Cliff's mother, Jan, died on June 7, 1993. She was 67.
The remaining members of Metallica knew that Cliff, the ultimate headbanger, would have been pissed like hell if they had quit after his death.
"Knowing Cliff's attitude, he'd kick our butts if we quit." -James Hetfield
"...we thought the best way to get rid of our frustrations would be to hit the road, you know, get all the anxiety and frustrations out on stage, you know, where they should go...also if Cliff were alive for some reason or another, and he couldn't play bass, he wouldn't tell us to stop - he would want us to go on." -Kirk Hammett, 1987
"... we'll never stop, we'll never quit, 'cause we're Metallica..." go the lyrics to "Whiplash". And that they did.
Two weeks later, after the funeral in San Francisco, they began to audition bass players. Kirk Hammett said that they auditioned about 8 bass players a day and about 40 or 50 total, one of those being Les Claypool, now singer/bassist of Primus. One 23-year old Battle Creek-born former metro Phoenix area truck driver, Jason Curtis Newsted, went in to audition.
He was born in Battle Creek, Michigan and raised in Niles. When he was 14, his family moved to Kalamazoo, only 5 miles from Gibson Guitar Company. In 1981 he left Michigan with his mentor Tim Hamlin of their band Gangster and headed toward California. They only made it to Phoenix, Arizona on October 31, 1981 though, and he and Hamlin eventually drifted apart. Jason ended up hooking up with drummer Kelly David-Smith and some others and formed Paradox. He moved in with David-Smith in Scottsdale and found guitarists Mark Vasquez and Kevin Horton. The foursome changed their name to Dogz and Jason played bass and sang as well. In 1983 a guy named Erik joined Dogz and did vocals. This lineup eventually became Flotsam and Jetsam, with Jason being the principal businessman/lyricist.
Kirk said he initially thought Jason was an okay guy except for the fact that he kept "sticking Flotsam and Jetsam stickers all over everything". The only song required for the audition was "Master Of Puppets", but Jason learned all the songs on the album within a few days and played them for the audition.
"...we took Jason out [to a place called Tommy's Joint] and everything fell into place...so we went into the bathroom and had a band meeting on the urinal and decided, 'Well, whaddaya think?' I said, 'Yeah, he's cool,' James says, 'Yeah, he's cool,' so we went out there and, uh, asked him if he wanted to join the band..." -Kirk Hammett, 1987
And so, on the 28th of October, 1986, Jason Newsted's Metallica career began.
"...the first six or eight weeks, y'know, I'm just fuckin' pinchin' myself, y'know, 'Am I asleep? Am I here?' " -Jason Newsted, 1987
"When I got into the band, I had to be tested. Those guys had been through so much together. They couldn't have someone in the band who weakened them."
-Jason Newsted
How did Jason get started playing bass guitar? "I ended up gettin' a little Gibson amp and a bass, because of Gene Simmons of KISS. Myself and three other kids would pretend to be KISS - I liked Gene the best."
Jason's first show with Metallica was opening for Metal Church at the Country Club in Reseda on November 8.
The $5.98 EP: The Garage Days Re-Revisited (so named so the record stores couldn't up the price and rip off loyal fans) was released on August 10, 1987 (while Metallica was playing the Donington tour gigs postponed due to Cliff's death), being a compilation of cover tunes and intended only to be around for a short while, just to introduce Jason to the fans before his first full-blown album with Metallica. It was recorded and mixed in just 6 days.
The band started their European festival tour with a small, unadvertised gig at the Club 100 in London on August 20, 1987. The club only had capacity for a few hundred, but thousands of people showed up at the door! This "secret" gig wasn't as secret as they had thought!
Their first home video, Cliff 'Em All, was released on December 4, 1987 in tribute to their former bassist, being a compilation of video footage that fans had taken of Cliff at concerts. Lars said that the last song on the video, "Orion", was very emotional for them, because it was the music they had chosen for Cliff's funeral, and it was mostly written by Cliff himself.
Metallica played their first show on the American leg of the "Monsters Of Rock" tour with Van Halen in L.A. at the Country Club on May 24, 1988.
Their fourth studio album, ...And Justice For All, was recorded in One on One Studios in Los Angeles and was released by Elektra records on August 25, 1988. Most of the songs on this album were geared toward heavy anti-establishment themes, insanity, and governmental abuse of power. "The Frayed Ends Of Sanity," whose theme is insanity from an insane person’s point of view, has a chanting intro that has provoked one question for years - who did the haunting chant in the introduction? The answer? Lars.
The first show on the "Damaged Justice" tour was in Germany on September 11, 1988.
The anti-war song "One" from ...And Justice For All was made into their first music video, filmed on December 6, 1988. The song was based on the war protest novel Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo, about a World War I soldier who goes to war and comes back blind, deaf, mute, and missing all four limbs. The video included scenes from the movie version of the book, made in 1958.
The Grammy Awards of 1989 were held on February 22. Metallica performed "One" at the show, but the award in the Heavy Metal category went to Jethro Tull. Metallica didn't seem to care - they added a sticker to their album reading "Grammy Award LOSERS!"
On June 20, 1989 Metallica's second home video, Two Of One was released. It consisted of two versions of the video for "One" - one of them was the Johnny Got His Gun version, and the other was just the band playing.
The 1990 Grammy Awards were kinder to Metallica - they won for Best Metal Performance for "One" that February. Lars had this to say as one of his "thank-yous": "Let's see, I think the first thing we gotta do is obviously, like you guys were expecting, is we gotta thank Jethro Tull for not putting out an album this year. Ha ha!"
Metallica went on a brief tour through the U.K. and Europe, and Phonogram Records released The Good, The Bad, And The Live, a boxed set of all of Metallica's EPs and some previously unavailable live stuff.
Metallica entered the studio once again on October 6, 1990, this time in Los Angeles' One on One studio, recording their next album.
Meanwhile, they also recorded Queen's song "Stone Cold Crazy" for an Elektra sampler called Rubàiyát - a double-CD with 38 bands including Metallica, celebrating Elektra's 40th anniversary - in November of 1990.
February of 1991's Grammy Awards were once again kind to Metallica, as they won their second Grammy for Best Metal Performance for "Stone Cold Crazy." That same year, on July 30, the world premiere of the video for "Enter Sandman" from the upcoming album was broadcast.
July 30th marked the world premiere of Metallica's most overplayed music video: "Enter Sandman."
On August 12, 1991 the album that catapulted Metallica into the mainstream, redefined metal as we know it, and also left many Metallifreaks thunderstruck was released. The album is officially untitled, but is known to most as "the black album" (due to its almost all-black cover), "the self-titled album", or simply Metallica. Many people thought Metallica had changed because of Cliff's absence when they heard ...And Justice For All, but the untitled album showed this supposed change more clearly, using an orchestra, of all things, on the slow song "Nothing Else Matters," about love and being on the road. The songs on this album had real meaning for them - James wrote the song "Of Wolf And Man" because of his love for hunting, and "The God That Failed" was about his mother. She died of cancer, and because of her Christian Science beliefs, she wouldn't accept any kind of modern treatment and relied only on prayer.
Many acted like this was Metallica's best release; like it was some kind of turning point for them, due to the fact that it was more melodic and less thrash, and therefore attracted a wider audience. Others wondered why Metallica would have someone like Bob Rock as their producer - someone who didn't normally work with heavy metal bands.
"...I'm influenced by everything, and it all comes out in the music." -Bob Rock
"Human nature is strange. There's been this mass hysteria over nothing," drummer Lars Ulrich commented. "It's been fun to sit and watch it happen, though. ...And Justice For All now sounds like it was recorded in a matchbox. It was like, 'Look at us, we can play all this intricate sideways stuff.' Well, so what? Metallica is more emotional. When it's angry, it's more angry. When it's subtle, it's more subtle. For the first time, we've done what was best for the big picture."
This album was the album that got Metallica noticed - the songs were played to death on the radio, and, in a strange enough environment for metal, dance clubs. Andy Copping, a club aficionado from the UK who works with AC Promotions, remembers the first time he heard "Enter Sandman": "...I was down at Phonogram Records and one of their marketing girls called me into her office and said that she'd got a track off the new Metallica album which they were hoping to release as the first single from the forthcoming 'black album'. I remember sitting in the office crankin' up the old hi-fi and just hearing this most amazing, incredible riff comin' from the speakers. We sat in total silence while we heard the song. I have to say, when the record finished, the ol' feeling of the hairs on the back of the neck and the eyes filling up was well to the fore after hearing that track...without doubt the biggest dance floor filler that [the clubs] had experienced in a long, long time. And not only was it a dance floor filler from one certain part of the audience, but everybody was into it...I remember certainly at Rock City in Nottingham that we would have to play the track at least twice a night and quite regularly we would play it three, maybe four times - which is unheard of in 'club-land'. You normally play one track by one band once. But the demand was just so great, and every time you put the song on, the minute that intro started, a cheer would go up...I mean, even now if you play the track, here we are right in 1997, if you put the track on now, a cheer will go up, your dance floor will be packed. And being involved with other clubs as well as rock clubs...'Enter Sandman' became the bigggest requested track in those clubs as well. So not only had they transcended all the rock markets, but they'd also started to encroach into the alternative market as well...Incredible, really."
"The black album was a tough record to make. A lot of stress, a lot of arguing, a lot of difference of opinions and stuff like that...It was a pretty ugly record to make..." -Lars Ulrich
The "Nowhere Else To Roam" tour kicked off at the "Monsters Of Rock" festival at the Donington Raceway venue in England, with Metallica hitting the stage right after one of their idols, AC/DC. When they returned to the States, they had a uniquely constructed stage ready: it was diamond-shaped and featured a hole in the middle called a 'snake pit' (named for the gray snake on the cover of the black album) - 120 lucky fans got to see each Metallica show from the inside out!
Metallica performed "Enter Sandman" at the 1992 Grammy Awards, and won for Best Metal Performance. This was their third Grammy in a row.
The world premiere for the video of "Nothing Else Matters" was on February 26, 1992.
On April 20, 1992 Metallica played at the Concert For Life, a tribute show to the late singer Freddie Mercury of Queen at the Wembley Stadium in London. Metallica played three songs which were released as a single days later. All proceeds from this gig and the sales of the single were donated to Freddie Mercury's AIDS fund. The show was also TV-broadcast to the whole world.
On August 9, 1992 James was burned by the pyrotechnics at a concert in Montreal, Canada while playing the first few bars of "Fade to Black." Guns 'N' Roses were scheduled to play next - but hours later when they came on stage to possibly save the concert, singer Axl Rose became frustrated at the microphone and the sound system, threw the mic down, and led the rest of his band off stage. Riots soon erupted from frustrated fans - Lars called it "...shitstorm number two of the evening." The next few gigs had to be canceled because James couldn't play guitar with his burnt hand. Never being one to give up at any cost though, Hetfield's first thoughts were, "How are we gonna keep touring? There's gotta be a way." And there was. Faithful roadie John Marshall was again called upon to stand in for James and gladly did with exceptional accuracy.
On September 9, 1992 Metallica went up to accept their award at the MTV Music Awards. Lars had this to say: "I guess these things just went down in value, huh, if we can win one I guess anyone can, huh?"
October 25, 1992 was the first time Metallica ever played the infamous profanity-laden song "So What?" live. It was played at Wembley Stadium in London, and Animal, the vocalist for the British punk band Anti-Nowhere League who wrote the song, was brought on stage to sing it with Metallica.
Ten days later, in Birmingham, England, all four members of Diamond Head played their songs "Am I Evil?" and "Helpless" with Metallica.
That same month, the double-video set A Year And A Half In The Life Of Metallica was released.
Some people at Elektra records suggested to Metallica that they should come to Manhattan and transform a record store into their own Metalli-store. They liked this idea, and the store was opened on January 21, 1993, selling only Metallica albums and merchandise. A tape was released especially for this day - it was a medley recorded in Moscow. James designed the tape cover with a drawing of the famous Scary Guy.
The "Nowhere Else To Roam" tour ended on January 22, 1993 in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
In November of 1993, the 3-CD, 3-video box set Live Shit: Binge And Purge was released and also included a book, a Scary Guy stencil, and a replica snake pit pass.
On May 28, 1994 the "Summer Shit" tour kicked off with a rehearsal show in Buffalo, New York.
On June 22, Metallica performed at the Pine Knob Music Theatre in Clarkston, Michigan. Glenn Danzig and Chuck Biscuits from the band Danzig played "Last Caress" with them. Glenn Danzig wrote "Last Caress" when he was a member of the Misfits.
Danzig's last show with Metallica on this tour was on July 3, 1994 at the World Music Theatre in Chicago. Glenn Danzig sang "London Dungeon", "Last Caress", and "Green Hell" with Metallica, and Suicidal Tendencies joined Metallica for "So What?"
The last show of the "Summer Shit" tour was on August 21, 1994 at Bicentennial Park in Miami, Florida. The special guest this time was Rob Halford, formerly of the band Judas Priest, and he sang the old Judas Priest song "Rapid Fire" with Metallica.
"Escape From The Studio '95" was Metallica's breakout from recording what were to become their next 2 CDs. The first date on this short tour was August 23rd, a private fan-club-members-only concert at the London Astoria in England. 2 new songs were played, and the band says that it was the best gig they ever did.
"The Molson Ice Polar Beach Party" was sponsored by Molson Breweries in Canada. 500 radio contest winners were flown out to Tuktoyaktuk, Canada (in the Arctic Circle!) to this, "The Coldest Show On Earth," held on September 3, 1995. Metallica headlined the bill, along with Hole, Korn, Moist, and Veruca Salt.
On December 24 of that same year, Metallica played seven Motörhead songs at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go for Motörhead's raucous singer/bassist Ian Fraser Kilmister (better known as Lemmy)'s 50th birthday. But Metallica was not introduced as Metallica at that gig - instead they came as a Motörhead tribute band called The Lemmys! Certainly a nice way to pay tribute to one of their biggest influences.
From December 1995 to February 1996 Metallica went into The Plant studio in Sausalito, California to record what were to become their next two albums.
On May 6 - 7 of 1996 Metallica shot the video for "Until It Sleeps" in and around Los Angeles.
On May 9, 1996 Metallica played a fan-club-members-only concert at Slim's Club in San Francisco. They did three fan-club-members-only shows in a row that month.
That same month Metallica went around to the U.S., Europe, Australia, and Japan holding listening parties. They would set up trucks with speakers and play the new album, sign autographs, and do interviews.
The single "Until It Sleeps" was released worldwide except in North America on May 20, 1996. It became available there the next day.
On May 26, 1996 a huge Metallica listening party was held on the second day of the Dynamo Festival in Eindoven, Holland. The new album, Load, was played through the PA system at the festival site for more than 60,000 people, making this the biggest listening party ever held anywhere in the world! Load was released a week earlier in Holland than the rest of the world so it could be sold at the festival.
Load was released in Japan on June 1. Two days later, the rest of the world had it, except North America, which, again, had to wait another day. Its cover artwork was puzzling to some at first. "What IS that goop anyway?" asked many people. "Blood and Semen III" is the title of the Andres Serrano work on the cover, made by mixing bovine blood and the artist's semen and pressing it under plexiglass. Kirk discovered the picture in a collection of Serrano's works at a bookstore.
