Ron McGovney
Born: November 2, 1963
From: Norwalk
Personal: Married, 3 children
Vitals: Brown hair

First gig with metallica March 14, 1982 which was also metallica's first gig

 

Ron lived on the edge of Norwalk and went to school in Downey.  Ron first met James Hetfield in Jr. High School, but James doesn't remember meeting Ron.  Officially met James in ninth grade at High School.  Their school lockers were near each others.  There were the smart people, jocks, idiots, Ron and James were just the guys in the middle.  At the time Ron was into bands like Creedence and Doobie Bros..  Ron has always been into motorcycles, got his first motorcycle at 8yrs or 9yrs old, a Seventy-two Honda SL70, for his birthday.  In 10th, 11th grade Ron finds out that James plays guitar and that he's got a band called Obsession, James 1st band.  Ron was asked to be their roadies.  Ron started guitar lessons at 12yrs old on an acoustic guitar.  Watching James and his band Ron decides thats what he wants to do.  James suggests Ron buy an electric guitar.  So he does, a Gibson Les Paul Custom,and James teaches Ron how to play an electric guitar.  James offers Ron to start a band with him as the bass guitarist, Ron doesn't know how to play bass, James shows him.  Leather Charm is born. 

'Hit the lights' was played.

 

Ron was never really interested in a music career as a priority.  Ron was/is passionate about Motorcycles, is a member of NASCAR, has a boat and took pictures of Bands around Hollywood.  Motley Crue were impressed with the photos taken of them, Nikki Sixx asks Ron to take photos of the band with a Canon AEI.  Ron met Lars Ulrich at a Judas Priest concert in 1981.  Once Lars was on the scene, James and Lars would practice everyday at Rons demolition house.  James and Lars start playing 'Hit the lights', Ron can't believe how bad Lars is, walks out, leaves them to it.  Ron would be out working, taking photos of bands, off-roading etc.  James, Lars, a guy named Glen and some unnamed guy played 'Hit the Lights' in Ron's demolition house.  One day Ron commented on how it didn't sound right, they asked 'maybe Ron could play it better', and He did.  So they let Glen go, then the other guitar player left, so they started looking for another guitarist.  An ad is placed in the Recycler for a lead guitar player, blah-blah-blah, Dave Mustaine answers.  They wanted Ron to join the band, he never officially became apart of the band, it just sort of happened.  Lars told Brian Slagel that He had a band, Ron was like 'Huh?'  The demo for 'Hit the lights' doesn't have Ron playing, it's Lloyd Grant using Ron's bass guitar.  It was the four-track of 'Hit the lights' on Metal Massacre1, after the band was named Metallica, but before it got to press.  But as you know, Ron finally joined Metallica.

 

Ron found himself being not only the bassist, but also the manager of the band, having to do promotion work (he was responsible for the "Power Metal" slogan that Metallica used in its early days) as well as drive the band to gigs. Ron had the steady income, and paid for most things for the band.  Ron and Dave Mustaine didn't get along in Metallica, but got along fine outside Metallica.  Dave poured beer into Ron's bass guitar, got somebody to steal one of Ron's bass guitars, and did many other things to Ron's stuff.  The night they watched Cliff Burton play bass in Trauma,Ron could see James and Lars were impressed.  Ron felt that all the stuff Dave had been doing to His equipment was maybe a way of getting him to leave the band.  After meeting Cliff, Ron took it upon himself to leave Metallica.  Ron asked everyone to leave his house.  3-4 months later, Kill 'em all came out. 

Whiplash was the last song written with Ron.  Ron feels that Lars took his bestfriend James away from him.

 

After leaving Metallica, Ron was disillusioned with music and sold most of his equipment.  However, several years later, he was enticed into another band Phantasm, in 1986 with Katon De Pena, Rod Nicholson, Johnny Tabares and Nathan Williams.  Ron did half the writing.  Ron found the label of "Metallica's first bassist" too difficult to handle, and left Phantasm after a handful of shows.  Ron also did a brief stint with Hirax and was featured in Metallica's Behind The Music special on VH-1 in 1998.

 

Ron lives with his wife and 3 children, works at a local Factory, supervising a packing line.  Classes himself as just a blue collar worker.  Doesn't have any motorcycles at the moment, only a Four-wheel drive, comments that when you've got kids, you kind of have to get rid of that stuff at some point.  Still does the racing thing and goes on family camping trips.
 

 

lead gutiar 1982

Lloyd Grant a talented Jamaican Delta Blues player, had a knack for tasty leads.  A friend of Lars Lloyd played a lead guitar fill on Metallica's first demo of "Hit The Lights" (along with Dave Mustaine), which appeared on very early pressings of 'Metal Massacre 1.'

He was never considered a part of the band.

"He could play leads like a motherfucker, but his rhythm stuff was not very tight."  -James Hetfield

 

Born: September 13, 1961

From: La Mea, California

Instrument: Guitar

Personal: Married, 2 Children

Viatals: 6’ (1.83m)

Nicknames: Dangerous Dave, Mustaine

Frist band: Panic

First gig with metallica march 1982

 

Born David Scott Mustaine . Dave joined Metallica in late 1981 and remained with them until 11 April 1983.  During his short time in Metallica, Dave Mustaine (lead guitar) toured with the band, co-wrote several songs which were later featured on the albums "Kill 'Em All" and "Ride The Lightning" and recorded several songs with the band, including the "No Life Til Leather" demo tape.

 

In LA at the end of 1982, Lars and James the self appointed heads of the band decided that if they were going to progress towards a more professional league then a few changes would have to be made.  Problems had arisen with Dave Mustaine which went beyond simple onstage competition. "Dave was an incredibly talented guy" said Brian Slagel, "But he also had an incredibly large problem with alcohol and drugs.  He'd get wasted and become a real crazy person, a raging maniac, and the other guys just couldn't deal with that after a while.  I mean, they all drank of course, but I guess they could all hold their liquor better than Dave, and I could see they were beginning to get fed up of

seeing Dave drunk out of his mind all the time."  One of the final straws for the band was on the road trip from San Francisco to New York to meet up with Johnny Z. The band nearly didn't make it: a crash with a jeep during a snow storm near Wyoming left the bands truck in a ditch.  No-one was hurt, but as the incident occurred while Dave Mustaine was drink driving the others (James, Lars and Cliff) made a mental note that as soon as they started the new phase of their career on the east coast they had to get rid of him.

 

Dave Mustaine's last gig with Metallica was on a Saturday night in New York on a bill that also included Venom and Vandenburg.  After discussing the problem the next day (Sunday) with new manager Johnny Z over a few crates of beer, Hetfield woke the volatile guitarist on the Monday morning to tell him on behalf of the others that he had an hour to pack his bags and leave as they had booked him on a greyhound airlines "flight" back home.  It was a painful decision and the band tried to soften the blow by heading into Manhattan that night and drowning their sorrows in a bottle of vodka.

Nonetheless it was a decision that had to be made.

 

Today Johnny Z refuses to elaborate on the events surrounding Mustaine's exit. "The true story about Dave Mustaine will never be told, because there's something of a pact between Dave, Metallica and myself," he says.  "All the pain, all theguilt and all the blame came to rest last year, and so now it really is time to let sleeping dogs lie."  At the time, however, there wasn't a great deal of love lost between those involved. "Basically," Mustaine told Metal Forces fanzine shortly after re-emerging with his new band, Megadeth, "when they told me to leave I packed in about 20 seconds and I was

gone.  I wasn't upset at all as I wanted to start a solo project during the middle of Metallica anyway".

 

Dave Mustaine's replacement Kirk Hammett from the band Exodus would take up the lead guitar position in Metallica.

 

Dave married Pamela Anne Casselberry in April 1991, they have a son Justis David

Born in 1992, and a daughter Electra Nicole born on January 28, 1998

 

http://www.megadeth.com

 

Clifford Lee Burton was born on February 10, 1962 at 9:38pm at the Eden Hospital in San Francisco, CA. His parents were two San Francisco hippies, Jan and Ray Burton. It was from them that Cliff got his image, his hippie ideals, but most of all, his attitude.  Ray was a native of Tennesse, and worked as an Assistant Highway Engineer in the San Francisco Bay Area. Jan was a native of California. She worked for the Castro Valley school district. She taught students with disabilities. Cliff had a brother Scott David and sister Connie. On May 19, 1975 Scott died at 11:50am on the way to the hospital from a brain aneurysm.

 

Cliff began playing the piano when he was 6 years old. He started playing the bass while a teenager. He took bass lessons from September 1978 to January 1980. Cliff had his own style. He was really laid back, relaxed and happy. Cliff liked his beer, his pot, etc.  He drove a 1972 VW station wagon named "The Grasshopper". Cliff wore bell-bottoms, read H. P. Lovecraft, liked Mexican food, pier fishing, hunting, jamming and hanging out with his two best friends Dave and Jim. He grew up near San Francisco with Faith No More guitarist, Jim Martin. Burton was a cross between Clint Eastwood and E. F. Hutton. He didn't say much, but when he did, people listened.

 

Cliff played the role-playing games 'Call of Cthulhu"

 

Cliff studied, played and loved Bach.  Also liked R.E.M   Played in AD 2million, Agents of Misfortune, Jim Martin (who later found fame with 'Faith No More'), EZ Street.  Influenced by Geddy Lee, Geezer Butler, Stanley Clarke.  Cliff has been described as clever without being obscure, driven without being dictatorial and inventive without being eccentric.  Influenced by other 1970's southern/classic rock bands such as The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Thin Lizzy, Blue Oyster Cult and ZZ Top, as well as the staples of Black Sabbath and Judas Priest.

 

Back in late 1982, it was decided that former bassist Ron McGovney wasn't really pulling his weight in Metallica. He wasn't taking the band seriously, which James and Lars had a real problem with. By that time, Metallica was beginning to go down. Lars and James were having problems with their Lead Guitarist, Dave Mustaine, because of his growing addictions and abuse of alcohol and drugs, and the terrible conflicts that he and James had on stage were becoming more frequent. Also James didn't want to sing anymore because he felt he wasn't doing a good enough job, so he proposed that he play Rhythm Guitar only.

 

Cliff was discovered in August of 1982. One of Metallica's peer bands up north making the rounds about this time was Trauma. In addition to being a favorite Bay-area club circuit draw, the band was gaining recognition through their one-song demo, featuring "Such a Shame" that eventually was transferred to vinyl on Metal Massacre II. More noteworthy, however, Trauma possessed within its ranks "the most head banging bassist" Lars and James had ever seen - Cliff Burton.

 

They initially spotted him during a live Trauma show at LA's Troubadour. Lars and James were very impressed by the way he played the bass.

 

Cliff introduced Metallica to the music of Discharge.

 

First gig with metallica March 5, 1983....used Aria Pro II Bass

 

"We heard this wild solo going on and thought, 'I don't see any guitar player up there.' It turned out it was the bass player, Cliff, with a wah wah pedal and this mop of hair.  He didn't care whether people were there. He was looking down at his bass playing."

--- James Hetfield ---

 

Metallica set out on a grand pursuit to get Cliff to join the band. Burton presented the Los Angeles station band with an ultimatum, 'If Metallica relocated to San Francisco, he would join them.'

 

Metallica, with all their problems, relocated to San Francisco, where they were better received than in Los Angeles. Their first jam with Cliff occurred in the house of sound-man Mark Witaker, where their was a studio type setup in his garage. At the time James and Lars were living there, having relocated Metallica to the Bay Area in 1983 to be closer to Cliff. They recorded a 4 track demo and on March 5, 1983, Cliff played for the first time with Metallica at the Stone, in San Francisco. This was the beginning of 3 1/2 incredible years.

 

Cliff lived with his family in San Francisco, and for three and a half years he worked hard to take Metallica to the top. After replacing Ron McGovney in late 1982, Cliff instantly made a name for himself with his classic "wind-mill" style of thrashing on stage, with his hair flying out in all directions, and with his outdated, completely "unfashionable" image. With his hair hanging straight down from his head, he seemed to be always dressed in a pair of bell-bottom jeans and a faded denim jacket. If it was cold, he wore a flannel shirt underneath.

 

Offstage, he was the ultimate laid-back Californian, a total opposite from his wild, aggressive on-stage attack. His sense of humor was great, as were his bass solos and everything about his stage presence. He was the most visual of all the band on-stage, he would just go wild. Cliff was also responsible for expanding the scope of Metallica's lyrical themes. Along with Kirk, he admired the works of H. P. Lovecraft.

 

The best example of how cool and unflappable Cliff was,  happened in the summer of 1985 at their Castle Donnington Festival appearance (August 17, 1985). Having ducked beneath a flying pear which ended up embedding itself in his bass bin, Burton coolly sauntered over to his stack, picked up the pear, took two bites out of it and hurled it back into the crowd.

 

Cliff was also a fine and inventive soloist, and his clever use of distortion and wah-wah in his "(Anesthesia) -- Pulling Teeth" showpiece made it one of the highlights of the band's live set. More importantly, Cliff was one hell of a nice guy and a much-loved figure in the Metallica camp. He always went out of his way to talk to the band's fans, no matter how tired he was. He was certainly the most unanimously appreciated by the band members as well as by the public.

 

For a while there it really looked as if 1986 was gonna be Metallica's year. After all, their third LP, Master of Puppets, had literally taken the music  world by storm and, in doing so, had made the band virtual mega-stars in the eyes of the metal-doting public. Metallica had finally "made it", and it seemed that nothing could halt their inexorable rise to even greater glory. Then, during the European leg of the group's phenomenally successful Master of Puppets world tour, something went wrong - catastrophically wrong.

 

Fresh from their triumphant UK tour, Metallica had headed once more for Scandinavia where they'd played three shows at the Olympen in Lund (September 24, 1986), the Skedsmohallen (September 25, 1986) in Oslo and at the Sonahallen in Stockholm (September 26, 1986). It was  approaching dawn on Saturday, the 27th of September 1986, and Metallica's two tour buses were on their way to do a fourth show in Copenhagen.  The were traveling along a god forsaken road between the Scandinavian cities of Stockholm and Copenhagen. Apart from these vehicles, the route  was deserted, there was no one else traveling at that early hour of the morning. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, just before dawn, at about 5:15 am, one of the coaches swerved violently to its right and started careening wildly down the wrong side of the road. It was out of control, and a crash was inevitable.  On board were the four band members, along with drum tech Flemming Larsen, guitar assistants John Marshall and Aidan Mullen, and road manager Bobby Schneider.

 

John Marshall: "We were on a two-lane road. The bus went off to the right, and I think the driver over corrected, cranking the wheel to the left to get us back on the road. The wheel grabbed, and the bus swung completely around. During this time, the tail of the bus was sliding, kind of fishtailing around and bouncing on its wheels. That was right when we all started to wake up. I think I bounced right out of my bunk. The bunks were like trays with foam  in them. The foam was held in place by a wooden lip. When the bus started rocking, my back bounced across that lip. Afterwards, I could barely walk,  it hurt so bad. The bus eventually slid to the dirt alongside the road. When the wheels caught, the bus rolled over on its side."   The bus's brief but horrific excursion came to a halt some 60 feet further up the tarmac. By this time, though, the vehicle was on its side and lying in a ditch by the side of the road near the small Swedish town of Ljungby.

 

During the unavoidable confusion that followed, the vast majority of the overturned bus's passengers managed to scramble free of the wreckage. Mullen and Larsen, who'd slept in right-side bunks, were pinned under the rubble for nearly three hours before the fire department jacked up the debris and rescued them.  Those that emerged included three of the four members of the band. In truth, the survivors had been extremely lucky, as they'd all some how managed to escape with little more than minor injuries and shock. Lars broke a finger, James only suffered from minor superficial injuries and Kirk's eye was blackened.  Kirk, who'd blacked out after being thrown from his bunk, snapped to consciousness and made his way through a side emergency hatch. Bobby Schneider, the tour manager, dislocated his arm, and another crew member had contusions.

 

Swedish police arriving on the scene of the accident immediately arrested the driver as a matter of routine. They later released him without charging him after further investigation revealed that the cause of the accident was black ice on a nasty bend in the road. This episode was simply a tragic and cruel accident that killed the way Metallica was building.

 

"We were all sitting out there in 35 degree weather, with me in my socks and underwear before someone gave me a blanket. I remember Kirk and James  yelling at the driver. By then, everyone had begun to realize that something was wrong with Cliff. I remember James walking up the road a bit to see if there  was ice on the road, because the driver had claimed he'd slid over a sheet of ice. Kirk was crying."

---John Marshall---

 

Unfortunately, however, there had been one fatality in the accident. The deceased individual turned out to be one of the group. Cliff was sleeping on the top level of the right rear bunk in the bus when the bus started to roll and he was thrown out of the bus window. The bunks had toppled like match sticks, teetering into one another and collapsing into what resembled a pile of kindling.He was crushed by the bus in the accident and died immediately on contact.   So, tragically, in the short space of those few dreadful seconds on that lonely Swedish road, Metallica's dreamlike existence was suddenly transformed  into a hellish nightmare. Their 24 year-old bass player, Cliff Burton, was dead.

 

"I saw the bus lying right on him. I saw his legs sticking out. I freaked. The bus driver, I recall, was trying to yank the blanket out from under him to use for  other people. I just went, 'Don't fucking do that!' I already wanted to kill the guy. I don't know if he was drunk or if he hit some ice. All I knew was, he was driving and Cliff wasn't alive anymore." "I just recall our tour manager Bobby saying, 'Okay, let's get the band together and take them back to the hotel.'   The only thing I could think was, 'The band? No way! There ain't no band. The band is not "the band" right now. It's just three guys."

--- James Hetfield - 1993

 

 

QUESTION:

What would you say to a band

that's just starting out on the rock scene today?

 

CLIFF BURTON:

Quit!

 

 

 

The dazed group dealt with their anxiety in the manner they were most familiar with: drinking. James broke two hotel windows and screamed, venting his rage.   Kirk and his guitar tech, John Marshall, were so shaken that they left the light on in their room that night. On September 29th, James, Lars and Kirk returned  to the United States.

 

"I wasn't too angry in the beginning. I was obviously grieving, but the anger started setting in when I realized that it's not new that people in rock-n-roll die, but usually it's self-inflicted in terms of excessive drink or drug abuse. He had nothing to do with it. It's so useless. Completely useless."

--- Lars Ulrich - January 1987

 

The gap left by Cliff's death widely spread across the pages of tributes run by the music press the week after the tragedy. In Kerrang!, for example, advertisements were taken by friends and fans alike; a bleak, black double-page spread ran messages from the Zazulas ("The Ultimate Musician, The Ultimate Headbanger, The Ultimate Loss, A Friend Forever"), and Anthrax ("Bell-Bottoms Rule!! Laugh it up, We Miss You"), while Music For Nations also took out a page ad which simply read: "Cliff Burton 1962 - 1986." The pain ran deep.

 

 

Gen Howards remembers: "When the Puppets tour had finished, I waited 'til the band went to the European tour and then I went on vacation to Cornualles.  We all were very happy on what was happening, 'specially, that Metallica was becoming one of the most popular metal bands. We all had worked a lot in this,  and then before our eyes everything was was going ok, and the future hadn't seemed better. Then a Wednesday morning, I take a "Sounds" volume, I opened it, and I almost shocked. It was a really beat. . . incredibly painful..."

 

Cliff Burtons body was flown back to the US. His memorial service was held October 7, 1986. Services were held in his hometown of Castro Valley. At the conclusion of his memorial service "Orion" was played.

 

Cliff was cremated and his ashes were spread at one of his favorite hang-outs, the Maxwell Ranch. In the final ceremony, a group of close friends and family  formed a circle around Cliff's ashes, and one by one, each person walked towards the middle of the circle, took a handful of his ashes, said something about Cliff and then threw his ashes in to the earth.

 

His family and friends remembered him as a "world class local boy" with a love for Johann Sebastian Bach, Mexican food and his hometown. His parents said  he was "an appreciative and thoughtful son. Because of his performing, he'd sleep all day and stay up all night and never wake us up. Once, a little boy came up to the door, early in the morning and wanted Cliff to sign his shirt. So Cliff staggered to the door and said 'Sure, of course I'll sign it.'" Connie, his sister, said, "I once called him up and said 'How do you like being a rock star?', and he was furious. He asked me never to refer to him that way again." At the conclusion of his memorial service "Orion" from the band's 'Master of Puppets' album, was played. The elaborate instrumental made a fitting tribute for the young bassist, since, as James Hetfield recalled, Burton was Metallica's most educated musician and "Orion" was largely his composition.

 

 

"The only person who was able to figure out a time and write it on a piece of paper was Cliff.  He had an immense knowledge of timing, musical harmonies and music theory in general."

---Kirk - 1987

 

 

"Cliff was so completely honest to himself and the people around him.

He hated all this being-put-on-a-pedestal bullshit."

---Lars Ulrich - 1986

 

 

"He was a wild, hippie-ish, acid-taking, bell-bottom-wearing guy.

He meant business, and you couldn't fuck around with him.

I wanted to get that respect that he had.

We gave him shit about his bell-bottoms everyday.

He didn't care. "This is what I wear. Fuck you." He loved music.

He was really intellectual but very to the point.

He taught me a lot about attitude."

---James Hetfield - 1993

 

the Hendrix of bass -Jason Newsted 1994

 

He reinvented metal-bass playing...became a voice on the bass guitar that nobody had ever heard before  -Jason Newsted 1994

 

"Anesthesia" is a perfect example of how Cliff played bass as a composer - everything he played had extremely strong musical reason  -Jason Newsted 1994

 

 

"To this day, I think of him every day.

It's really strange.

It's something that pops into my head every day

and I'm constantly reminded of it because he played such a large part in out lives."

---Kirk Hammett - 1988

 

"Cliff Burton was the man who had that wild spirit that makes a band like Metallica a quality band. He wasn't only the bass player, or someone else in  the band who co-write the songs, he was the man who made Metallica reach the sky. After his death, Metallica sold their souls for fame and fortune,  things that he would never wanted to deal with. He'd never allowed all that "Black Album" to happen, and neither that damn "Load" thing. When Metallica lost their bass player, they also lost their soul."

---Lars Ulrich---

 

"I could just see them go, 'Oh my god! look at that guy!'.

The thing that struck them most was that while you see lead guitar playing, here you had a guy playing lead bass!   They thought that was great".

   ---Metallica's drum tech, Marrs, on the first time Jaymz and Lars saw Cliff play.---

 

"I remember this guy lit my couch on a fire a couple of times."

    ---James Hetfield---

 

"This guy with wild, wild red hair flying all over the place and a Rickenbacker and a real distinct bass style and I thought to myself, 'this guy is fuckin' wild!'"

   ---Kirk Hammett---

 

"We always miss Cliff, but he is kind of on the record. (...And Justice for all)  The song 'To live is to die' is really based on a number of riffs that Cliff wrote a couple of years ago.

It's kind of cool to have something written by Cliff in the new album."

   ---Lars Ulrich---

 

 

"People probably thought,

'Oh, they're not going to do the heavy lyrics now because of what happened.'  Man, those lyrics mean a lot more to me now."

   ---James Hetfield, after Cliff's death---

 

Myth:  Ostensibly Lars and James have always controlled the band on the surface.  But Cliff's musicianship meant that his influence on the songwriting of the band and the way it sounds is profound:  He controlled, as it were, from within.  And yes - without a doubt He was the most musicianly member that the band has ever had.  Much respect is due.

  ---Joel McIver, Justice For All: The Truth About Metallica---

 

EZ Street was named after a strip joint in San Mateo.

 

Cliff's favourite Metallica song was 'Master of Puppets'

 

Corrine Lynn was Cliff Burton's girlfriend for the last year of his life.

 

R.I.P Cliff, we miss you!

 

http://www.cliffinourminds.com

 

For Trauma related info visit

http://www.simulstream.com/cliff/

 

 

Agents of Misfortune related info on link below (I'm a bit sus on the date)

http://www.rotgrub.com/agents-of-misfortune.htm

 

 

footage of Cliff in 'Battle of the Bands' (again dates don't add up)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8Rq2c9BxIE

 

Height: 6ft  7

Dark Hair

rhythm gutiar 1986, 1992-3

John Marshall a friend of Kirk Hammett, ended up playing babysitter, tour manager, replacement guitarist, and guitar technician. John was the band's guitar tech when James broke his wrist in 1986.  John stepped up and filled in for James' guitar playing. He kept a low profile, despite his height, by playing behind one of the crosses on the Master of Puppets back drop, while Hetfield sang.  In 1993 John filled in again when James was burned by a pyro mishap.  John did 12 shows with Metallica in Europe.  John went on to play guitar for Metal Church and currently works for Mesa/Boogie.

He is classed as the fifth member of Metallica.  He has Diabetes.

Born:  March 3, 1963

Nickname:    Jase, Jasonic

Height:     5' 8" (1.73 m)

Spouse:    Judy Newsted (1988 - 1988) (divorced)

Metallisprouts:  1997 Kobie and Kaya two Rhodesian Ridgeback dogs

Parents: Bob and Jo Newsted

Siblings: 2 elder brothers, 1 sister

Shoes:   Vans for bikes, Jordans for Bass, Airwalk for flash

Comedy: alot of British stuff.. Fawlty Towers:  favourite episode 'Basil the Rat', Monty Python, The Young Ones, ..Kids In The Hall, In Living Colour, old SNL

What/Who makes me laugh: Steven Wright, Caddyshack humour - Bill Murray, Larry Miller

Sings Whiplash and backup on 'Outlaw Torn' in the chorus

Sports:  follows The Phoenix Suns, the Chicago Bulls in the NBA, and the Detroit Lions and the Raiders in the NFL.

Partner: Nicole Leigh Smith (painter) since 2003

 

Trivia

Ex-bassist of the heavy metal band Metallica.

 

He played with Flotsam and Jetsam from 1983 to 1986.

 

Replaced original Metallica bassist Cliff Burton in 1986 after Burton was tragically killed in a tour bus accident when Metallica's bus crashed while they were touring Europe.

 

Specialty: Making sure Metallica thumps harder than ever

Description: 5'9" & 150 lbs (1.75 meters & 68.04 kilos); brown/red hair & blue eyes

Marital status: Single

Drives: '94 Land Cruiser, IBIS Titanium, Cyclocross bike

Drinks: Bordeaux, Barolo, barbaresco wines. Evian, Metrx Shakes

Eats: Thai Curry, Frosted Flakes, Bananas, Ginseng

Sports teams: NBA: Phoenix Suns, Chicago Bulls; NFL: Detroit Lions, L.A. Raiders

Before Metallica: Paradox, Dogz (Flotsam and Jetsam)

Pre-Metallica career: Burger-flipper, pizza-maker, and truck-driver

Likes: Mountain biking, Elizabeth, Basketball

Listens to: Kiss, Black Sabbath, Tom Waits, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Machine Head, Sly and the Family Stone, Sepultura, Wes Montgomery, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Bob Marley, Johnny Cash, Jaco Pastorius, Motorhead, Tank, UFO, Nazareth, Iron Maiden, Ted Nugent, Anything and everything

First concert: Ted Nugent, 1975, South Bend, Indiana, Notre Dame University

Heroes: Gene Simmons, Al Pacino, B.B. King, my father, Zach Harmen, Bob Marley

Describes self as: Energetic, caring, goofy

Influences:  drawing from a *wide*, *diverse* number of artists including Geezer Butler, Geddy Lee, Chris Squire and Jaco Pastorius

Played basketball in his underwear

Baseball:  was an awesome catcher, backstop for FOP Tigers in Nites Michigan

 

Which song best describes you?  " 'Battery'  I really dig the lyrics, 'cannot kill the family'  and  'smashing through the boundaries'  Representing creativity, strength and longevity.  That's what it's always meant to me"   So What!  1997

 

First band 'Paradox' in 1982, played Scorpions and Priest covers with Jason as a singer and on bass.  Great singing 'Victim of Changes'   Then formed 'Dogz' in 1983 which became 'Flotsam & Jetsam in 1984.  "Jason's stayed the same old guy to everybody he's known, a funny guy who's an Andy Griffith Elvis fanatic with bad knees."  -Kelly Smith, drummer Flotsam & Jetsam 1995

 

"When I was 14, I was on a skateboard, and I was tweaking, and I was in pretty bad shape.  After shows it's very creaky.  I wear knee braces.  Other knee started on a skateboard too, then got redone by a BMX bike, and then just been weird."   Knee problems could also be from riding horses, hitting them with his knees instead of the spurs.

 

Brother Tim Newsted also thought Jason might become a PR because he was always mixing it up with all the adults in church during coffee hours, so outgoing, friendly and able to talk.  Jasons' brother Tim is his older brother, 4th grade Teacher.

 

Asked for bass guitar at 10yrs old, for his birthday, took lessons, didn't take, dropped interest in bass, got into horses.  Over 4yrs between bass, horses, bass.

 

Bassist Jason Newsted may not have been an original member of Metallica, but he was present for the band's rise from the metal underground to the top of the charts worldwide from the late-'80s up to the dawn of the 21st century. Born on March 4, 1963, as Jason Curtis Newsted in Battle Creek, MI, raised in the city of Niles, Newsted and his family relocated when he was 14 to Kalamazoo, MI. Went to school in Kalamazoo.  Shortly thereafter Newsted discovered rock music via Kiss and their blood-spurting, fire-breathing demon bassist, Gene Simmons. He soon discovered other popular metal bands of the day (Ted Nugent, Rush, Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult), all the while learning bass and playing in local bands. In 1981, Newsted and a friend left Michigan with hopes of making it to California to start up a band, but made it only as far as Phoenix, where they remained. Newsted formed a new band shortly thereafter, dubbed Dogz, which changed their name to Flotsam & Jetsam by 1983, specializing in a newly founded metal style -- thrash. It was also around this time that Newsted discovered the frontrunners of thrash, Metallica, quickly becoming his favorite band. Flotsam & Jetsam signed with the Metal Blade record company, appearing on an edition of the label's Metal Massacre compilation and recording a debut album, 1986's Doomsday for the Deceiver. All the while Newsted was the band's leader, serving as the main songwriter and lyricist in addition to his bass duties.

 

First gig with Metallica 8 November, 1986

 

Flotsam was quickly moving up the ladder when Metallica (who had just released their most successful album yet, the classic Master of Puppets release) suffered the tragic death of bassist Cliff Burton mid-tour in September of 1986. Metallica decided to soldier on and began auditioning bass players to fill the void left by Burton. Despite a promising future with Flotsam & Jetsam, Newsted opted to try out for Metallica and got the gig. Metallica picked up where their tour left off shortly after naming Newsted their new member and spent 1987 working on their highly anticipated follow-up to Master. Although 1988's epic prog-metal concept album And Justice for All was a major hit and broke Metallica to the big time, Newsted's bass was barely audible in the mix, while his songwriting talents were barely utilized at all (he earned a lone co-songwriting credit with the album-opener, "Blackened"). By the release of 1991's self-titled release, Metallica had become one of the world's most popular rock bands -- a more straightforward musical approach and embracement of music videos had paid off, as the album would eventually sell over ten million copies in the U.S. alone. After a mammoth two-year tour in support of the album had ground to a halt in 1993, the members took time off.

 

It wasn't until 1996 that the quartet would issue their next studio album, Load, but the group took some heat from longtime fans due to their new look (short hair, designer threads) and a more varied musical style that embraced other forms besides metal. But Load was another sizeable hit, as was its follow-up a year later, Reload. 1998 saw a compilation of cover tunes from over the years, Garage Inc., while 1999's symphonic metal experiment, S&M, was well received. Newsted had also found time to guest on other artist's recordings (Voivod's Phobos, Jim Martin's Milk & Blood, U.N.K.L.E.'s Psyence Fiction, and Sepultura's Against) and was set to launch a side-project titled Echo Brain in 2000, which appeared to cause some strife within Metallica -- confirmed by a tell-all interview by all four bandmembers in Playboy magazine in early 2001. Around the same time the aforementioned Playboy interview hit the stands, Newsted abruptly left Metallica, offering the statement, "Due to private and personal reasons, and the physical damage I've done to myself over the years while playing the music I love, I must step away from the band." ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide

 

(January 2001) Officially leaves Metallica after being in the band for 14 years

 

Joins Canadian metal group Voivod as their permanent bassist, gets a new moniker from the band ("Jasonic") and makes his debut on their 13th studio album "The Multiverse" due to be released on 4 March 2003 (Jason's 40th Birthday). [October 9, 2002]

 

On March 17, 2003, he was showcased as the newest member of Ozzy Osbourne's band. However, he remains with the legendary metal act Voivod and appeared on their self-titled 2003 album as well as their latest album due out in 2005. His relationship as friend and part time collaborator goes back almost 20 years and he has contributed to their music before, notably on the song "M-Body" for the album Phobos.

 

Starts on record Label Chophouse Records

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Personal quotes

"Yes, we sell out...every seat in the house."

 

Travelling, meeting so many people, performing, apart from being a part of Metallica are only a part of Jasons' dreams being fullfilled musically, still wants/has tons of noises and mixtures of musicians that He would like to get on tape and/or jam with before His dreams are fullfilled.   So What!  6:2

 

Side Projects:     1977  Diamond                                                        Bass/Guitar/Vox

                          1980  Gangster                                                        Bass/Vox

                          1986  Maxwell Ranch House Bands                         Bass/Drums

                          1986  Mike                                                              Drums/Vox

                          1989  Avoid                                                             Bass/Vox

                          1992  Sepultallica                                                     Bass/Box

                          1992  Kopper Biskits                                               Bass/Vox/Guitar

                          1993  Long Ass Johnny and The Fabulousy - Tones  Bass/Vox/Guitar

                          1993  Voodoo Children                                            Bass/Vox

                          1993  Groovestang                                                   Bass

                          1994  Pale                                                                Bass/Vox

                          1994  Judas                                                              Bass/Vox

                          1994  Fatso                                                              Bass/ Vox

                          1994  Dregnet                                                          Bass/Vox

 

 

 

http://www.flotsam-and-jetsam.com

 

 

http://www.voivod.net

Born: April 19, 1954
From: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Canadian musician, sound engineer, and record producer, plays bass guitar/guitar
Eats: Tofu Burgers
Pre-music: Did a recovering class at night while working on site in Construction during the day.
Children: 7, Mick, Asia, Carly, Jonathon, Mandy, Lucy and Melody

Born Robert Jens Rock, Rock began his career in Victoria, British Columbia as a guitarist playing with friends William Alexander and Paul Hyde in Williams household basement. After high-school graduation Rock left Victoria and become the co-founder of the Payolas.   Bob has two sisters, and it was his big sister Susan that helped him get into the musical thing, she loved The Beatles.  The Payolas became well known for their '80s hit, "Eyes of a Stranger" which was played in the movie Valley Girl starring Nicolas Cage. In 1983, the Payolas won the Juno Award for Single of the year. He also worked as a gopher at Little Mountain studios in Vancouver. In the mid-1980s, he had a side project with Payolas lead singer Paul Hyde, called Rock & Hyde, which had a hit single in Canada with the song "Dirty Water."

Formed a Humble Pre-style blues band called 'The Paul Kane Band' after a native American Indian of the same name.  Mostly played blues covers,  "...and here's the funny thing - back then I remember not liking Black Sabbath becasue I was a musical snob right?!  Because it was too simple!  Our banc wouldn't play Sabbath because it was too, haha, simple"  Bob Rock talking to Steffan Chirazi So What! V2 No.13

Bruce Fairbairn asked Bob to work with him on an album by a Canadian band called Prism.  Working with Fairbairn during the day, punk bands at night, The Payolas at night and weekends.

The Payolas, a punk band, first single was 'China Boy' under their lable 'Slophouse Records' pressed up 1,000 of these and sold them in a week.  We got a deal with A&M and still only had two songs.  Every punk band in Vancouver then wanted Bob to record them.  They thought Bob was a producer.  From floor-sweeper to producer!  So Bob probuced The Subhumans, K-Tels (had to change their names to the The Young Canadians), The Modernettes, The Pointed Sticks, The San Francisco Dills, The San Francisco Avengers.  Went on tour with The Payolas on those 'San Franciso to Vancouver in a van' punk tours, when Bob got back went back to working at Little Mountain Studios.

Bob Rock is best known for giving bands such as Metallica and Mötley Crüe a more elaborate record production. He has also worked with Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Cher, The Cult, David Lee Roth, Skid Row, Veruca Salt, Nina Gordon, Our Lady Peace, The Tragically Hip, Lostprophets, American Hi-Fi and Simple Plan.
Rock briefly returned to performing music in 1993, forming the band Rockhead with ex-Payola$ drummer Chris Taylor. The band released one self-titled album and two singles, but split up shortly afterwards. He is currently producing and working with The Offspring on their next album. 

The Payola$ released a new EP in July 2007, and Bob is working with the band on a full LP for the fall of 2007 and a tour in early 2008.

Bob Rock produced Metallica's multiplatinum self-titled album (known as The Black Album) in 1991 and subsequent followups Load (1996), ReLoad (1997), Garage Inc. (1998) and S&M (1999). Metallica once again tapped Rock to produce their 2003 album St. Anger. Because the band had no bassist due to the departure of Jason Newsted, Rock played bass guitar on the album. Fans criticized the production, resulting in thousands signing an online petition. In February, 2006, Metallica chose producer Rick Rubin to produce their next album, ending the group's long-time relationship with Rock.

Rock's career both as a producer and musician is being recognized at the 2007 Juno Award Ceremony (Canadian Grammys) for his lifetime contribution to popular music. Rock will be inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS). "Bob is a musical craftsman whose wide range of talents show no signs of slowing," says Melanie Berry, CARAS President. "He has helped to define rock as we know it today, and we are very proud to recognize him in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame."

Rock has confirmed his acceptance of the award. "It is an honour to join great producers like Bob Ezrin, Bruce Fairbairn, Daniel Lanois, Jack Richardson, and David Foster in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame," says Rock. "They are all giants of the industry, and to be recognized, means that I had to have worked with truly great artists. I thank them for their confidence and inspiration."

Bob Rock has been nominated for Juno Awards 17 times in various categories ranging from Producer of the Year, Recording Engineer of the Year, Composer of the Year, and Entertainer of the Year. He has won on numerous occasions for both his production work and his work in bands such as the Payola$ and Rock and Hyde. Rock last won Producer of the Year in 2005 for Simple Plan's "Welcome to my Life". He has been nominated for 2007 Producer of the Year for his work on The Tragically Hip's album "World Container".

Bob's son Mick was born in 1980 to his first wife.   One of Bob's wives was a woman named Angie.

Produced Bon Jovi's  'Slippery When Wet', (intro to 'Living on a Prayer is Bobs), Aerosmith's 'Permanent Vacation', Motley Crue's 'Dr. Feelgood', The Cult's 'Kingdom Come',  Loverboy's 'Turn Me Loose' 

Bob went to a Metallica concert where The Cult was opening for them, this is when Bob first saw/heard metallica.

Bob helped James Hetfield to open up yet further.  Bob encouraged the way the studio was set-up during ReLoad, James in one room, Jason in another, and Lars in another.  Bob was a communication hub, producer, and mixer. 

Metallica are known procrastinators  -Bob Rock So What!

 

 

Metallica Girlfriends/Wives

http://www.freewebs.com/themetallicalounge/factorrumour.htm