Almost everyone on the planet has heard “Enter Sandman” at one point or another, whether they’re metalheads or were simply attending a sporting event. Jason Newsted, who played on several Metallica albums including The Black Album, has admitted he thought the iconic track was “kinda corny.”
Newsted joined Metallica on bass in 1986 after the death of Cliff Burton, and left the band in 2001. Therefore, he played on …And Justice for All, Load, Reload and, of course, their 1991 self-titled record, which is the most widely-known of them all as it spawned a ton of hits.
In an interview with Metal Hammer, the bassist named “Sad But True” as his personal highlight on the album, “because of the weight.” Then he described his feelings about several of the other massive songs as well.
“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!’ ‘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?'” he recalled.
“It’s crazy I’ve just realized this,” he continued. “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.”
The rocker has previously named “Nothing Else Matters” as one of the most important songs in Metallica’s catalog because it introduced them to a wider audience than they’d previously reached. Promoters and radio stations that had never been interested in featuring them suddenly wanted to when the song hit No. 1 in so many place around the world, and they almost didn’t even release it because of how personal it was to James Hetfield.
“My point being, the softest song that Metallica ever made — ever — broke down the most serious walls ever to be able to take ‘Creeping Death’ and everything else through to the people. It couldn’t have happened the other way,” he told Rock Antenne in September.
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