Jason Curtis Newsted (born March 4, 1963) is an American musician, best known as the bassist of heavy metal band Metallica from 1986 to 2001.

He performed with thrash metal band Flotsam and Jetsam for the first five years of his career before joining Metallica in October 1986 to succeed Cliff Burton, who died the month prior.

After leaving Metallica, Newsted was a member of metal bands Echobrain and Voivod, using the pseudonym Jasonic for the latter, and toured with Ozzy Osbourne.

His first instrument was a guitar, which he started to play at 9 years old, but he moved to bass at 14,[3] after listening to Gene Simmons of Kiss.

[4] Newsted dropped out of high school at age 18 and joined ‘Gangster’ a local metal band before the group decided to relocate to California.

[5] He lists Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead, Steve Harris of Iron Maiden, Peter Baltes of Accept, Geddy Lee of Rush, Rob Grange of Ted Nugent, and Bill Church of Montrose as other significant influences.

They considered and auditioned over 50 musicians, including Greg Christian of Testament, Gene Gilfen of Blind Illusion, Mel Sanchez of Abattoir, Mike Jastremski of Heathen, Troy Gregory, Les Claypool and various others.

Newsted said in a 2015 interview that he learned about Metallica's plan to open for Ozzy Osbourne's tour at the time.

[10] However, Steve Thompson, who mixed the album, claims that Ulrich was to blame for the inaudible bass and unusual drums.

During a meeting between the members of Metallica in December 2000, Newsted proposed that the band should take a year-long hiatus, and he would use that time to focus on his side-project Echobrain.

[14][15] On January 17, 2001, as plans were being made for the band to enter the recording studio to record their eighth studio album, Newsted made his departure public, citing "private and personal reasons and the physical damage I have done to myself over the years while playing the music that I love.

"[18] It was mentioned in the film Metallica: Some Kind of Monster that there was a rumor that Newsted would possibly rejoin the band, but to date it has not happened, aside from the brief appearance on the 30th anniversary shows.

[19] On April 4, 2009, Newsted joined Metallica for its induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.

[20][21] He also performed three songs at the event—"Master of Puppets", "Enter Sandman", and "Train Kept A-Rollin'"—with Hetfield, Ulrich, Hammett, and Robert Trujillo, and Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Joe Perry, Ron Wood, and Flea.

On December 5, 7, 9 and 10, 2011, Newsted reunited with Metallica during all four of their 30th anniversary shows and performed several songs with the band and, in some cases, other guest musicians.

[22] On December 16, 2013,[23] Newsted expanded upon previous statements regarding his departure from Metallica and cited that his project with Echobrain was being discouraged by James Hetfield because Metallica's management at Q Prime wanted to go ahead with promoting Echobrain but was forced to drop it by Hetfield's demands with the quote "other arrangements can be made".

The people that I had counted on for 15 years to help me with my career, help Metallica, take care of my money, do all of those things, told me, 'Your new project is fantastic, we'd like to help you with it.'

In 2001, the band consisted of Joe "Joefus" Ledesma and Steven Wiig and recorded the album "Unipsycho" in Walnut Creek, CA.

[29] The record Katorz (a phonetic spelling of quatorze, the French word for fourteen), released in July 2006, was based around riffs found on D'Amour's laptop.

A December 2008 update on Voivod's website noted that Newsted played "all the bass tracks" on their latest album Infini, which was released on June 23, 2009.

[30][31] Since then, Voivod reunited with their original bass player, Jean-Yves Thériault (Blacky), for a short period of time before he would leave the band permanently.

Supernova formed the basis of the second season of the CBS television program Rock Star in the quest to find a lead singer.

He performed with the band alongside current bassist Robert Trujillo at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cleveland, Ohio.

In October 2010 Newsted joined a supergroup with singer Ian Gillan and former keyboardist Jon Lord from Deep Purple, guitarist Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath, second guitarist Mikko Lindström from HIM, and drummer Nicko McBrain from Iron Maiden.

[37] The charity single also features a track titled "Holy Water" and is available as digital download or CD format as of May 6, 2011.

He says "It cost me an awful lot of money – hundreds of thousands of dollars to take the Newsted band around to the 22 countries we played.

"[45] In April 2023, Newsted announced the band had been reactivated and would play their first show in nearly a decade on May 20 at Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

[47] In July 2024, Sadowsky announced a Limited Edition Jason Newsted Signature model, his first since the company's endorsement in 1997.

[8] The accident resulted in a torn anterior labrum in his left shoulder and a rotator cuff and biceps tear in the right.

[citation needed] Newsted later reported that he had been addicted to painkillers, having taken such medication from his time in Metallica to cope with neck problems but without understanding the risks.