Watch Metallica legend Jason Newsted cover Knockin' On Heaven's Door at free New York show this past weekend

Jason Newsted live on stage — (Image credit: YouTube)

Picture the scene: you're at your down-the-road festival in Skaneateles, New York, a free event put together to raise funds for the local Fire Department, and when you walk over to the main stage to see what's going on, you witness none other than Metallica legend Jason Newsted and his band casually rocking out a cover of Bob Dylan classic, Knockin' On Heaven's Door!

That's exactly what happened when Newsted and his Chophouse Band - named after his beloved studio that he built in Walnut Creek, California - played at the Skaneateles Field Days Festival in Austin Park this past Saturday, September 3. According to Blabbermouth, Newsted also played the festival last year as a guest of Mere Mortals.

Playing a set that lasted over an hour and featured numerous covers of rock, folk and country bangers, it marked a rare live appearance for the former Metallica bassist, who served with the metal legends from 1986-2001.

Watch the whole set below - and skip to an hour and eight minutes in to see Jason and the band kick into Knockin' On Heaven's Door.

"Once I built the Chophouse in 1992, it opened me up so much to so many musicians," Newsted told us last year. "I would have jam sessions with the guys in Machine Head and Exodus. Sometimes we’d jump away from metal and into other styles, to see if we could play those styles with the same as we used in metal. The Sepultura guys became really good friends and they would come down.

I was just still so hungry to learn about all different styles of music, people who invent their own instruments and sing in different languages, and if I pour as much of this good stuff in, then what’s it gonna pull out of me? I still have that to this day. It was important to me to keep the metal in Metallica.”

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Merlin was promoted to Executive Editor of Louder in early 2022, following over ten years working at Metal Hammer. While there, he served as Online Editor and Deputy Editor, before being promoted to Editor in 2016. Before joining Metal Hammer, Merlin worked as Associate Editor at Terrorizer Magazine and has written for Classic Rock, Rock Sound, eFestivals and others. Across his career he has interviewed legends including Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy, Metallica, Iron Maiden (including getting a trip on Ed Force One courtesy of Bruce Dickinson), Guns N' Roses, KISS, Slipknot, System Of A Down and Meat Loaf. He has also presented and produced the Metal Hammer Podcast, presented the Metal Hammer Radio Show and is probably responsible for 90% of all nu metal-related content making it onto the site.