thought I was going to put my name on a project; I've always come up with cool enough band names. We did it with this, and I'm very proud of it. Things are lining up very well, and I'm hoping to take it out to the people live next year.

On the topic of what the spark was that got NEWSTED ignited, Jason said: "We always play a lot of improv music. We have though the years, and we just keep it going in the Chophouse Studio [Newsted's home studio in Walnut Creek, California] and play with a lot of different cats through time. What really happened was about a year and a week ago, with the METALLICA 30th-anniversary shows, where we played The Fillmore in San Francisco. Lars [Ulrich, METALLICA drummer] had called me in October of last year and said, 'Do you want to jam?' I said 'What time do you want me there?' I haven't seen them in a long time, and I hadn't seen them since the [Rock And Roll] Hall Of Fame thing anyway. He said, 'What songs do you want to play?' and I said, 'You pick the fastest one dude.' We took the 14 fastest ones. I rocked a few each night, and we had a good time. What came from it was the realization of the energy of the fans. There were probably 30-35 countries represented on the floor that week. The energy I got back, and the appreciation, the real, true fan-dom, and being able to look into people's eyes made me think it could happen again. Maybe, I could bring it out on my own and sing, play bass, play guitar, and do my own stuff. Make it fast and make it ugly, like old METALLICA, like 'Kill 'Em All' and 'Ride The Lightning' records, and the old FLOTSAM AND JETSAM records, make real, old-school metal. One year later, I have 11 songs total, and we are doing it in batches. The first batch is in four."

Jason also spoke about the other members of NEWSTED. He said: " Jesus Mendez, Jr. is the drummer. I have been playing with him for about 10 years, and we have known each other for longer than that. He was a California roadie guy for METALLICA and worked at headquarters for some years. Then, he was the drum tech on the ECHOBRAIN tour, so we have been friends for a while. We have played a lot of hours, for a lot of years. He comes from like Vinny Appice, DIO, MOTÖRHEAD, AC/DC, but way down with double bass. He is a very serious, hard-working player. Our secret weapon is Jessie Farnsworth; he is a little bit younger than us. He is 32 and he is from the East, from Connecticut. He has been out here for a while, and I have been playing with him for about four years. We swap back and forth with bass and guitar. I choose people who have not quite risen in their own bands. I didn't want people who were jaded or had ugly baggage come into this band, and I didn't want to make it a supergroup. I wanted real friends that I get along with, and I wanted to play real true music."