NEWSTED Confirmed For This Year's GIGANTOUR

NEWSTED, the new band led by former METALLICA, VOIVOD and FLOTSAM AND JETSAM bassist Jason Newsted, has been confirmed for this year's edition of Gigantour, the critically acclaimed package festival founded in 2005 by MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine. Also scheduled to appear on the bill are headliners MEGADETH, along with DEVICE, the new band fronted by DISTURBED singer David Draiman; HELLYEAH, featuring Vinnie Paul Abbott (PANTERA, DAMAGEPLAN),Chad Gray and Greg Tribbett (MUDVAYNE),Tom Maxwell (NOTHINGFACE) and Bob "Zilla" Kakaha (DAMAGEPLAN); and DEATH DIVISION, the heavy, technically aggressive and melodic band founded by bassist Jerry Montano (HELLYEAH, DANZIG, NOTHINGFACE),drummer Tim Yeung (MORBID ANGEL, DIVINE HERESY, HATE ETERNAL, NILE),vocalist/guitarist Sean De La Tour and lead guitarist Rick Di Marco. More acts will be announced soon.

Quality video footage of NEWSTED's entire April 27 performance at Ace Of Spades in Sacramento, California can be seen below.

NEWSTED kicked off its first-ever U.S. tour on Friday, April 19 at Red House in Walnut Creek, California. The 14-date trek will conclude on May 23 in Asbury Park, New Jersey and will lead into a number of European festival appearances for the band, which is completed by STAIND guitarist Mike Mushok, drummer Jesus Mendez Jr. and guitarist Jessie Farnsworth.

NEWSTED has just completed recording its first full-length album, to be released later this year. NEWSTED began mixing the effort earlier in the month, with more details to be announced soon.

NEWSTED's debut EP, "Metal", sold around 6,200 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 62 on The Billboard 200 chart.

NEWSTED is:

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

Speaking to "Saturday Night Scream" earlier this month, Dave Mustaine stated about the rest of the lineup for this year's Gigantour: "I think [fans] are gonna be pretty stoked, because each one of the other bands on there, they're new bands comprised of a person who was a major celebrity from a really large band that went on to do something new — [which is] another really good clue for you and your listeners."

In a January 2013 interview with VintageRock.com, Mustaine said about his plans for Gigantour: "We've got some stuff lined up at the end of the year with Gigantour — not only in here in the States, but also down in South America. We've got some really interesting lineups for that. Most people would look at the lineup and they would think, like, 'Dave's not gonna tolerate your crap at all.' Because there's a couple of people that we have that are on the lineup — and we're hoping for the best — but they're notorious bad boys. But when people grow up, they kind of grow up; they don't just grow old. And we're hoping that the music is gonna be the most important thing so that the fans will get what they want. Because it's undoubtedly… The people that we have, so far, as far as we know, for Gigantour, they've got great music. We're really looking forward to that."

Gigantour made its return last year for the first time since 2008. The multi-artist bill — with metal heavyweights MOTÖRHEAD, VOLBEAT and LACUNA COIL all personally picked by Mustaine — kicked off on January 26, 2012 in Camden, New Jersey and wrapped on March 3, 2012 in Austin.