The song that got Jason Newsted into Metallica: “Real moody”
There’s no easy way for a bunch of rock and rollers to process grief when they are cutting their teeth on the road. The entire journey to emotional maturity isn’t high on teenagers’ lists of priorities, but Metallica seemed to get a nice dose of reality the minute that Cliff Burton passed away in a bus accident. They needed to grow up incredibly fast, but the only way they knew how to deal with their anger was to take everything out on the new guy once Jason Newsted joined the group.
That being said, Newsted was always a good sport about being the butt of every single joke the band made. He was always a superfan of the band since his days working in Flotsam and Jetsam, so even if he was being tossed around and relentlessly bullied by his idols, it was more than enough knowing that he was playing bass right next to James Hetfield whenever he stepped out onstage.
However, Newsted’s role had to be daunting as well. Burton was one of the finest bassists to ever live, and outside of being an uber-fan of his style, there was no way that anyone would join Metallica without living in his shadow. If he wanted this gig, he would have to go through all hell to get it, and it’s not like the rest of the band were cordial regarding their audition process.
Before he even set foot in the room, Newsted remembered the whole thing being cutthroat, saying, “[If] a guy would come in that just didn’t look right, they’d plug the bass in for 20 seconds and say, ‘Next’. It was cold, and I was shaking in my boots.” Then again, Newsted knew every song they played backwards and forwards, and he was more than ready when confronted with the eight-minute elephant in the room.
According to Hetfield, ‘Master of Puppets’ was always going to be the test for if Newsted could go the distance, saying, “We knew at the beginning of the first song if the guy we were auditioning was the one or not, and ‘Master’ is great because it’s real moody and has a lot of changes in it.” Others may have been struggling through it, but given Newsted’s habit of playing as aggressively as possible, the song was made for him.
Regardless of how many times people auditioned, it’s not like Burton ever played the same thing twice every time around. Even on the final take of the song on the album of the same name, there are times where the bassist is clearly out of sync with the group or plays a wrong note, and while Newsted did tighten up some loose ends, it’s important to know that he wasn’t coming in there to show up what Burton.
He knew that he was paying tribute to one of his bass heroes, and whenever he could, he found ways to sprinkle in his own sound while tipping his hat to Burton’s style. There would be the occasional cool bass line on later projects, but given how many times he would throw the bass solo from ‘Orion‘ into his own solos onstage, he was constantly reminding the crowd of the legend that started him playing something heavier.
Burton didn’t need more than three albums to earn his spot among the greatest metal bassists of all time, but Newsted’s ability to match him note-for-note was about more than paying lip service to the band’s fallen friend. He wanted to make them into something bigger, and while Burton will never be forgotten, it’s easy to appreciate a riff like ‘Blackened’ as much as ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’.
