Jason Curtis Newsted
Jason
was born in 
Battle
Creek, USA in 1963. In the time after Cliff's death, the rest of the band didn't
like the idea of making any more music, but when they had got enough time to
think, they desided to go on. Then there was this audition, and Jason was
Cliff's replacement! He had good competitors with him; Troy Gregory, Willy Lange
and Les Claypool amongst 40 others....
Jason
was born in Battle Creek in Michigan, and raised in Niles. When Jason 
was 14,
his family moved to Kalamazoo. (Michigan).
He started to play bass, because his idol was Kiss' Gene Simmons (Bass 'n' vox). He a kinda liked the little speed thing, and that can be traced back to when he played on his father's piano, because he played much faster than normal.
After
just 3 months at High school, Jason quited and joined a local band called
Gangster. (Jason don't recommend anyone to quit school!). The guitar player in
Gangster, Tim Hamlin, became a sort of mentor to Jason.
In 1981, Jason and Hamlin left, and moved to CA. They drifted longer and longer apart, and finally left each other. Then Jason then met the drummer Kelly David-Smith. For a short period, Jason and David-Smith jammed with the band Paradox, but it gave too little money, so they quitted. Jason and David-Smith moved in to a house and met the guitarist Mark Vasquez and Kevin Horton. They started a band that they called Dogz. Horton was soon replaced by Ed Carlson. They had a few gigs and made some demos in that time.
In
1983 vocalist Erik AK joined and short time after they switched name into
Flotasam & Jetsam. Flotsam & Jetsam signed a deal with Metallica's
forthcoming company, Metal Blade. They released one album with Jason on the
line-up called Doomsday for the deciever. They also released one album with
Jason as writer.
Jason info;
#His favourite movies is Scarface, Apocalypse Now!, Good Fellas and The Jerk
#The first gig he was on was with Ted Nugent in 1975. This was in South Bend, Indiana, Notre Dame University.
#His first gig with Metallica was November 8, 1986, Resoda, CA.
To be continued....
