You can take the man away from the metal, but you can’t take the metal out of the man.
Former Metallica Bassist Jason Newsted sustained neck and back injuries from banging his head every night onstage which contributed to his decision to leave the band.
But after a 12-year hiatus, Newsted plans to release new music. He was interviewed last week on Eddie Trunk’s “Friday Night Rocks” on New York’s Q104.3 FM:
“If you go back and look at those videos, like any of the live videos and stuff, oh my God — there’s no wonder that it’s the way it is; there’s definitely some serious degeneration that’s taken place in my vertebrae. I don’t know how many people spun their head like that that early in the progress of all this. I’m not gonna take the blame or the credit for anybody doing it anymore these days, but I know I did my share. I’ve had three shoulder surgeries and going back and forth with them, kind of to fix everything up, so I’ve been in rehab for many, many years trying to get everything back together. So I’m a lot better than I was for the last, probably six or seven years, I’m a lot stronger. I’ve always retained my same fighting weight, I’ve kept myself fit in that way, so that’s all cool. And I’m pretty close to the monster, and I think if I work on it a little bit, I can be the monster again.”