Jason Newsted is not closing the book on heavy metal. In a new interview on SiriusXM’s Ozzy’s Boneyard with Mark Strigl, the former Metallica bassist said he could still imagine making another straight-ahead metal album someday. When asked directly about the idea, Newsted answered, “I never say never on any of that,” then revealed that “there’s already a complete second NEWSTED album composed.”
The interview aired on May 26, 2026, and covered a wide stretch of Newsted’s career, from his time in Metallica to his current work with Jason Newsted & The Chophouse Band. The conversation also touched on the making of Metallica’s “The $5.98 E.P. – Garage Days Re-Revisited” and “Load,” stories involving Mike Mushok of Staind and Jim Martin of Faith No More, and Newsted’s views on how heavy music fits into a bigger American roots tradition.
That broader perspective matters because Newsted has been steering the Chophouse Band in a different direction for years. The group’s upcoming 18-date summer run kicks off on July 1 in Northampton, Massachusetts, includes both headline shows and a supporting slot with Blackberry Smoke, and closes with a two-night stand at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on July 24-25. The lineup includes Jesse Farnsworth, Jimbo Hart, Humberto Perez, and Robert John-Tucker, and the band’s sound is described as outsider Americana with everything from bluegrass and folk to soul, rock, and even a little metal.
Newsted framed that project as a continuation of his larger love for American music. When the tour was first announced in April, he said he had realized this was where he could put his energy most effectively now, calling The Chophouse the next stage of his ambassadorship of American music. He also described the band’s range as “bluegrass to fucking slabs of metal,” saying the songs could carry a country flavor and still have “sharp teeth.”
The idea of another metal album is not coming out of nowhere. Newsted’s own heavy project NEWSTED launched with the 2013 EP Metal and the full-length Heavy Metal Music, but it was later shelved after an expensive and exhausting run. He said the project cost him “hundreds of thousands of dollars” and that he could not continue because the business had become so harsh and so different from what he had known earlier in his career.
Even so, the project was never creatively dead. Newsted brought NEWSTED back for a one-off show in May 2023 at Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale, where he was joined by original members Jesus Mendez Jr. and Jessie Farnsworth, along with guitarist Humberto Perez. He had earlier described the project as “honest, authentic, old school and no cheating,” a phrase that still fits the way he talks about heavy music when he revisits it.
That makes his latest comments feel less like a tease and more like a real possibility. Newsted is not promising a new metal record, but he is clearly not done with the style either. He has already written a second NEWSTED album, he still speaks about heavy music with affection, and he has left himself enough room to come back if the timing ever feels right.
The bigger picture is that Newsted now seems focused on choosing projects that feel meaningful rather than automatic. After leaving Metallica in 2001, he kept working in different corners of heavy music, later joining the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the band in 2009, and now he is balancing Americana, metal, and whatever else feels worth his time. His answer on Ozzy’s Boneyard suggests that he still thinks about the old lane — just on his own terms.
