Chad Bowar: How did you get selected to be part of the TV series Rock Star this year?
Jason Newsted: Tommy had gotten together with the TV people and told them he wanted to put together a television supergroup thing. Mark Burnett, the producer, was all over it. He wanted to put a band together of these rock legends and then scour the globe for the best singer. Tommy was given lists of musicians to choose from and he picked Gilby because of his purity to the old rock and roll. They gave him a list of bass players and he handed back the list and asked, "Where's Jason?" They called me in February, the same day that Sharon Osbourne had called me for the Ozzy gig three years ago to the day. It is true that the stars line up for me. It's a weird thing that through my career so far I've had my heroes become my peers. Metallica was my favorite band and I was in it for fifteen years. Ozzy asked me to play. Voivod I've worshipped since day one and always looked up to them. Somehow it all lined up that I got to play with my heroes, and here we go again. I always dug Tommy. Motley always had a killer show. They always took it farther. You've got to give them that much. As far as Tommy as an individual, he always went over the top. He's always able to deliver with a serious backbeat. There's no question. He keeps aware of contemporary music and does turntable stuff on weekends. He's very hip to what's happening. We have all those elements coming in to make this music. So far it's quite powerful.
What will you be looking for in a frontman?
It's frontperson, Chad. (laughs) We have as many girls contending as guys contending. There are some very tough rock chicks. It's really cool. It surprised me. After two days of auditions in March, I opened my mind. These chicks were kicking the crap out of the guys. They're all buff, but still beautiful. They bring it and are knowledgeable. They play bass, they play keyboards and write music. We went to 20 different cities around the globe and nearly 20,000 people tried out. We're down to 15 now. It's been a long process so far and these are the cream of the crop. Any of the talent you've seen on TV for any of the music shows pale in comparison to what we have here. I have all confidence in saying that. There's nobody on any of the shows you've seen that comes close to our lowest grade person.
There have been rumors of some of last year's contestants returning to compete again. Is that true?
It's completely new. Everything's all fresh. You will see some faces from last year as they come by to say hey, but it's all new contestants. There are contestants from New Zealand, Australia, Iceland, Canada, from every place in the US. We're covering a lot of ground.
Will it be a one album, one tour project, or do you see it as an ongoing future band?
We're going to crush it. People are going to love it, and it will be huge. Put your mind to this for a second. In reality this is the largest supported record in rock that there's ever been. We're talking about network television in nearly 70 countries that are going to be pushing and advertising this album through the whole summer. After that it's backed by Verizon, by Honda, by Microsoft. It's more giant than anything we could have written up. Let's get these people together than can actually rock, not like Barry Manilow. These are dudes that have proven themselves. It's about what you can do today. There are a lot of people that have accolades of the past. I'm proud of it. I have more Grammys than any rock bass player in history. I'm happy about that, but I worked hard for it. And this is the next step in the journey. That's all there is to it. Guys like us that have done what we've done are not involved in stunts. We don't do that. When I do stuff, I'm all in, and that's what's happening with this thing. It's serious. I'm committed to this thing. As long as we can ride this, we're riding it. People are going to love it. There's no way they're not going to dig this. We have the advantage of picking the cream of the crop in the world.
