It was heavy metal's equivalent of the 1990s Leno/Letterman late-night wars: in February 2003, Metallica announced that its new bass player was Robert Trujillo, formerly of Suicidal Tendencies and Ozzy Osbourne's band.
Less than a month later, at a press event at 3rd Encore Studios in North Hollywood, Osbourne introduced the world to his new bassist: Jason Newsted, Metallica's anchor from 1986 until he left the band in 2001.
The event wasn't a huge media circus as one might expect, considering Ozzy's rekindled mega-stardom from his bizarre MTV reality show The Osbournes. Instead, a couple of dozen writers and photographers were invited to hear the new lineup play an intimate four-song set in a modest rehearsal studio.
Bass Player joined earplugged journalists from MTV News, CNN, ABC News, and a handful of local music zines as the band ploughed through the tunes with head-vibrating sound pressure levels.
During breaks Ozzy entertained the subdued, seated gathering with his familiar profanity-laced witticisms. Meanwhile, Newsted wallowed in metal's equivalent of hog heaven. He bantered with drummer Mike Bordin and guitarist Zakk Wylde, and armed with a Sadowsky Modern 5 plugged into a rented SVT backline, held it down as if in mid-tour form.
“I'm levitating,” he said during a post-set Q&A. “When I got this call I was flabbergasted. I was thinking, ‘This is not real.’”
Though Newsted was still brand-new to the band, Ozzy was excited after the energetic set. “I'm thrilled," he raved. “Jason is like a rock. I've always loved his bass playing, and I think he'd be a great asset to any band. Not that Robert Trujillo is a bad bass player, but Jason just has this edge.”
So was it Ozzy's idea to approach Newsted? “Actually, my son Jack was the first to mention it,” he said, referring to the Osbourne’s then resident teen slacker. "He mentioned it to Sharon, and a lightbulb went ping. You've got to pass the torch on; if you don't it's going to die, man.
“When new blood comes along it always makes me feel like I have a new band – and when I played with Jason for the first time, I knew he was the one for me. I'm all for progress, and to have Jason onboard is my honor.”
“Jason's coming from a different kind of music," said drummer Mike Bordin, "and he seems more of a push than a pull. With Ozzy I try to lay back and create a Black Sabbath-style groove that just gets there when it gets there. But I think in the super-aggressive music that Jason's been playing for the last 15 years, he's used to really going after it. To be sure, we end up in the same place.
“But it's like a baseball player using a different glove: you can do a great job with it – but it hasn't been your glove for the last 15 or 20 years, so there's an adjustment. The glove adjusts to you, and you adjust to the glove.
“As Ozzy has said, Jason adds a new energy. It's like trading Derek Jeter for Nomar Garciaparra – nobody loses. It's a huge blessing.”
