JASON NEWSTED says his throat cancer got him close to not breathing
13-05-2026
On the latest episode of Bill Burr’s Monday Morning Podcast, former METALLICA bassist Jason Newsted opened about up about his revelation that he has been undergoing medical treatment for throat cancer. The 63-year-old musician, who played with the heavy metal giants from 1986 to 2001, said: “About a couple of days from now, two days from now will be one year since I underwent a procedure for throat cancer. 62 years old, last year in May. So they go in there, they cut that open. They took out all my lymph nodes out of here. They go in this way with this thing called a TORS surgery, where it’s trans(oral) robotic laser surgery, and they go inside there and cut a bunch of stuff out of the back of my head. They found it early. We got all of it. I’m good now, but it took a year.”
Jason, who recently announced that he will embark on the first-ever North American headlining tour with his THE CHOPHOUSE BAND this summer, continued: “I didn’t share my cancer diagnosis until this week. So I’m telling people now… But the deal is kind of one of the reasons that I’m coming back to touring. I slowed down for a while. I did that through my 40s and 50s. And now this thing put me in check more than anything ever has. It’s the closest I’ve ever come to not breathing. And so now the most alive that I can feel, just as you do with your kids, or on the stage, or playing drums, or whatever it is, when I feel the most alive is when I’m playing really loud and screaming and sweating and exchanging with the people. So I’m going back out. I manifested this. I went and talked to the BLACKBERRY (SMOKE) guys. I talked to (BLACKBERRY SMOKE vocalist and guitarist) Charlie (Starr). And I asked Charlie, ‘Man, how about you let CHOPHOUSE BAND come and open some shows for you on your 25th-anniversary tour?’ And he said, ‘Sure, Jay. And so here we are. But I have to do it so I can prove to myself that I can, but also to correct this shit, because I need to feel super alive because I felt pretty close to dead. And I want to get back these joys that were removed from me by that fucking thing. It took away my taste buds. It took away my… This is all still numb. It’s fucking crazy, dude. And so now I appreciate every fucking minute. We both know tomorrow’s not guaranteed to nobody, but this is kind of a different kind of awareness now, different kind of reflection took place this last year and really put in check like never before. So I’m back to my touring weight. I lost a bunch, of course, as we went along, but I’m back to my touring weight. I’m back to my thing. I got a bunch of new songs. I got a killer band. I’m trying to feel as alive as possible. So that’s where I’m at with that.”
During an appearance on an episode of Dean Delray‘s “Let There Be Talk” podcast earlier this month, Jason Newsted opened up about a health scare he had last year when he was diagnosed with throat cancer. After Delray noted that Newsted was invited to take part in the final edition of Dean‘s legendary Bon Scott/AC/DC tribute show this past February, the 63-year-old Newsted, who recently announced that he will embark on the first-ever North American headlining tour with his THE CHOPHOUSE BAND this summer, said: “If I could have been there, I would’ve been there. And so I will talk about this a little bit. I decided that this week, as I’m beginning to roll out the promotion for the shows and stuff and let everybody know I’m gonna be back around, and you already know it — you’re, probably, in the 24 people that I told.
“So, let’s see — in one week, it’s gonna be a year. So one week from today, it’ll be a year. May 8th of 2025, I underwent a procedure for throat cancer. And so they took a bunch of shit outta here and then they went in with lasers this way and took a bunch of shit out. So the cavern inside my head is different than it was, but we got it early. And I got my ‘free and clear’ about three weeks ago. So I beat it.”
Newsted added: “I promised myself I was going to rest, and that was the first time I’ve done that in my life. I’m usually just on or off. And so I promised myself I was gonna take the gravity off and lay down for the right amount of hours. And 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 it pulled me off it. And so now I’m more clear-headed than I’ve been in my entire adult life. And so there’s blessings within everything. The lemonade I’m making this summer, bro — mm. Sweet. Ooh.”
Jason left METALLICA back in 2001, but was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, along with Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and the man who replaced him, bassist Robert Trujillo, in 2009.
Twelve years ago, Jason shelved NEWSTED, the heavy metal project he operated between 2012 and 2014, saying that it cost him “an awful lot of money — hundreds of thousands of dollars.” He added: “I couldn’t continue because the business is such a harsh thing now and so different than what I had known.”
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