Kirk Hammett Reveals Details About Jason Newsted's Metallica Audition, Metallica Interview (Justice) 

Saw his Beato interview. The guy is a genuine legend to me. While other members went through some dark stuff to cope (alcohol abuse ect), I feel like his genuine passionate psyche allowed him to get emotional with all that happens and not feel less than. Bloody refreshing in an era where we seem to be regressing to somehow equating "emotional detachment" as "manliness"

They moved to SF because Cliff. He was their Steve Harris. Held a lot of influence over the guys back in the day

The circumstances were really different for both of those guys to be in the band, they didnt "need" Cliff when he joined.

@@MiguelPaulettePerez-bj8ml In Hindsight, They Did. What Would Kill Em All, Ride The Lightning & Master Of Puppets Be Without Him?

That's what I thought too! I've been a fan since '86 but never knew auditions started just 2 weeks after. Wow

And they never got over the loss of Cliff, it took Jason leaving, James going into rehab for the first time, (kirk had been previously to cope with his issues). No one expects them to fully get over Cliff, he was such a huge influence on the other three members, that went higher than just musically.

Nobody said music industry is easy. When you have a record label to answer to, tours to fulfill, money involved, contracts to oblige..

And 23-24 years old. What do you know at that age.

They didn’t want to stop. Had they waited they would have sunk into depression and never recovered

Same!

what?

That's rich coming from the band that went from thrash metal titans, to uber poser faguettes. Metallica sucks shit through a sewer hose post afja while other bands manage to be real metal, without having it in their name. Shame!

@@peepongdingdong9208is that you Dave?

I mean I get that. They have to fit the attitude of the band

Where did you hear that?

sorry for your loss

They definitely should have hired a touring bassist and probably had a tech/roadie on deck who could have fit the bill. I disagree that Cliff was irreplaceable, though. If he was truly irreplaceable, they would have disbanded the group like Led Zeppelin did after John Bonham's death. Instead, they chose to move on. Jason stepped up and did a great job.

Always been

That interview was his early 20's you can tell. Can you not tell?

So, he has still grown into a lively guy.

lovely not lively.

@@elisabethlewis6084 Duh we all mature within time. But not all.

He focking left the band!

@@icankillbugsi would have too if i was treated like that

“he rocks it!” 😂

Yep. First year was $500 per week and a year later was a full member

Really? I’ve never heard that. I watched a couple of interviews with Jason talking about the audition. I’m not saying that’s true. I’ve just never seen him or any other band Member mention that.

Source? Never heard that

@@iamtheai2759 ​ @Tooledyou2 It has been mentioned in a few interviews I think Lars once or twice, and by Jason himself in the interview he did where he was asked about him leaving the band. In that same interview, he says that the 'bad treatment' thing is more myth than fact. He was only being pranked for a few months and after that things were fine. He even says he pranks the 'new guy' in his own band the same way, and finds it understandable, because of being the new guy.

@@RatBotEins I just googled it, looks like you are right

Jason is a shit bassist

Loved him in the day. His energy and backing vocals. But Rob is way better bassist live. The old tunes played the way Cliff played em again.

@@Walksthewalk Jason didn't play them the same way cliff did, and he was the better overall bassist FOR Metallica. You're being an elitist saying Rob is better because he plays it like cliff. You need to get over it. Jason live overall, packed an infinitely harder punch than Cliff and Rob Cliff and and Rob are better technically. But they lack everything else Jason has, and Jason is still very technically able despite using a pick. If you're all going to say is because Rob plays like Cliff, Or Cliff plays with his fingers. No one debating this is going to listen to you.

@@TheRemulosEpsolonProgramme 😂😂😂🖕Rob is better. Listen to his work with all his previous bands

@@Walksthewalk no one cares

The record was done. He wasn't there for the mixing. What was he supposed to do at that point?

@@MrOctober44 Are you really going to try to convince us that Jason deserved to have his bass tracks lowered to zero just because he wasn't present during mixing?

@@SniffHeinkel what the hell are you talking about? I said when they mixed It, he wasn't there. When he heard what they did, they already turned the record in

@@MrOctober44And you think that Lars didn't do that on purpose? C'mon.

As much as I like Jason, what did he actually contribute to the band? Live vocals, a lot of badass attitude and energy? Sure, but musically he did not bring much to the table. In fact he left because his musical expression was better represented with his other project, and the band made it clear that they could not wait for a year or whatever time for him to tour with another band. It was not going to happen so he left. Again, I love Jason, fucking amazing guy, but 'his' Metallica is the 90s Metallica, which a lot of people don't like, and didn't bring much in the studio; live he was a beast.

@@RatBotEins Well, when you're in a studio with Lars and James you dont really have much of a chance to provide input. At least not back in those days. They have been known to be a bit on the controlling side.

The blackened riff was his, too bad you couldn't hear him actually playing it when the album came out. Cliff by far contributed the most in writing ,structures,and arrangements. Jason was a good replacement live,in studio he , after ajfa, gave a good full sound to Metallica, but Rob is the guy he certainly plays Cliffs pieces better than Jason especially Call of Ktulu, which is played the way it is for a reason that Jason never got. I just prefer a finger style player with metallica just like i prefer a pick style with Megadeth, those original players are two hard to replace guys

@@AnonyBass Well there is this guy called Kirk Hammet or something, that is featured in more than half of Metallica's catalogue, and in every single album since he joined, except for Hardwired. I repeat, I like Jason, great guy and amazing live performer, but in the studio brought little to no input. And when you listen to the stuff he was writing in the 90's, which turned into his Echobrain project, it has almost nothing to do with metal at all, so in a way I understand why his contribution was next to nothing, and why he started the project and he left the band.

@@RatBotEins Anyone who even remotely follows the band knows how bad Jason was the whipping boy for basically his entire tenure with the band and was pretty much told what to play. He attempted to bring many ideas to the band, and due to the controlling nature of Lars and James none of that ever came out on tape. Just one of the many reasons he got out when he did! His era could have been much different had his ideas been heard. He is like the Dave Grohl of bass players.

I bet most of the time they were drunk when doing the bass auditions

@@dougcrawford6386 Its pretty much on record they were ripped out of their head the whole time.

The top four "Finalists" for Cliff Burton's replacement were said to be Newsted, Willy Lange of Laaz Rockit, Joey Vera of Armored Saint, and Les Claypool. Willy Lange and Joey Vera probably were closer to being offered the job than Claypool, due to stylistic differences though.

@@Surreal_Wizarddefinitely gonna look into this. I’ve heard of Les being a replacement possibility but not sure if it was here or when Newstead left

@@ColdwallbarI don't think Les auditioned when Jason left. By that time he had Primus going, plus Oysterhead and Flying Frog Brigade had just started. There's no way he could have joined Metallica with all that stuff going on. I feel like they would have shown him in Some Kind of Monster when they showed some of the bassists that tried out; Rob, Pepper Keenan, Twiggy Ramirez, Chris Wyse from The Cult, Scott Reeder from Kyuss, a couple of others. He definitely did try out after Cliff died, they talked about it in the Behind the Music special on VH1. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZJqCojRI0t8.html

@@Surreal_Wizard I saw a clip from James once, and he said when Les was auditioning, he was just way too good to be in Metallica 😂

he did an audition, but said he never expected to get it because of his style- he did it more out of curiosity@@Stormtrooper53

James and Lars are the true brains behind Metallica.

@@awallner1 lars wasn't at this time though. watch the early interivews with cliff. he usually had the most vision and he was very forward thinking. he had the most interesting things to say. he was a much better spokesman than lars was. it wasn't until cliff died that lars fit in to the position he holds now. the band relocated 400 miles away just to get cliff in the band. they wouldn't have done that for lars if the roles were reversed.

These are all value judgements and faith. If you believe Cliff was the nexus of that band, then he was. But, for me, your arguments don't hold any water. For one, who is better speaker is entirely a value judgement. Lars was a recent citizen of the US, so his accent may not have been euphonious to listen than CB. But regardless of elocution, it was Lars and James who formed the band, and they wrote a majority of the songs, even those with your beloved on the writing credits. Those are the facts, which is indicated in the writing credits and biographies. Now, did Cliff influence them, sure. But it's hyperbolic and ahistorical to claim he was the guiding light of Metallica. It's also not persuasive that James, Lars, and Dave moving to San Francisco means Cliffs was the man in charge. That was just his condition for being recruited, and the rest of the band didn't want to live in LA anyway: they were looking for an excuse to leave. They considered it poser central. @@williamgatesenson

Yep, I was a kid and had been playing for about 3years and that F&J album and Jason's playing was a huge influence along with Cliff too,so it was extremely disappointing when he was buried on AJFA ,and quite frankly he never did anything that was as interesting to me as the Doomsday album after it

Doomsday for The Deceiver sends anything after Metallica's first three home on a stretcher. I'd personally say the same of MOP and RTL too. KEA was good but I liked those songs wayyy better on NLTL. Though I'd have a harder time justifying Doomsday to people who would die on the hill of the first 3 full lengths being the greatest shit ever haha

Blackened absolutely made Metallica better!

@@danzemacabre8899 The Sexoturica demo is awesome. "Zone of Death" should have been a Metallica song.

And made him a millionaire over a night. Sounds worth it to me.

They didn't treat him like hell for 15 years this is a bs false internet narrative that has been started modern day. The hazing was 6 months to a year max. They were close and good friends most of the time he was with them. It wasn't a constant Jason bashing like the Jason fanboys wanna make it. He left because he didn't have the creative freedom he wanted and James didn't want anyone doing side projects at the time. It had nothing to do with being treated badly or anything like that. Stop spreading the false bs.

Yes..boo hoo..all they did was make him financially set for life. STFU.

@@midnight347 I still can't fault him for leaving though. Metallica takes nearly a decade to make shit tier records. Last decent one to me was death magnetic but besides that, just about any album post black is shit.

They didn't. At least according to Jason himself. If you bothered to watch interviews with them from the time Jason was in the band, you'd see the friendship and respect grew over time