It took him ten years, but Jason Newsted is finally listening to doctor's orders. Newsted recently was interviewed by WZZR where he revealed that 25 years of headbanging had finally caught up with him.
It can't be an easy realization to come to grips with, and it was one that took Newsted a decade to finally understand. Ultimately, his health recently took a turn for the worse resulting in him finally coming to terms with his inability to headbang any more.
"It's been a lot of time, 25-ish years of headbanging, I gave myself whiplash. And so, through the years, doctors of all different languages and countries, they told me, you know, 'No more that, no more spinning head.'
"So where we are now, I still kind of do it, but it's been 10 years after being told not to. So between that thing and going literally spine… like, all tangles and mangles, now the focus is still the same, the juice is still the same, the energy is still the same, the amps are a little smaller."
Newsted decided to slow things down, but down the bass and pick up an acoustic guitar.
"You can take the bullet out of metal, but not the metal out of the bullet – that type of thing. So that's always gonna be there, the fangs are still sharp; so whatever we play, if it's Johnny Cash or whatever it may be, it's still gonna have that wallop, I think.
Here is Jason and his Chophouse band playing "Turn the Page."
