Given he’s avoided the spotlight for the last decade, there’s an awful lot of love and respect in our scene for Jason Newsted.He was the young, bass-playing hopeful from Flotsam And Jetsam who found himself in the enviable yet daunting position of filling the shoes of Cliff Burton, Metallica’s legendary bassist, who passed away in 1986. With such a weight of responsibility upon him, it says much about Jason that he went on to become such an integral and beloved part of the Metallica family, helping to turn them into the biggest metal band of all time.
Yet Jason’s boundless energy and commitment to the band took a physical toll, leading him to quit Metallica in 2001. Since then he has led a nomadic existence, playing with everyone from Ozzy Osbourne to Voivod and fronting his own solo project, Newsted, as well as starting an art career that’s been remarkably successful. And he’s stepped away from the public glare to work at his own Chophouse studio with a revolving door of musicians. But whatever he does or chooses not to do in the future, Jason Newsted’s status as an icon is cemented. This, in his words, is how it all happened.
How do you look back on the first Flotsam And Jetsam album, 1986’s Doomsday For The Deceiver?
“Pridefully and respectfully. I just wish we’d have paid a little more attention to getting the intonation on them Flying Vs… haha! The fucking Arizona weather, you go outside and it’s 40 degrees hotter, and you’re going ‘Clunk-clonk.’ But we made our mark.
