James Hetfield: Jason Newsted Wouldn’t Look Inward

Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune recently caught up with Metallica frontman James Hetfield and asked him about bandmate Lars Ulrich’s remark that the Metallica that exists now is the Metallica that Jason Newsted always advocated when he was in the band. “Jason certainly sparked the inward look in us all, but unfortunately he was the one that chose not to look inward, he just ran outward,” Hetfield said. “Right when it started to get heavy, he bailed on it. I’m glad we continued with what we had to do. In a way, we were disappointed that he wasn’t willing to do the work. He just wanted to get to the destination. He didn’t want to travel the journey.” Metromix.chicagotribune.com has since removed the article.