Big Noise Archive:
Metallica's Jason Newsted 1992 interview
Note: The
following is the first interview that Metallica granted
after winning their very first Grammy Awards. The
interview was conducted on the evening of February 15,
1992, two weeks before the band appeared at the
Providence Civic Center in Providence, RI.
Metallica : Stand By Your Fan
by Al Gomes and A. Michelle
The Nice Paper
First published on February 27, 1992
Besides the Grateful Dead, no other major American rock
act has done more to incite the riotous loyalty of their
fans than Metallica.
After-show autograph sessions in their tour bus, audio
and video recording sections at their concerts
(encouraging instant bootlegs), mosh pits in the center
of their stage, and free listening parties at Madison
Square Garden have all helped to erase the enigmatic
line that separates performer from fan. Metallica knows
that it isn't the critics that pay the bills and that
the kids are indeed alright.
The band's mercurial rise to chart prominence with the
commercial success of both 1988's '...And Justice For
All' and their new eponymously-titled album (simply
'Metallica') caught more than a handful of nay-sayers
off guard, but it came as no surprise to their vast
family of fanatic devotees.
To the first legion of followers, Metallica's sound was
as arresting as the crunch of a car slamming into a tree
- hard, fast, loud, and death-defying. Hard rockers that
spurned the barking of safety-pin punk and the castrato
screech of spandex jumped all over the sonic boom that
blasted out of songwriter James Hetfield and company's
collectively amplified psyche. Their debut 1983 LP,
'Kill 'Em All,' has inspired as many innovators and
imitators as 'Meet the Beatles,' 'Never Mind the
Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols,' and R.E.M.'s 'Murmur'
did for their respective generations.
Metallica was not content to reiterate any album,
however successful, and again upped the ante of their
musical gamble when they returned to the studio to cut
'Metallica.' Responding quickly to requests for shorter
tunes ('Touring behind ...And Justice, the general
consensus was that the songs were too fuckin' long,'
said lead guitarist Kirk Hammett) and eager to explore
new frontiers beyond CNN (the basis for many of
Hetfield's lyrics), the band hired producer Bob Rock and
punched out twelve concise rounds that propelled the
band to the top of the charts and around the world on
one of the year's most successful tours (at a time when
things are tough for artists on the road).
'We're number one completely on our own terms,' says
Hetfield. He ain't kidding. When it comes to their music
and their fans, Metallica sports a no-bullshit approach,
exemplified by an unflinching rejection of superficial
music business trappings. And it's this hard-won
confidence that was readily apparent when we spoke with
bassist Jason
Newsted.
The Nice Paper: When
did the tradition of talking to the fans after the show
start?
Jason Newsted: I
think ever since the beginning, ever since I've been in
the band, anyway. It's always been there and it's
continued to be very important to us. We're very
conscious of making sure that it happens every night and
even on nights off, as it were, when kids line up
outside the hotel or maybe find us at a club. As you
already know, Metallica has always gone out of their way
to keep the intimacy, to keep the bond there. It's very
important to us. We know where the bread and butter is
coming from and it's important to us to keep the
strength and the loyalty intact.
The Nice Paper: With
your growing popularity, has it become harder to
maintain the tradition?
Jason Newsted: Yes,
it has. That's just the way it is. With more people
that's just what's going to happen. We just have to have
a bit more patience, that's all. So far it hasn't been a
problem.
The Nice Paper: Do
you ever ditch security after the show?
Jason Newsted: Personally,
I do. I can't really answer for anybody else, but so far
there's been at least a handful of times on this tour
that I've walked outside by myself, just to hang out,
have a beer and talk to the kids. I'm not really very
fearful about somebody wanting to hurt me or something
that would cross other people's minds - like a psycho
fan that you see in the movies or something like that.
I've never been really fearful of that. And I also think
that if anybody ever did mess with any of us, that the
however many other number of people that were also there
would take care of them within a matter of seconds.
The Nice Paper: It's
kind of like having fifteen thousand bouncers.
Jason Newsted: Exactly.
That's what happens. The other night, some kid threw a
bottle at James, and that's totally uncalled for,
absolutely.
The Nice Paper: Did
he get hurt?
Jason Newsted: No.
It just missed him. He got pissed off and said,
'Throwing shit, that's not fair. Because I can't see
where it came from so I don't have a chance to
retaliate. So what kind of shit is that? I don't come
here to get stuff thrown at me. I'm here to have fun
with my friends. So if any of you guys happened to see
where that came from, could you take care of that for
me?' And I looked up to where he was pointing, and all
of a sudden it was like in the cartoons where there's
smoke and stars and Bing! Bang! Boom! like in Batman.
The Nice Paper: There's
not a Walkman to be found in any of the stores around
Providence, RI this week. How did the taping section
start?
Jason Newsted: The
idea stemmed from the Grateful Dead. They've always let
people record their shows. It's not completely new to
us. At one time it was only audio. Now it's audio,
video, whatever you want. And there's just so much
bootleg stuff happening with Metallica. We're a very
collectible type of band. Kids are really into getting
every single possible type of thing that they can have.
There's just hundreds of bootleg albums and bootleg
videos, shirts, everything.
The Nice Paper: Many
artists would be cautious about this kind of thing,
especially since monetarily it could be quite damaging.
Jason Newsted: It
doesn't really affect anything retail. The way that we
view it, it's pretty much just adding fuel to the fire.
It's not really worth the effort of trying to make up
for it or to try to chase people down. It's not really
worth our time or the headaches. We put it into the kind
of perspective that this is the ultimate souvenir or
memento that a person can take from the show. It's a
Metallica live album that they produced or the Metallica
movie that they filmed themselves that they can narrate
or put in their own little other pieces and edit and
make a cool personal thing that they made with their own
hands and their own machine.
Jason Newsted: Yeah.
It's the ultimate souvenir that you could possibly have.
It's just one more thing that we can give.
The Nice Paper: And
now you've even gone to the trouble of making your fans
a part of the show.
Jason Newsted: Yes.
The Snakepit. It's the eye of the hurricane. The stage
is shaped like an arrowhead. The butt of the arrowhead
is back up against one end of the hall and the point
thrusts out into the arena. There's four front rows and
nine microphones all the way around the stage. There's
two drum sets. Kirk's got five different pedal things
set up. And the idea was that at any time, any city, any
show, any song, the focal point would always be
different. James could be doing a lead vocal from the
3:00 mike, and I could be doing a backing from the 6:00
mike. And then the next song, he could be doing it from
the high noon mike and I could be doing it from over
here at the 9:00 mike. And back around. And then Lars
could be on the left hand drum set turned 45 degrees
toward the Snakepit. The show is in the round, but it's
not 'in the round' in the aspect of say Diana Ross or
Yes, not just sitting in the center. Tickets are sold
all the way around and there's no obstructed view. No
amps on stage. Nothing like that. It's just us and our
instruments. Everything comes up from underneath.
There's 32,000 watts of monitors that blast up from
underneath the grills all the way around the stage.
The Nice Paper: And
the pit is right in the middle?
Jason Newsted: The
pit is a smaller arrowhead that's in the very center of
the stage. It's elevated up just a little bit so that
your head and arms are at stage level. So we're just
milling around you and spitting, sweating, and whatever
- wiping boogers on you the whole time. So it is the eye
of the hurricane. We're around you constantly. I
actually get in there every once in a while myself.
The Nice Paper: How
do fans get in there?
Jason Newsted: There's
two access points from the side. You have to come up
from underneath the stage.
The Nice Paper: How
did you guys come up with this?
Jason Newsted: Actually
it ended up like a cool mistake. The pit was going to be
an effects pit at first. We were going to have crosses
come up during the 'Master of Puppets' segment, and a
'Justice' statue during that segment, a 'Ride the
Lightning' thing, etc. All these different little
effects were going to pop up out of there. But it was
going to be really tough to bring it to realization, you
know? It was just too expensive and too much trouble for
the carpenters to work out. So we started talking about
big orchestras, you know, like the Royal Philharmonic in
London, and the New York Philharmonic. They have seats
where you pay a little bit more and you sit on the stage
with the band. That idea blossomed into having kids in
the stage. They can't actually be on the stage with us
but they're as close as possible. So we're surrounded.
There's no place to hide. There's kids on the outside,
there's kids on the inside. We're not separated. Even
when, like tonight, we're playing to 18,000 people in
Denver, we still try to keep the intimacy as much as we
can by being right within the audience the whole time.
That's really how the Snakepit came to be. The first 40
people are radio contest winners from local stations.
Then after that MTV and magazine contest winners. And
then friends and family, and then special people we see.
For instance, if a kid comes in with an old, grey,
battered 'Kill 'Em All,' 'Ride the Lightning,' or 'Metal
Up Your Ass' shirt, you can tell that he's been with us
for a long time. So we put him in the Snakepit. And
that's how it gets filled up. There's usually about 80
to 100 people in there. If you have a Snakepit pass, you
have open access in and out. You can go back out into
the gig if you want to or you can stay in the pit.
The Nice Paper: 'Metal
Up Your Ass?'
Jason Newsted: That
was way back when. 'Kill 'Em All' was originally going
to be called 'Metal Up Your Ass.' That was the saying,
the logo, the attitude behind the whole thing at that
time. Kids would chant it and there's still a 'Metal Up
Your Ass' shirt. It has the hand with the sword coming
up out of a toilet. That's still one of the biggest
sellers today as far as the T-shirts are concerned.
The Nice Paper: Your
new album cover must have thrown the record company for
a loop when you came to them and said it was going to be
black. What did they say?
Jason Newsted: They
don't say much.
The Nice Paper: Do
you have a clause in your contract which guarantees you
complete artistic control over your album packages?
Jason Newsted: Yeah.
They don't mess with the formula, you know. They don't
mess with something that has proven itself.
The Nice Paper: We
read somewhere that the reason for the album cover was
that you were tired of all the cliches, all the blood
and guts, and the mascots that other metal bands have.
Jason Newsted: Well,
it's not that we haven't aided it all along and played
our part. (Laughs) It was just, you know, here we are in
a new decade, and we wanted to get a fresh start. Kind
of a stronger, simpler, more-to-the-point type of music
and that idea just kind of carried through with the
album cover and the photos and everything. We're trying
to keep it very to-the-point. The new songs have been
going down really well, so I guess it seems to be
working. The album has sold way more than the last
album. In 6 months this album has done 4.2 (million).
And 'Justice' did 3.2 (million) in 3 years.
The Nice Paper: How's
the tour going so far?
Jason Newsted: It's
amazing. It's surprising us. We can't figure it out
because of the way the economy is, and big entertainers
like Natalie Cole are having trouble. Even when they put
four or five bands together and try to get 10,000 people
into an arena, they're having trouble. Metallica is
playing by themselves with no opening act and we're
selling out here in Denver to 14,000 people.
The Nice Paper: In
the bio that we received from Elektra, it says that
there are six questions that you should never ask
Metallica.
Jason Newsted: Oh
no. Please don't ask those questions that are in there.
Pleassse...
The Nice Paper: Question
number 1 that you should never ask Metallica - 'What's
it like being at the forefront of the thrash metal
movement?'
Jason Newsted: I
wouldn't know, really. (Laughs) Thrash metal... I know
you've heard this a million times - but I think that
Metallica has so much more to offer than just playing
fast. Metallica definitely started a new thing in the
'80s. We definitely had something to do with influencing
a number of bands to do what they're doing now and that
is a complement to us. It's a good thing, but we haven't
sat there and thought, 'Well, what are they going to
think if we change this or that?' or 'What are they
going to think if we do that?' We've just done our
thing. It worked and it made some people happy. Any band
that has any kind of substance is going to grow and take
chances, with different musics and instruments and go
outside their realm a little bit. And that's kind of
what Metallica has always done, just grown each time
they make a record and each time they do a tour.
The Nice Paper: Question
number 2 that you should never ask Metallica - 'Making a
record with Bob Rock is equal to selling out, right?'
Jason Newsted: No.
It's equal to growing up and learning a bit more about
what our band is about and what we are able to achieve
and what we can do when we put our heads together and
really concentrate. That's what producing a record with
Bob Rock is all about.
The Nice Paper: We
must confess that it wasn't until this latest record
with Bob Rock that we became fans.
Jason Newsted: That's
true for a lot of people these days. But that's fine
with me because you've got to start somewhere. And then
you can work backwards and discover the other stuff. So
whether you started with Metallica in '82 and worked up
to now, or whether you start in '92 and work backwards
to catch up, it doesn't matter as long as you're part of
the family. That's what matters now.
The Nice Paper: Question
number 3 that you should never ask Metallica - 'How can
you play heavy metal, seeing as it's so sexist?'
Jason Newsted: Well,
I've never even thought about it like that. We've never
been a band that sang about anything that had to do with
anybody being one sex or another. James' lyrics have
always been an open thing to whoever it was that was
listening to it, whether you were a man or a woman or
otherwise. That's just the way it is. We never sang
about fast cars or doing girls. Metallica has a lot more
to say than that.
The Nice Paper: Question
number 4 that you should never ask Metallica - 'Read any
good books lately?'
Jason Newsted: I'm
reading 'The Stand' by Stephen King, and 'I Am the
Blues,' Willie Dixon's autobiography.
The Nice Paper: How
do you like it?
Jason Newsted: It's
wonderful. I'm a very big blues fan and very into Willie
Dixon. Have been for a while. Let's see, what else have
I got going? 'The Vitamin Bible,' I've been reading
that.
The Nice Paper: Are
you a 'Health Person?'
Jason Newsted: Yeah,
I try to be. I have a couple of beers, but I don't do
any drugs or anything like that, and I always take my
vitamins and eat right and exercise and drink a lot of
water. All that. The live thing is what I live for, so
if I'm not at 200 percent like I have to be every night,
then I don't feel strong and I don't feel right. When
you're playing 2 1/2 hours every night, flying every day
with a lot of climate changes, it's very important to
keep yourself together as much as possible. When you do
things like hard drugs and drink a lot, it's only going
to tear you up. You're not going to be at your
potential. I can't say that I didn't have my time way
back, when I, of course, tried these different things.
But I've come around to see that I cannot do that and
perform.
The Nice Paper: Question
number 5 that you should never ask Metallica - 'Where do
you keep your Grammys?'
Jason Newsted: They're
on the mantel in the sitting room of my California
house. I have a house in Michigan and in California.
The Nice Paper: Do
you have anything on your mantel besides your Grammys?
Jason Newsted: Let's
see. I don't know if there's Bammys (Bay Area Music
Awards) up there or if the Bammys are in a separate
place. My girlfriend moves them around. The Grammys
always stay but the Bammys get moved around. For us in
the Bay Area, that's a pretty big deal, receiving Bammys.
That's as big as a Grammy to us, actually.
The Nice Paper: This
brings us to the last question that you should never ask
Metallica - 'What's it all about?'
Jason Newsted: The
Metallica crew is a family. There's 70 of us. Most of
the crew guys have been out with us for years. Some of
them are new - the big stage requires more hands. When
people get asked to go on a Metallica tour these days,
they drop everything else in order to do that because
they know about the relationship that the band has with
the crew. I think that's unique at this level. We hear
stories about some of these other bands. When we're not
on the road, these guys go in teams - lighting team,
sound team - on to other tours. And we hear stories
about other bands that don't even recognize these guys.
The bands work with the same guys for a year, and they
don't even know their names. 'Oh you work for us? What
do you do?' Things like that. It's not a relationship
like Metallica has with their crew. It's a big family
and therefore it makes the show happen every night in a
big way. Everybody from carpenters to the lighting guy
to the sound guy to me, playing bass - we all work hard
for each other to make this thing happen. We're all
proud to do our job and to make everybody else happy and
proud of what they're doing. It's really good chemistry.
So to answer your question, 'What's it all about?' I
think it's about pride. I think it's all about being
happy with yourself, making something of yourself.
That's what it's all about for me.
Metallica celebrated Leap Year on February 29, 1992 at
the Providence Civic Center.
Metallica Official Website
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