A huge part of Metallica's success through the years was Jason Newsted. For 15 years Jason served as the bands bassist taking over in 1986 from Cliff Burton. While Jason was never quite the player Cliff was, he certainly could hold his own. A fan of the band before he started playing on stage, Jason always seemed to be one of us. He was the guy that was rocking out, but unfortunately he never seemed to fit right. He didn't have an ego and in the end, he left the band. Was it because of his lack of involvement in the development of the band or the fact that he was just that good and couldn't be held back any longer? At any rate, he's off on his own continuing to rock.
