Earlier in the week, former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted teased that he had a new project called Would and Steal, and the band has now played their first performance.

The music is primarily acoustic based, and during his webcast premiering the band, Newsted stated (as transcribed by Blabbermouth), “After thirty years of playing heavy music and travelling around the world — I’ve been around the globe about five and a half times, fifty-five countries — I’ve already climbed that mountain; there is no more of that mountain to be climbed. So within the accolades that I shared of the group’s success — I was one member of that group, something bigger than all of us; and we got Grammy Awards and Hall of Fame and all those different things — that’s as far as you can go in that kind of music, and it’s someone else’s turn to have fun in that music now."

He went on to add, "I can’t play like Slipknot now; those guys are heavier and faster than I could ever dream of playing now. So this is how I can play, and this is what I’ll do for the rest of time."

Elaborating further on his future, Newsted stated, "I always wanna play music; I have to have it in my every day, and if I don’t, I’ll go mad — literally. Anybody that knows me knows that. And so now as I play this, I find myself being able to expose myself to more people. I’d say age four to 94 can listen to this music and enjoy it. How can’t you like Johnny Cash? How can’t you like ‘Will The Circle Be Unbroken?’ You have to like those songs, American music like that.” Check out the webcast, presented by Mighty Fine Guitars, in the player below.

The other musician involved in Would and Steal is Rob Tucker. The two musicians have a pair of benefit shows booked Aug. 5 and 6 at Mighty Fine Guitars in Lafayette, La. Stay tuned for more in the future from Would and Steal.

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