On This Day In Rock: Jason Newsted Explains Exit From Metallica

01-13-2024

Jason Newsted had the top story on this Day in Rock in 2014 when he shared for the first time the story about why he left Metallica, during an interview with ScuzzTV .

"I've never told this story, I'm not sure if I should tell it now, actually," Newsted begins. "There was a lot leading up to it through time � The very upside-down thing that I don't think anybody knows; the management of Metallica was very, very excited about Echobrain [one of Newsted's side projects], wanted to take it out for me, wanted me to do Echobrain also, with Metallica. They felt Echobrain was that good, the singer was that good, and it didn't affect Metallica because it was a totally different kind of thing, and I was in Metallica; that would give it it's pedigree already."

Newsted continues, "And so they had told me, pretty convincingly, 'This is a great record, we've been playing it around the office, that's all I've been hearing, 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."

The bassist sums up the situation as follows: "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, like he said himself. Squeeze it too hard, protecting it too much. 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 'Sorry we're not going to be able to help you with that Echobrain thing.'" Watch the video clip here.