Jason Newsted

Jason Newsted was born in 1963 in Battle Creek, Michigan, and learned bass after becoming a fan of Gene Simmons of Kiss. After high school, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona and formed a thrash metal band called Paradox, then Dogz, and then Flotsam And Jetsam. This band became a cult success thanks to its ferocious 1986 debut album, Doomsday For The Deceiver, but Newsted gained worldwide recognition when he joined Metallica the same year, replacing that band’s late bassist Cliff Burton, who had lost his life in a coach crash in Sweden.

Newsted’s 15-year stint with Metallica, now the biggest heavy metal band in the world, was commercially successful but also creatively inconsistent. While his bass playing was always exemplary, delivered on a, while other, less assured records such as (1996) and (’97) divided the fanbase. Still, 1991’s self-titled LP—the ‘Black Album’—was a massive success, selling over 30 million copies worldwide, and Newsted’s post-Metallica albums with cult Canadians Voivod and as a solo artist were acclaimed. Now a fine artist as much as a musician, he lives in what appears to be happy semi-retirement.