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Ex-Metallica bassist Jason Newsted revealed that he recently battled throat cancer.
"It's gonna be a year," the musician reflected during an interview on Sunday (May 3) with comedian-musician Dean Delray on his Let There Be Talk podcast. "May 8th of 2025, I underwent a procedure for throat cancer. So the cavern inside my head is different than it was, but we got it early."
The bassist also noted that, fortunately, his cancer is in remission.
"I got my 'free and clear' about three weeks ago," he shared. "So I beat it. 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 so now I'm more clear-headed than I've ever been in my entire adult life. And so there's blessings within everything."
Newsted joined Metallica in 1986 and played with the iconic heavy metal band until his departure from the group in 2001. In 2009, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, along with his former bandmates, in which they performed together for the first in nearly a decade.