Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
Jason Newsted, a former bassist and vocalist for Metallica and other bands, has talked more about his past battles with addiction, as per theprp. Newsted continued this past May to say that those problems were eventually the reason he left the aforementioned thrash metal legends in 2001. In an interview with the “Let There Be Talk” podcast this past spring, Newsted clarified that his inability to receive treatment for his addiction problems because of his commitments to Metallica was what ultimately caused him to leave the band, rather than the long-standing story of conflicts with the band over his side projects.
Newsted has now discussed that difficult period of his life in more detail in a recently released interview with Spin. He had the following to say about his struggle with painkiller addiction, which was made worse by a number of operations and injuries, though he intends to go into more detail about it in his next memoir.
In the mid- to late ’90s, I had a lot of pretty serious neck and spine issues. It’s easy to see the map of why this is fucked up. In that time, I would start taking Vicodin and get through some days. I kept going and going and going. The injury was in a place that couldn’t really be repaired.
Within the addiction, I would say probably 10 or 12 years on painkillers, off and on but 2004 to 2008, full on because the surgeries did what they did. I got out of one right back into another. I finally got off that shit by the time I was just about to do my first exhibit.
It was 16 years ago this week in San Francisco, May 2010. I had peeled myself off the drugs and started getting back to get back to myself again. That’s when the global art thing started happening for me and the Paris gallery representative. I had about 10 years of that.
