For most of their career, Metallica had a strict intra-band policy about their members not having any side projects. As evidenced by guitarist Kirk Hammett's debut solo EP that he just released last week, which marked the first-ever side project by a Metallica member, that decree isn't as strongly enforced as it once was. However, former 'Tallica bassist Jason Newsted has revealed that during his early years in the band, he was once chastised by his bandmates when they discovered he had recorded a one-off demo with a then-budding musician named Devin Townsend.
In a recent cover story for Metal Hammer, which is just being published this week even though the interview took place in 2021, Newsted opens up about finding out the hard way that Metallica had a no-tolerance policy for their members collaborating with outside musicians.
The incident went down in 1994, shortly after Newsted had finished building out his personal studio, The Big Rigour Chophouse, and decided to record a six-song demo under the name IR8 (pronounced "irate") with the young Townsend, who'd later go on to become a progressive metal icon for his work in Strapping Young Lad, the Devin Townsend Project and as a coveted producer.
"I had just established the Chophouse in '92 and by '94 we had all the gear," Newsted said. "Devin came down at the age of about 22 and was an absolute fucking maniac ... dude, an hour-and-a-half of sleep a day for a whole week! And every time he would pick up a guitar you get, 'Widdle widdle widdle' and you're like, 'Dude, where in the hell did that come from?! Now play it backwards!'"
"It was the first real project we took time to track in the Chophouse," he continued. "It's just drum and bass, Devin doing some mad guitar solo over the top, I go in and scream the vocal — done. Raw production, but an incredible accomplishment, because I always wanted my own studio."
However, despite how great Newsted felt about it at the time, the collaboration quickly came to an end once his Metallica bandmates became aware that he was writing material outside of the group.
"The guys got wind of it, and Lars said, 'You gotta come up to the house.' I didn't really know what it was for, so I take my bass and go up there: 'What's up, guys?' 'Dude, you know you're in Metallica now, don't you? You can't just be making music and sending out tapes to whatever fucker with whichever fucker. You do understand that, right?' 'Oh!'
"I didn't realize at all! I didn't know about the politics; I was just sharing some metal with my friends! I pretty much broke down on that day in front of Lars and James. I was like, 'I'm sorry, it won't happen again!' And that was the first time."
As Newsted puts it, that was the first moment of tension that would eventually snowball and lead to his exit from the band in 2001. At another point in Newsted's interview, he said that he always thought "Enter Sandman" was "kinda corny" and shared which song on the "Black Album" he liked best. The man's no longer holding back.
