Metal Hammer recently caught up with former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted. He opens up with his thoughts on thrash metal, the Black album, and life after Metallica. Following is an excerpt from the chat.

Q: How did you feel hearing the first mix of …And Justice For All, and how do you feel about the …And Justice For Jason remixes of the album people have been doing in the last few years? 

Newsted: "I love people’s enthusiasm, their determination, their love and their appreciation. If the Justice album had been mixed like a regular record, we wouldn’t be talking about it to this day. But because that isn’t the case – and I don’t necessarily think that’s that big a deal – we’re still talking about it all these years later. 

I don’t even think they realised, in their drunken stupor, what they were doing, but they made the best garage band album ever. Black Keys, White Stripes, whatever power duo, garage rock stuff you wanna mention, James and Lars were the original garage rock duo, as far as that goes. 

They always made the records that way, from (1983 demo cassette) No Life ’Til Leather, it was Lars and James, guitar and drums. On the original cassette, in Lars’ handwriting, in ink pen, on the label (it reads) 'Turn bass down on stereo.' On Life ’Til Leather! It’s just been that way their entire lives. They made Kill ’Em All that way, Ride… that way, Master Of Puppets that way… all those two guys in a room, over and over, and you’re gonna argue with the most successful of all time…? 

Back then, I was fucking livid, are you kidding me? I was ready for throats, man. Because I thought I did a good job. But, up until it got to Metallica, I had only ever played one take on the bass. In Flotsam I wrote the song on bass and the guitar player covered the part I wrote. I never knew any other way, until I met Bob Rock, and then I could see how he made the bass its own thing. I didn’t know what the bass player did until about 15 years ago!" 

Q: Did any of you guys realise you were sitting on something special back then, when the record was being made? 

Newsted: "I’m going to go back to 'Sad But True', because that’s my highlight of the whole project, because of the weight. I struggled with 'Nothing Else Matters'; I knew it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up – it was undeniable – but I was kinda scared of it, to be honest, because I still wanted 'CRUNCH!'. 'Enter Sandman', I thought was kinda corny, honestly. 

The beautiful thing was that we all sat in the room together and played it out; 70 takes of 'Nothing Else Matters'. After a while, you’re too close to it. ‘How much more delicate can I make it?’ It’s crazy I’ve just realised this: our softest song ever took down the biggest walls to allow our hardest songs ever to penetrate the world. When it was No. 1 in 35 countries in one week, and seven of those countries we hadn’t even been to yet? Dude, that doesn’t happen to a band who go ‘Die! Die!’ most of the time."

Read the complete interview here.