JASON NEWSTED: 'METALLICA Are A Joke!'

Ex-METALLICA bassist Jason Newsted has slammed his former bandmates over their decision to tour this summer with LINKIN PARK and LIMP BIZKIT, calling the move "an obvious cash thing" and claiming that the group are "not staying true to their words."

"It's a joke, I think METALLICA are just a joke," Newsted told Britain's Rock Sound magazine in reference to the Summer Sanitarium Tour 2003, which kicks off on July 4. "I don't think they have any idea. I am fan of METALLICA again, I did my thing in there and felt good and I'm proud of that shit and I am more proud than sour. But that's the integrity down the fucking tube! Why can't they take out STRAPPING YOUNG LAD, why can't they take out IN FLAMES? What they are doing now is such an obvious cash thing and has nothing to do with the music that we're supposed to be fighting for.

"Kirk got quoted about their new record sounding like ENTOMBED. How can it sound like ENTOMBED, how? Who is playing bass to make it sound like ENTOMBED? James is a good bass player, but c'mon, dude! Lars — he hasn't practiced enough drums over the years — he let his art fall away from him, he doesn't have the same finesse as he used to have, so how is it going to sound like ENTOMBED and have that energy? And anyway if they are speaking like that how come they are not talking ENTOMBED out on tour? Or MESHUGGAH — how came they are not staying true to their words? That's what really bothers me."

Newsted's new band, VOIVOD, start their U.S. tour on April 10 and are set to visit Europe in June — but don't expect to see METALLICA and VOIVOD on the same bill.

"There is political shit going on, they are really against us being on the same bills," Newsted explained. "Wherever METALLICA is, you won't be seeing VOIVOD."

VOIVOD's new, self-titled album is due on March 4 through Newsted's Chophouse Records in association with Surfdog Records. Check out the album's first single, "We Carry On", at this location.