Ex-METALLICA Bassist JASON NEWSTED Compares Playing Music To Painting

January 9, 2018

Former METALLICA bassist Jason Newsted was recently interviewed about his art exhibition, "Rawk - The Art of Jason Newsted", which is underway at the Cultural Council in Lake Worth, Florida. Check out the chat in two parts below.

The exhibition was co-curated by Nick Korniloff, executive vice president, founder and director of Art Miami and founder of the prestigious Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary art fair, and Nichole Hickey, manager of artist services at the Cultural Council.

Asked what rocks more, art or metal, Newsted said: "Right now, as I'm starting this, it's pretty new and the crowds haven't been as big yet. [Laughs] It's gonna be tough to get 80,000 people in this gallery.

"The energy and the exchange in live music, especially when it's music that you sink your teeth into and people are really into it… The deal is the crowd is the show and the band is the entertainment," he continued. "So at heavy shows, the crowd is nuts — the exchange of energy.

"I'm on my own here; I'm not on a team or in a band, so I'm in a solo project trying to push out [some of] that energy. But I can't do a direct exchange with the people like I did when I was playing the music; they have to come up and look at the picture and then get my energy. So that's quite a bit different. So for right now, metal's louder, but the art is very intriguing for me."

Jason began painting in 2005, after a series of shoulder injuries and subsequent surgeries left him unable to play his instrument. The work began as a hobby, and it wasn't until a year later that he considered showcasing the results.

Some of Newsted's paintings now go for tens of thousands of dollars. "Most of my work is abstract, mixed-media," he said in a 2013 interview. "Giant pictures about five by ten feet; plastic and acrylic. I also do some sculpture. I have eight or nine hundred pieces since 2004 and have studios in three different cities across the country. Some of my pieces go for maybe $150 for a little picture and some are $40,000 for a giant one. So there's something for everyone." Newsted said he was very influenced by Basquiat, Jean Dubuffet and Picasso. "Those guys are my BLACK SABBATH, MOTÖRHEAD and RUSH of painting," he said.

"Rawk – The Art Of Jason Newsted" will be on display at the Cultural Council galleries through February 3.

Find more on Metallica

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).