Former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted has publicly revealed that he was diagnosed with throat cancer in May 2025 and has since been given a clean bill of health. Speaking on an upcoming episode of Dean Delray‘s “Let There Be Talk” podcast, the 63-year-old Newsted said (transcribed by Blabbermouth): “In one week, it’s gonna be a year. On May 8th of 2025, I underwent a procedure for throat cancer. And so they took a bunch of stuff out of there, and then they went in with lasers and took a bunch of stuff out. So the cavern inside my head is different from it was, but we got it early. And I got my ‘free and clear’ about three weeks ago. So I beat it.”
“I didn’t feel any different [before being diagnosed]. I had a little bit of an earache and a jawache. And my singing was being affected a bit,” Newsted recounted. “In February of last year, I was [hosting] my brother and his wife [at my home] here in Florida,” he continued. “They were visiting. And I felt [a lump on my neck], and then [my wife Nicole‘s] sitting next to me, and she goes, ‘What is that?’ And I go, ‘Um, hmm.’ So I went in next week, got everything checked out. The doctor calls and says — Instead of just telling you what’s up, he says, ‘You need to come in.’ That’s not good. And so I went in, and he dropped it. And I’m, like, ‘Who are you talking to? What, what, what? [I’m] Superman. Fuck you. There’s no way, man. Shit bounces off me. What are you talking about? That’s not how it is.’ I expected [something like that to happen] maybe 20 years from now or something.”
“But then I started thinking about it. And our accelerated lifestyle [when I was still in Metallica]. And what we were talking about before, with the big tours, you’re doing a couple of hundred 20 shows a year for a few years in a row, these types of things. Those touring years are dog years. Those are four or five into one, really, if you put the math down and the taxing on your cells and three flights a day and ‘expand, contract’ however many times. That kind of shit, it’ll get you. So I was trying to reason — of course you’re always trying to fucking reason, like, ‘What’s that [about]?’ And I go, ‘Wait a minute. What about my boy, my boy, my boy, my boy, my boy, my boy?’ — all across, all our comrades. No need to name-drop. All those [other musicians] that are [at the same level or higher], homie hit it way harder than I ever would’ve hit it. He’s still fucking smoking. What? Me? Wait a second, man. What the fuck?’ And then they told me what it was, and they’re very easy to define. And that’s my advantage in this,” he elaborated.
Newsted said the illness prompted the first real period of rest in his life — and a full sobriety he would never have chosen voluntarily: “I promised myself I was going to rest, and that was the first time I’ve done that in my life. There’s no way, with my arrogant, spoiled ass, that I would’ve stopped smoking weed, that I would’ve stopped drinking, that I would’ve stopped doing all the things. But the great spirit got my attention and said, ‘That’s not good right now, man.’ And so now I’m more clear-headed than I’ve been in my entire adult life. And so there are blessings within everything. The lemonade I’m making this summer, bro — sweet.”
Newsted simultaneously announced the first-ever North American headlining tour with Jason Newsted & The Chophouse Band — an 18-date run from July 1 through July 25, 2026. The tour opens at Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, Massachusetts, and closes with a two-night stand at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, on July 24-25. Ten of the dates are in support of Blackberry Smoke.
Stops include Albany, New York; Alexandria, Virginia; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Columbus, Ohio, among others across the South, Midwest, and East Coast. The 2026 lineup features Jesse Farnsworth on guitar and vocals, Jimbo Hart on bass and vocals, Humberto Perez on guitar, and Robert John-Tucker on drums and vocals.
When the tour was announced in April, Newsted said, “I’ve realized that this is where I can place my energy effectively now. The Chophouse Band plays everything from bluegrass to fucking slabs of metal. We’re covering a lot of ground. There could be a country flavor to a song, but it’ll still have sharp teeth. We are looking forward to an exciting summer!”
Named after Newsted‘s four recording studios across the U.S., The Chophouse Band has existed since 1992, when Newsted founded The Chophouse Records Studio in San Francisco. The band has performed periodically at benefit shows supporting veterans’ relief, animal rehabilitation, and youth music education. Newsted has described the sound as rooted in bluegrass, folk, soul, rock, and metal.
Newsted left Metallica in 2001 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, and bassist Robert Trujillo in 2009. He shelved his heavy metal solo project Newsted in 2014 after two years, saying it had cost him “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
The post JASON NEWSTED Reveals He Battled Throat Cancer And Is Now Cancer-Free: “I Beat It — I Got My ‘Free And Clear’ About Three Weeks Ago” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.
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