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METALLICA is actually a “garage duo” with occasional embellishments – the duo being frontman James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich – according to Jason Newsted.
“Before there was Black Keys, before there was White Stripes, before there was Flat Duo Jets – whoever those guys are – before there was those kinds of bands with no bassist, there was James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich as an original garage duo,” the former Metallica bassist told Sirius XM.
“The other ones that came in – Cliff (Burton), Kirk (Hammet) and myself – were the embellishment of the garage duo. If the garage duo choses to put bass in their duo, they do. If they don’t they don’t.
“…And Justice For All is the largest-selling garage duo album of all time.”
Interviewed on the Trunk Nation program to promote his live project Jason Newsted and the Chophouse band, 63-year-old addressed the subject when he was asked about the famous absence of bass on Metallica’s landmark 1988 album …And Justice For All.
In explaining why he did not believe the original mix should be tampered with, Newsted said: “On the cassette of No Life Til Leather, the original demo of Metallica… and it’s on, like, compact cassette brand or whatever and it’s handwriting in a blue ball-point pen, Lars’ handwriting.
“And it says ‘Metallica No Life ’Til Leather demo’ and then in parentheses ‘turn bass down on sterieo’. In his handwriting! That was the demo, the very first time anyone was going to hear their band. He was already in that mode. So it’s 1982?
“That’s where the playing field is. That’s where we start.
“And the way any of the records were created, especially the trilogy of Godliness, the first three (Kill ‘Em All, Ride The Lightning, Master Of Puppets), set the blueprints for our style of music – period.
“There are other bands who’ve come along and done quite well but not like that and not being that innovative or that important. There are many bands that exist but there’s only a few important ones and that’s an important one and that’s an important album.
“All of them, all the way through (to) when we were rolling in fucking money, were made in a 12×12 cave with a drum set and Marshall stacks that just about touched the roof – right – and two people with Tascam cassette recorder eight track.
“And they went in and they make the albums that change the world. Two people.
“They go ching-ching-ching-ching like that and Lars plays with a guitar out of the monitor not the mix. It’s always been that.”
During the same interview, Newsted also spoke to host Eddie Trunk about the proposed Van Halen tribute project he was invited to join and Metallica’s upcoming Sphere residency in Las Vegas.
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