Jason Newsted EXPLAINS Why He QUIT Metallica

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Jason Newsted EXPLAINS Why He QUIT Metallica

Bassist Jason Newsted never really received fair credit during his tenure with Metallica. He joined the band after beloved bassist Cliff Burton died tragically in an accident involving Metallica's tour bus while on the road supporting Master of Puppets. Fans would eventually learn to embrace him and what he did for the band during a run of four highly successful albums. But they were initially apprehensive and somewhat apathetic towards him.

This wasn't helped by the fact that on his first album with the band, Metallica turned the volume of his bass guitar down so low that you really can't even hear him. People frequently joke about ...And Justice For All being the Metallica album without bass. Even though it would be St Anger in which the band technically didn't have a bassist.

That job would be performed in the studio by producer Bob Rock. Some of you might be thinking, wait a minute, I thought Robert Trujillo joined Metallica for St Anger? Well, you are correct. However, he would join the band after St Anger had already been finished. Robert had no creative input on the songs written for St Anger but Metallica still gave him a credit in the album's liner notes to help make him an official member of the band, a title he still holds as of the making of this video.

After having some of his creative ideas shot down by Metallica, Jason was looking outside of the band for ways to express himself. One of these ideas include the formation of his band Echobrain. This caused a rift between Jason and Metallica frontman James Hetfield, who was concerned that the project would interfere with Metallica. When Metallica's management at Q Prime began discussing the idea of promoting Jason's Echobrain album, James contact management and pressured them to drop support of the Echobrain album.

As Jason explains:

"And so they had told me, pretty convincingly, 'This is a great record, we've been playing it around the office... it's fantastic, this kid has a great voice. Let's do something with this.' That's what they told me, and then James Hetfield heard about it and was not happy. He was, I think, pretty much out to put the kibosh on the whole thing because it would somehow affect Metallica in his eyes, because now the managers were interested in something I was doing that had nothing to do with him...

I have no idea what [Hetfield] was thinking, other than just protecting what he valued, just like he does; that's his thing. He protects what he loves, squeezes it too hard... That's where I was coming from. The people that I had counted on for 15 years to help me with my career, help Metallica, take care of my money, do all of those things, told me, 'Your new project is fantastic, we'd like to help you with it.' James heard about it, the manager calls me back a couple of days later

During a band meeting in early January of 2001, Jason suggest that Metallica should take year long break which would allow Jason time to pursue his sideproject. This idea was also shot down by James Hetfield.

Tired of having his creative ideas shot down, on January 17, 2001 Jason Newsted announced his resignation from Metallica, quitting the band after 15 years and 4 studio albums.

Drummer Lars Ulrich spoke with an interviewer just two years after Jason's departure and expressed a bit of sorrow over how Jason was treated during his tenure with Metallica;

"Jason was overlooked... And the ironic thing is that the model for what would have been the perfect Metallica in Jason's mind is the one that exists now. That is kind of ironic. It's also a little sad, because Jason's a good guy and he put a lot of effort into the band for many years, and in retrospect he was never really fully accepted into the band. Then when he tried to go elsewhere to satisfy his creative needs, he was told — well, barked at — that he couldn't."

James Hetfield would also express a bit of sorrow over the way he handled things with Jason while he was in the band. Often suffocating any of Jason's creative ideas out of fear of surrendering even the slightest bit of control of this musical behemoth that Metallica had become;

“It must have been very bittersweet for him. Like a dream come true by... stepping into someone’s shoes who can never be filled. It must have been very difficult for him.”

James would reflect upon the experience while writing lyrics for the song "All Within My Hands" which would be the closing track on St Anger;

"Squeeze it in
Crush it down
All within my hands /

Love is control
I'll die if I let go"