Newsted Kicked Off Megadeth's Australian Dates

Some interesting developments have just emerged from Australia where it looks like Megadeth mainman Dave Mustaine has had Jason Newsted booted off some shows.

Jason was set to support MegaDave et al on some Soundwave sideshows as both are billed to appear at the Australian mega-festival when it kicks off later this month. However, a no-nonsense statement from the Soundwave organisers have confirmed that this is no longer the case…

“At the request of Megadeth, Newsted will not be playing the above Sidewave shows and instead will be replaced by Whitechapel,” reads the piece on the official Soundwave website.

The plot thickens somewhat with a quick look at Soundwave organiser AJ Maddah’s Twitter page, where AJ admits that there is an issue that’s led to Jason leaving the shows, but adds that it might not be down to Dave Mustaine himself.

Given that Newsted and Megadeth have already toured the States together recently and seemed pretty chummy together, this all comes as a big surprise. We’ll see if we can get a statement from one of the camps involved shortly, so watch this space…