If I knew then what I know now, I'd have payed attention better.

Now I do live by these words. You mean to tell me Jason is gone? Well, thank God he's not dead. It's not the end of the world you know. Really. I was a wee lass of 13 or so when my hears were bestowed with the beauty and grace that is Fade to black. But I never did the crazed fan thing most girls my age did. It wasn't until Justice came out that I was truly hooked. I still argue I've been a fan since 85, but such is life. I didn't care what they looked like, I cared how they sounded. So 14 years later, I'm still hooked and now, for some odd reason, I dig the looks too. But I have to say, Jason is inspiring. His power and hunger to play the music he loves no matter what if just awesome. You never saw Jason's demons or ego. You just saw the Jason you saw. Maybe this was the true Jason, or maybe it was his master plan to be a wall and let nothing get to him. I don't know much about Bass except I love the thump. Pick your fave Met CD and a killer stereo system and go to heaven. It's really simple. You see, Cliff was the man. His work on the first 3 albums kicked pure ass. Jason never got the chance to really shine they way we all saw that he could, given half the chance. His release was on stage. Maybe that was on purpose.

I'm 9 hours ahead of California time, and on Wed. evening, I left "the net" rather early and in much pain from a toothache. On Thursday, I kicked my self for noticing, I made one last post on the boards (encycmet) and 5 minutes later, it had been announced. I'm actually glad I didn't see it first. Technically I should have. Oh and to top that, I did'nt get online the next morning until after Noon.. I checked my mail first and tons of emails "Hey jib, are you ok??" and I was like.. it's just a tooth. I had no clue. Then when i saw the news on Encycmet, I cried. I literally did. You have to understand the little "competition" between myself (and fellow Jason fans) versus the "James" fans.. so it was really hard on me. Metallica was the one thing you could count on as being stable. Now what? Life does go on.

For whatever reason(s) Jason truly had, let's leave them to him. They are his, not ours, and who are we to tell him he's wrong for what he's done. It's his life and love. We will go on, Metallica will go on and Jason will too. I hope to see Echo Brain soon, and even though it may be obvious that he left to follow other musical avenues, I'm satisified with the press release. Maybe it was time for him to go pursue his true calling. Maybe Metallica was his true calling and he's made a mistake. Thank you Jason, for 14 wonderful years and looking forward to the next.

-jasonite@metallica.com
Feb, 2001