With a metal “Geeks of Doom”, ex-Metallica bassist Jason Newsted is ready to talk. After 15 years with the world’s biggest metal band – and spells with Voivod, Ozzy Osbourne, Echobrain, and Flotsam and Jetsam – the extremely talented Newsted is clearly a member of rock royalty.

Back with a new band that he fronts, Newsted, and a new four-song EP entitled simply Metal, out on iTunes today, he is hungry to get back out there and play the music he loves and we need to hear.

“Kicking the ass” of a holiday bug, I caught up with Newsted on the eve of the release of Metal to discuss his new EP, getting back out on tour, and why James Hetfield is “untouchable.”

Geeks of Doom: Tomorrow is the day. Do you always feel the same way on the eve of an EP or an album release, or does this feel different, does this feel special?

Jason Newsted: It’s always exciting. I mean like the nervous excitement and that kind of thing. Putting yourself out there like that always kind of gives the nervous excitement. But it is different this time, it has been a long time since I had this feeling [laughs] and it’s magnified a bit because it’s my name, I wrote all the songs, all the parts myself, and created pretty much all [the music] and then put it together with my boys [guitarist Jessie Farsnworth and drummer Jesus Mendez Jr.]. So it is the first time I’ve done that. I mean, I wrote stuff in Flotsam [Flotsam & Jetsam] back in the day on bass and then we kind of made compositions out of it, but I constructed all these songs on guitar and I composed all the pieces.