Newsted Helped Metallica Continue By Leaving

William Lee | 10-23-2019

Former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted believes that his decision to leave the band in 2001 actually helped the group to continue and to do what they are doing now.

He told WZZR radio in Florida, "They would not be doing what they're doing now if I hadn't made that move then and I knew what was best for everybody at the time.

"Whether I was prophetic and saw these things ahead of time, that I knew the inner rumblings, what would take place and what would unfold. I knew about people's issues and stuff."

He continued, "'We've gotta step away for a second, you guys, to make sure everybody can...' 'No. We don't wanna step away. We wanna go and rock.' So I chose to step away and they chose to keep going. But then they dove down for a couple of years and didn't do anything because of it.

"So if they would have just listened to what I said, we would have taken the time off together that I wanted to take off, we could have came back and did that thing. But that's not what was meant to be. And now, what happened, physically, shoulders, all these other things, I couldn't be in their band the way that I want to be."