1. Jason Curtis Newsted was born on March 4,1963 and is an American musician, best known as the bassist of heavy metal band Metallica from 1986 to 2001.
38 Facts About Jason Newsted
1. 2.
Jason Newsted performed with thrash metal band Flotsam and Jetsam for the first five years of his career before joining Metallica in October 1986 to succeed Cliff Burton, who died the month prior.
3.
Jason Newsted has two older brothers and a younger sister.
4.
Jason Newsted grew up on a farm and at the age of six was given the responsibility of looking after animals.
5.
Jason Newsted was tasked with looking after hundreds of chickens and rabbits.
6.
Jason Newsted's mother taught piano and one of his brothers plays trumpet.
7.
Jason Newsted was exposed to music as a child, listening to the record collections of his older brothers.
8.
Jason Newsted's first instrument was a guitar, which he started to play at 9 years old, but he moved to bass at 14, after listening to Gene Simmons of Kiss.
9.
Jason Newsted dropped out of high school at age 18 and joined 'Gangster' a local metal band before the group decided to relocate to California.
10.
Jason Newsted cites Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath as his major influence.
11.
Jason Newsted wrote the majority of lyrics for their 1986 album Doomsday for the Deceiver.
12.
Jason Newsted was the last in line and ended up winning the part.
13.
Jason Newsted said in a 2015 interview that he learned about Metallica's plan to open for Ozzy Osbourne's tour at the time.
14.
Jason Newsted performed on the self-titled album Metallica, which is the best-selling Metallica album to date, as well as on Load, Reload, and Garage Inc.
15.
Jason Newsted was often praised for his live performances with the band by fans for his showmanship and participation throughout his tenure with Metallica.
16.
Jason Newsted performed his last live show as Metallica's bassist on November 30,2000, at the My VH1 Music Awards.
17.
Jason Newsted has stated that he has never regretted leaving the band.
18.
On December 5,7,9 and 10,2011, Jason Newsted reunited with Metallica during all four of their 30th anniversary shows and performed several songs with the band and, in some cases, other guest musicians.
19.
Hetfield noted how the fans "lit up" as Jason Newsted walked on stage, smiling and waving to the crowd.
20.
On December 16,2013, Jason Newsted expanded upon previous statements regarding his departure from Metallica and cited that his project with Echobrain was being discouraged by James Hetfield because Metallica's management at Q Prime wanted to go ahead with promoting Echobrain but was forced to drop it by Hetfield's demands with the quote "other arrangements can be made".
21.
Jason Newsted protects what he loves, squeezes it too hard, like he said himself.
22.
Ulrich admitted that Jason Newsted's departure made a huge dent on Metallica, saying that his presence was overlooked.
23.
In 1997, Jason Newsted formed Papa Wheelie at his home studio The Chophouse.
24.
However, this would not come to fruition as Jason Newsted left Osbourne upon finishing tour duties in late 2003.
25.
Thanks to Lars Ulrich's interest in collecting art, Jason Newsted became interested in the work of artists such as Jean Fautrier, Pablo Picasso, and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
26.
Jason Newsted is a proficient artist and has displayed art around the United States.
27.
Jason Newsted has turned out a number of large original works of art over the last half a decade.
28.
Jason Newsted performed with the band alongside current bassist Robert Trujillo at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cleveland, Ohio.
29.
In October 2010 Jason Newsted joined a supergroup with singer Ian Gillan and former keyboardist Jon Lord from Deep Purple, guitarist Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath, second guitarist Mikko Lindstrom from HIM, and drummer Nicko McBrain from Iron Maiden.
30.
In December 2012, Jason Newsted formed his own band called Jason Newsted with drummer Jesus Mendez Jr.
31.
Jason Newsted released its debut album entitled Heavy Metal Music on August 6,2013.
32.
In September 2014, the band appeared inactive as its website contained only a brief message that as of September 15,2014, Jason Newsted was no longer on any social networking sites.
33.
Jason Newsted ceased touring with Newsted due to other musical interests as well as the band being unprofitable.
34.
Jason Newsted was married in 1988 to Judy Talbert but the couple divorced in 1991 during the recordings of the Black Album.
35.
Jason Newsted is currently married to his longtime girlfriend Nicole Leigh Smith, whom he wed in October 2012.
36.
On October 23,2006, Jason Newsted was injured while attempting to catch a falling bass amp head.
37.
Jason Newsted was scheduled for immediate surgery, and underwent a lengthy rehab process.
38.
Jason Newsted later reported that he had been addicted to painkillers, having taken such medication from his time in Metallica to cope with neck problems but without understanding the risks.