Former METALLICA bassist Jason Newsted recently stopped by Gator 98.7 FM‘s Gator Garage for a VIP performance and question-and-answer session with the radio station’s Jason and Franny. During the Q&A sessio, Newsted revealed he just wrapped up the first Chophouse Band record since their formation over 30 years ago, and is turning his eye once back to the world of headbanging.
“Actually, I spent six months of last year putting together The Chophouse Band Volume 1. The Chophouse Band has been together [and]making music since 1992. So it was our first album after 30 years. I spent a lot of time on that. And then, once I got that under my belt, I’m kind of stepping back into the heavy now. So the last couple of weeks I’ve been auditioning guitar players for a heavy project. I’m back on bass and singing with a metal drummer — double bass, you know; getting’ loud again. So I’ve got a couple of irons in the fire. I’m putting two new projects together right now — but loud.”
Newsted has previously mentioned that despite their performances being largely acoustic, the new Chophouse Band record will certainly be an all-out rock record.
Last April, Newsted told Gator 98.7 FM that he was “not playing any acoustic guitar” with THE CHOPHOUSE BAND “anymore — it’s just Les Pauls and SGs and stuff now. Some of it’s a little quieter but most of it’s not,” he said. Elaborating on the musical direction of the new THE CHOPHOUSE BAND material, Jason said: “THE CHOPHOUSE BAND started out as almost a bluegrass-tinged thing, and now it gets to some places that are as heavy as anything else that I’d been involved with — VOIVOD, Ozzy [Osbourne], METALLICA, NEWSTED band; any of that stuff — it gets to those places now.”
Named after Jason‘s four recording studio facilities around the U.S. and featuring a fluid roster of players, THE CHOPHOUSE BAND began in 1992 when Newsted founded The Chophouse Records Studio in San Francisco. THE CHOPHOUSE BAND is led by Newsted, playing guitar and performing lead vocal, accompanied by close friends/musicians of all walks and styles.
