Jason Newsted Was Actually Smart With His Metallica Money
Making a ton of money all at once is a surefire way to act like a total dickhead. We’d like to think that a massive seven-figure payout would erase our debts and support our families, but we might also find ourselves eyeing some pricey diamond-encrusted Motörhead watch or something equally stupid. Now, former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted has revealed that even though he almost pissed away his earnings from being in the world’s biggest band, but got ahold of himself and saved a decent amount of his dough.
Speaking to Metallica fan club magazine So What!, Newsted was asked what it was like dealing with the massive commercial success of 1991’s self-titled record, AKA the mawfuckin’ Black Album. And Jason admits that even he acted the rich fool a bit.
“All of us experienced some kind of swelly head at different levels for different amounts of time through this three-year span,” admitted Jason. “[It was] inevitable and impossible for it not to happen… I remember me personally, when I went shopping with Kirk [Hammett] in Paris, and he took to me a couple of nice, nice stores, and I threw down a lot of money for some nice clothes and shoes and stuff. I’d never done that before. And I thought I was the shit… So I did get caught in the moment. I think that I’ve been really, really frugal with my earnings, and so that’s why I still have them. But I did have a couple of moments there. But that was the time — dropping all this money for wine and fancy shit… And I think it lasted for about — I’d say five to six months, for myself, that it was just that ‘walking on air.’ Everywhere that you went, in the 55 countries that we played in, they’re waiting for you when you fucking there… What are you supposed to do?”
As for when Newsted realized that he couldn’t just piss away the paycheck of a lifetime?
“I think when I came back home on the one break to be with my girl again,” he says, “I just realized that that’s not who I am. It just is not who I am. I pretended I was gonna get this fancy car and all that shit. I’m, like, ‘Dude, you know that you’d rather have a ’65 Mopar, ’68 Mopar than you would that fucking Lamborghini bullshit anyway.’ But those guys were driving Porsches and fancy cars and stuff, and I’m, like, ‘I can afford that too.’”
Check out the full interview below.
[Via Blabbermouth]
