During a candid January 28th interview with journalist Martin Carlsson, portions of which appeared in the Swedish newspaper Expressen, former METALLICA bassist Jason Newsted revealed interesting facts about his departure from METALLICA, James Hetfield's battle with addictions, the infamous Playboy feature, the postponement of VOIVOD's next album, the formation of a dream metal band with members from SEPULTURA and EXODUS, and much more. BLABBERMOUTH.NET exclusively brings you the entire interview, word for word:

If James said, ?Look, I was in a bad place and I didn't handle the situation correctly?, would you reconsider your decision and rejoin the band?
Jason: Oh yeah, sure. But it has to be understood that I am my own person and I still have other things outside of METALLICA. In order to keep myself living the way I wanna live, I have to have my freedom and stuff like that. So there would have to be a few different perimeters, but I would never say never on something like that, because it's too special and I've spent more than half my life working on that f.cking thing. There you go!

Realistically, do you think James would reconsider his position and call you up?
Jason: Hmm?(sighs)? Oh, boy, that's a tough question , dude. Maybe after some time, yes. I think there are some very valuable things that he would like to say to me, that we haven't gotten together on yet, that maybe have nothing to do with the band, which would be beautiful. He could just tell me some things as a man to a man, friend to a friend, brother to a brother. That would be really f.cking great. That's what you do first. It would have to go in steps, it would have to go in phases, in a way that we re-establish our friendship before we worry too much about what would take place with the band. We know we've got that, we know we can do that shit. We've done it together a lot. But this other thing is very new to us, these emotional tests. The things that he's went through in the past year with his family and stuff, I wouldn't wish that upon my worst enemy. I have no ill feelings towards this guy. He's probably the person and [his songwriting in METALLICA is] the music that I respect the most. That's still there. As an instrumentalist in heavy music he's the best, and to be able to play with him is an honor. That's all there is to it. I've always felt that way about it and I will always feel that way about it. He taught me a lot of shit and help me develop my playing style and become who I am as a musician. I have great respect in that way. So hell yeah, I'd jam with METALLICA any day, it would just have to be right, you know.

When you announced that you were leaving METALLICA, the reason you gave was problems with your neck. You still claim that was a major factor, but at the same time you say that you're willing to return. So if you were to go back to METALLICA, you would still have the neck problems, right?
Jason: Yeah. That damage is done and there's nothing I can do about it. A body is built the way a body is built. You only have so much cartilage and bone (laughs). I would have to make the effort and it would have to be done a little differently. We wouldn't be able to do the grind, 250 shows a year and shit like that. It couldn't happen like that for me anymore. I would have to know that I was physically able to do it. In my mind and in my heart I would love to be able to do that some day. If my body was able to go along with that, great. I would hope that it would follow along with me, but right now or maybe in the past year ? which you've probably read before ? I just don't know that I would be able to do it exactly like people know me in METALLICA and that's the way I have to have it. If I can't be that person, the performer that people know, I don't wanna do it in METALLICA. ECHOBRAIN is a different demand physically in that there's so much more playing in ECHOBRAIN, really finessing the instruments opposed to METALLICA just thrashing it out. METALLICA is a very physically demanding music. We maybe make it look easy, and people think they can sit on their couch and play ? Enter Sandman? going ?I love that song!? That's great, you can play the notes. Performing the song with the intensity and the fire night after night, not everybody can do that. It's something that is valuable and it's something I have to be very careful about and that I would be careful about. You're asking me straight-up how my mind and my heart feels, and I'd love to go back and jam with those guys some day. But so much just went down, Martin, that you have to think about all the year that we had together and what's happened this last year because of it, the changes and stuff. So much damage has been done within people, you know, and you just have to be careful with this stuff. It would take a long time to heal, but I don't think it's impossible.

Were you surprised by James' battle with alcoholism and other addictions or did you see it coming?
Jason: I think that one thing that really needs to be cleared up, that I'm not sure how it's been misconstrued, is that the other addictions have nothing to do with substances. As long as I have known him, he has never touched anything other than alcohol. I know for a fact that he's never done any kind of amphetamines, cocaine or anything like that in his life EVER. I know he's never done LSD or ecstasy or any of that shit EVER. Any of that thing that people think has to do with drugs is completely wrong. As far as the alcoholism thing, he's always liked to drink. Think about it, it's f.cking METALLICA. Alcoholica, that was us, that's what we do. That's part of the lifestyle and it finally caught up with him. Now he's a father of three children and he has to look at life a little bit differently. You can't be going out drinking vodka every night. It's something that happens. Just like with anybody, it's common sense, man. You have to make certain changes in your life to retain your strength, physically and mentally. That's what he had to do. As far as him not handling his booze? F.ck, I never saw it, he was always fine. It just wasn't like that?(cringes) alcoholic, I don't know. It had to do with the breaking up of the band, too, and some other personal things. Emotionally, he maybe was really drunk with, I don't know, with sadness, tense things or stress. It kinda caught up with him all at once. But he's not a weak person, as you well know. He's a very strong person. It's just what had to happen for him to keep himself together and for him to able to go on.

Mentally, how were you affected by the split from METALLICA?
Jason: It was a huge depression for a while. At least three months of just solid depression not wanting to eat, sleep and sometimes not even wanting to listen to music, which is really f.cked up for me. You can just imagine, it's like getting divorced from three wives at once. Not just that, you're getting divorced from yourself in a way, too. You're taking a piece of yourself and giving it away or turning your back on it. It was a lot of tests and I'm glad ECHOBRAIN was there for me to be able to put my energy into and the SPEEDEALER stuff and all the other stuff I kept myself busy with.

You've actually publicly recommended Joey Vera (from ARMORED SAINT/FATES WARNING) to replace you in METALLICA. Don't you think they would need someone who's slightly younger and more hungry?
Jason: No. It has to be someone who's seasoned and it has to be somebody, I feel, who's in the circle of the band already and that knows the band already. It has to be someone who's been through a lot of the business already. These guys you're talking about in METALLICA are all 38 and 39 years old and they're already been doing this band for more than 20 years. You can't have a 20-year-old guy come in and play with guys that have had the band for 20 years. It doesn't work. It worked when I when I was 23 and they were 23. They re-started it and got a fresh, hungry guy in there. But now so much has past and there's SO much money involved, things like that. There's a legend established that rules millions of dollars a year. You can't just bring some kid in and include him in that stuff when he hasn't earned it. You have to have somebody that's earned it and that's all there is. Joey looks young, he's in very good shape, he's very smart, he has great production skills, he's a great player, he has great energy. He almost had the gig before, the last time. He was among the last three guys that were gonna get the gig. They're been friends forever. In this day and age, being a fancy and hungry player doesn't mean shit. You have to be able to be a businessman, you have to be a people-person and there's so much it takes to be a, whatever you wanna say, pop musician these days. It would be tough for a 22- or 23-year-old kid that never tasted it before to step into something of that magnitude and be comfortable and be able to get the respect from Hetfield. That's a big, big hill to climb.

In actually sounds like you're talking about yourself.
Jason: Yeah, maybe (laughs). Joey and I are a lot alike. I didn't think about it like that, though (laughs).