Jason Newsted, is an American heavy metal musician who came into existence on March 4, 1963, in battle creek, Michigan. At an early age of 9 years, he started playing guitar and it was the first instrument he learned. Today, Jason Newsted has a net worth of $60 million which he made all out of his passion for music. Jason was just a fourteen-year-old kid when he along with his family moved to Kalamazoo. After moving to Kalamazoo, he discovered rock music and joined a group named Kiss.
Furthermore, being with the kiss group and listening to their music gradually made him come in contact with many other metal groups, like- Ted Nugent, Rush Oyster Cult, and Black Sabbath. Being with all these groups had influenced Jason a lot. The first group that Jason made was Dogz which after some time got changed into the name, Flotsam and Jetsam. They tried many different styles of heavy metal music but the one that influenced them the most is the heaviest hitters of the genre, i.e. Metallica.
Newstead was an amazing songwriter and when flotsam and jetsam made a deal with Metal Blade records and released Doomsday for the deceiver, Jason was the fundamental songwriter of the album released. But destiny has some other plans ready for Jason. The bassist of Metallica, Cliff Burton in 1986 met with a devastating road accident while he was on a tour. Though from the sudden demise of Cliff the group was still mourning his death and were still recovering from the shock but at the same time they thought of auditioning new people.
They decided to start the audition rounds for the selection of a new bass player for their group in order to continue the work. Though Flotsam and Jetsam was going great but since Jason was a huge metal head and was so fond of Metallica he couldn’t stop himself from auditioning for it. However it was very difficult to replace Cliff Burton but somehow had to, so after auditioning various numbers of people they ended on selecting Newsted as the new bassist of the group, Metallica.
When Jason Newsted joins Metallica at the position of bassist after Cliff Burton, he explained few things by saying “when I joined Metallica, I had to do justice to Cliff’s work but at the same time I also had to make sure to put my own signature on it, no one could become Cliff Burton, he was the Jimi Hendrix of bass.” In the very beginning of his journey with Metallica, for somewhere around six months, Jesan was a session musician there. In April 1987, he was announced as the full member of Metallica.
In an interview Jesan talked about his early days in the Metallic, he said that his presence helped the group a lot to fill the void formed after Cliff Burton’s sudden death. Also, in the initial days with the group, he didn’t get that much of importance he was expecting. He struggled a lot to gain mainstream success in the group. There was one album named black in 1991 which went so viral and gained immense popularity and became a huge success.
The success of the black album was so huge that none of the members of the group had the need to record more albums in order to live the rest of their life comfortably. Though Jesan Newsted possessed amazing songwriting skills, his skills were not appreciated at that level. In the name of recognition and appreciation, he only received songwriting credits for various group songs, like- Blackened and My friend in misery.
Even after a long struggle and hard work he didn’t get much in return and finally he himself in the year 2001 decided to put an end to it by quitting the Metallicas. He felt his voice was neglected in the group discussions for the new albums. So he started focusing on some other project and terminated the bond with Metallicas. However, he was the longest-staying bassist member of Metallica.
Jesus Journey Post Metallica!
Just after leaving the Metallicas, he started his own new group, Echobrain. But he didn’t stay with them for more than a year and switched to another group named Voivod. Voivod was a thrash metal band from Canada and Newsted accompanied the group for almost six long years. When he was part of the Voivod band group, he appeared on a series of albums, like- Phobos, Voivod, Katz, and Infiniti. However, Jesan being Jesan he eventually felt that he could no longer continue with the group. In order to continue with some other projects, he discontinued Voivod.
About Jesan Newsted’s personal life!
Jesan Newsted got married twice but to different womens. At first, as his first marriage, he got hitched in the year 1988 which didn’t last long even for a year. Then I took a long break and lived a single life. however, in the year 2012, he got married again which was his second marriage. As of now, he is married to Nicole Leigh.
Rewards of recognition!
Once again on the roll hall of fame stage in Cleveland, Ohio, Jehsan Newsted got reunited with Metallica. Jehsan has won an uncountable number of awards for his amazing work. One he received when he was with Metallica was for the best hard rock performance for the Garage Inc. song named whiskey in a jar. In addition to the awards Jesan Newsted has won, he got the award for best rock instrumental performance for the call of Ktulu which was in the year 2000.
Final words!
Jehsan Newsted, is an amazing songwriter, musician, and bassist who is 59 years old as of now. He worked with many different groups and bands and left many in a row. He gave many hit albums which gained immense love and popularity from the audience. In the long 40-45 years of his years till date, he created his own bands, gave many hit songs, and worked with numerous renowned musicians and band groups. All this sums up his journey to become a man with a net worth of 60 million dollars.
