The Controversial Reason METALLICA Members Didn’t Like JASON NEWSTED, According to JAMES HETFIELD

Summary

• James Hetfield says Metallica ‘hated’ Jason Newsted for being a fan, and tried to ‘beat the fan out of him’.
• Jason’s bass was nearly inaudible on …And Justice For All, a decision driven by Lars Ulrich, not by accident.
• Newsted gained respect through live shows, where his energy and vocals stood out despite behind-the-scenes tensions.

In a revealing interview from 2018, Metallica frontman James Hetfield opened up about a difficult chapter in the band’s history: their treatment of bassist Jason Newsted, who joined the group following the death of Cliff Burton in 1986.

Newsted’s entry into Metallica came during a time of deep emotional turmoil. The band had just lost a close friend and key member in a tragic bus accident. According to Hetfield, much of their unprocessed anger and grief found an easy outlet: THE NEW GUY.

“It must have been very difficult, for him and for us, it was difficult; it just truly was,” Hetfield told Rolling Stone senior editor David Fricke during a promotional event for the 30th anniversary box set of …And Justice For All. “And Psych 101 will tell you that all our anger, our grief and sadness got directed at him, not all of it, but quite a bit of it. He was an easy target.”

One major reason? Newsted was a fan of Metallica before joining the band, and apparently, that didn’t sit well with his new bandmates.

“He was such a fan, and we hated that, we hated that part,” Hetfield said. “We wanted to ‘unfan’ him and become as hard as we were. So we were trying to beat the fan out of him.”

According to Hetfield, Newsted’s enthusiasm and admiration for the band didn’t match the hardened, cynical mindset that had become Metallica’s default. The rest of the group, still raw from Cliff’s death, viewed Jason’s positive energy as naive, or even annoying. Instead of embracing his dedication, they saw it as a weakness.

“He was goofy enough to take it, which was a positive for him,” Hetfield added. “Trying to also get him to play something different, like Cliff would. He played with a pick and he would follow whatever I would do [on guitar]. And I remember there were times where I’d be playing, and I’d just turn around so he couldn’t see what I was playing so he couldn’t follow me.”

It wasn’t just a personality clash. Newsted’s bass playing was famously buried in the mix on …And Justice For All, Metallica’s 1988 album and his first with the band. Fans and critics alike have spent decades questioning the near-total absence of bass on the record. Newsted’s lines are practically inaudible, and the blame has long pointed toward drummer Lars Ulrich and producer Steve Thompson.

In that same 2018 interview, Lars defended the album’s sound, saying it wasn’t planned, just a result of instinctive decisions made along the way. “Nobody sat there and said, ‘We’re gonna have a record that’s gonna be mixed this way,’” he explained. “It was all about balances… a lot of it was a result of what I think were sort of balancing points along the way to just make it all work for the big picture.”

Thompson, on the other hand, painted a different picture in an earlier interview with Ultimate-Guitar.com, claiming Ulrich was insistent on reducing the bass levels. “He said, ‘I want you to bring down the bass where you can barely, audibly hear it in the mix.’ I said, ‘You’re kidding. Right?’ He said, ‘No. Bring it down.’ Then he goes, ‘Now drop it down another 5 dB.’”

Thompson also said he regretted that Newsted’s performance, which he called great, ended up being wasted. “The bass was great; it was perfect,” he said. “It was a shame because I’m the one getting the @#$%! for the lack of bass.”

Newsted’s contributions did shine during live performances, where he had more space to assert himself musically. Hetfield acknowledged that Jason earned a lot of respect on stage. “He wasn’t afraid to step up to the mic and bark whenever he felt like it. And he would sweat, he would really sweat, and he put a lot into the live show.”

Guitarist Kirk Hammett echoed that sentiment. “Jason tried to balance things out by really being prominent on those songs when they were played live,” he said. “He played the @#$%! out of those songs. And you can tell that he was giving it his all. I think some of that was because he was trying to compensate for not being heard on the album.”

Despite the tension and questionable decisions behind the scenes, …And Justice For All became Metallica’s first album to sell over a million copies. It included their first major radio hit, “One”, and was nominated for a Grammy, though it lost to Jethro Tull, in one of the most infamous upsets in the award’s history.

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So it’s clear that Jason Newsted earned his place in Metallica through sheer persistence and hard work, not because anyone made it easy. The band has since spoken more openly about those years, with what sounds like a mixture of regret and reflection.

But fans still wonder what …And Justice For All might have sounded like if the bass had been allowed to breathe.

And Jason? he’s moved on.

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Check out the full interview 👇

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