Jason Newsted: Voivod will always be, because we've captured things on record and video and so forth. As far as making music, all the music was from Piggy. He wrote 150 or 160 songs for Voivod. He was the life force. Michel is the mind and the concept of Voivod, but Piggy was the heart. It's hard first of all to have anybody live on stage that could do what he does. It would take 2 or 3 guys who are really good like Andreas from Sepultura and Dave Grohl and Josh Homme and people like that. We'd have to have them all in the same place at the same time to even get close to his ability. Piggy actually outsmarted the instrument. His tuning was like nobody else's tuning. Nobody ever tuned like that. If you look at the tablature from guitar magazines back in the day when they were trying to figure out Piggy's playing, they would say you put these five fingers here and use a finger from the other hand to make a chord. His hands weren't giant, he was a little fella, but he figured out what would be most comfortable for him to be able to play for hours and hours and still get the dissonance and what makes the Voivod sound the Voivod sound. A lot of people have tried to emulate it, but nobody can quite do it with the psychotic dissonance and the mathematic at the same time.
What is your fondest memory of Piggy?
It's something he said at the very beginning when they let me come and play with them. We were walking into the studio after we had done some pre-production and were getting down to the serious business of making tones. Piggy asked me where was the Marshall (amplifier) for the bass. I told him I play on an SVT and use a stop box for distortion. He said you don't use a fifty dollar stop box for a fifty million dollar sound. What kind of crap is that? He said we need a Marshall head and a Marshall cabinet. We're plugging the bass in and that's the Voivod bass sound. So I plugged my rig in the way I always do but then added that. So I still had the boom, but then added that on top. On that record it's just sick. He wanted me to turn it up. It had been a long time, if ever, that I can remember that people in a band I was in wanted me to turn up the bass. He wanted to hear uglier, growlier and louder. I knew we'd get along just fine. That's the memory I have. He encouraged me to crank my stuff up and get scary and growly again.
On your various projects over the years you've sang, played bass, guitar and drums. Any thought of doing a solo album?
It's about a group for me. I really haven't entertained the thought of a Jason Newsted album. If it's going to be a project it will have a killer name, because it won't be just my name. It will always be a band thing for me.
What CD is playing in your version of hell?
I really don't like Toto. I've learned to respect Steely Dan, but I don't like Steely Dan, so it would be one of those two.
Who are some of the most underrated bands?
Sepultura, Kyuss, Mudshark, Speed Dealer, Solace, Unida, Dozer.
What are your worst personal characteristics?
I'm impatient. I can be arrogant sometimes. It kind of goes with the territory. Sometimes it's not your fault. You have hundreds of people doing things for you so you can be the best artist you can be when those two and a half hours come. Pulling yourself away from that can sometimes be difficult. Listening to the end of people's sentences is something I'm trying to work on.
How about your best personal characteristics?
I'm loyal. I have an incredible work ethic. I'm disciplined. I'm happy. I'm goofy. I have a great sense of humor. I'm open minded to many things, like ideas and religions and beliefs.
What is the biggest misconception people have about you?
That I was incredibly tortured by Metallica. It wasn't really as bad as people made it out to be. Certainly there was some grilling, but not what they've built it into.
What is the best advice someone ever gave you?
My grandfather told me that this isn't going to last forever, so make sure you plan you future out properly. It's worked for me.
