Former METALLICA bassist Jason Newsted recently sat down with “So What!” editor Steffan Chirazi to reflect on the 30th anniversary of the band’s “Black Album” and also reflect on the infamous Montreal concert pyro accident that happened on Aug. 8, 1992, when James Hetfield’s arm was badly burned during a performance of “Fade to Black.”
“That accident brought us together to a place that I don’t think would have ever happened unless an incident like that…James was fucking heroic, dude,” Newsted said. “Straight up, he was heroic. You know how one little burn from the teapot hurts? That was his whole fucking arm. Come on.”
Jason says he, drummer Lars Ulrich, and guitarist Kirk Hammett “went into our own bubble” to support Hetfield’s recovery: “It really is a moment that somehow saved and refueled our band.”
“We were distraught, Kirk and I were tripping,” Newsted said. “Lars wasn’t even in the dressing room [after it happened]. He just had a towel over his head. Kirk and I were trying to still be upright. We were wondering, wondering, wondering.”
Hours later METALLICA tour manager, Tony Smith, came back from the hospital. “He’s going to be fine, he’s going to be okay, he’s tough as fuck,” Newsted recalled. “The only thing he wanted to know was when we’re playing again.”
Newsted laughed, recalling the memory, “We didn’t even know if we’d ever get to play again with him. Yeah, he was on morphine and whatever the fuck else, but he was still him…his gumption, his toughness, that insisted that we get back to the people right fucking now.”
“We regrouped behind him, in support of him, through brotherly love,” Newsted relayed to Chirazi. “Absolute brotherly love. It was more important that he was well than anything else, but he already came out, ‘Let’s fucking go.’ He was already there. There was no ‘poor fucking me.’ Because of that—because our leader showed that kind of fire—we were more than happy to get behind him like never before…I knew I was going to have to step up and do a couple more things. We all knew that and we stepped right into it.”
Newsted also touched on what it was like seeing James sing without a guitar as he still performed live after the accident, however, it took some time before the frontman could strap on an axe again. Former METAL CHURCH guitarist John Marshall filled in on guitar for Hetfield for a number of dates with the band.
“It was awesome when he came back on guitar,” Newsted said. “Nobody can play like that. There ain’t nobody like that with the down-picking thing.”
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