On Jason leaving and the state of Metallica in general:

Ok, before I start anything I'm just going to say that just like everyone else I think it sucks that Jason chose to leave the band. However, I don't blame him. From what I have seen in my many bootleg concert videos, interviews and any other visual footage of metallica I could get my hands on, Jason and the rest of the band have grown into different types of people. Start with the Seattle video from live shit. In that video it's easy to see that all the members are on the same level, you can see it in the way they move around on stage. Everyone running around banging hard.

Now, lets go to the recent performance Metallica did for the VH1 MyMusic awards. True in this performance Jason is a bit subdued in comparison to his earlier days, but no nearly as much as the rest of the band. In that performance it's more like the rest of the strolling around and they happen to have guitars in their hands while Jason is LIVING what he's playing. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying Metallica is going soft. They certainly are not. True, their stage show has suffered a bit, but they're not 20 anymore!! To put it simply, Metallica has become a bit less insane than Jason has grown. They're different people now, it's the same as I say about the music changing. PEOPLE CHANGE. Get over it.

The other reason I believe he chose to leave the band is just what Sepultura singer Derrick said: ".... Jason is the kind of man who NEEDS to make music... And he was suffocating there.. Sure he had some influence... But he just wasn't given the chance to fully live out his creative ability... Those guys didn't fully respect his full talent, so he just upped and left..."

It is evident that they tried to control Jason's music if you watch the 20 minute metallic-video before the San-Diego show in live shit. In the video is part of an interview with James on the making of the black album. He comments that on this album they weren't always over someone's shoulder (Jason obviously) shaking their head and saying "no, no, we didn't write that note for you." That I feel is the only reason my friend of misery and the god that failed are on that CD. Unfortunately though, they went back to their old habits after the Black album and Jason suffocated. The Metallica boys simply didn't let him breath musically. I believe that as much as he was in the band, he was never in the band as much as Kirk, Lars or James. They still looked at him a "the new guy." What does a new guy know? Certainly (as little as they would admit to it) he wasn't respected as much as say James, on of the founding members. They looked at him as a replacement. Someone to fill the place of cliff until cliff came back. Maybe he put up with it because he was living a dream. Jason Newstead was playing with his favorite band. It's obvious that he realized that as much as it was fun to be a member of metallica. The cost (him suffocating musically) was just too much and because of it, Metallica has now [lost] one of the best bassists alive today. Again. -

- DanIsTheBassMan@aol.com
Feb, 2001