Echobrain - Brian Sagrafena, Dylan Donkin, Jason Newsted
The period following the release of S
& M was to be a stark contradiction to the relatively trouble-free time
Metallica had had riding the wave of their success. Jason Newsted formally
announced his departure from Metallica on January 17th 2001. In an
interview with Playboy Magazine, Newsted stated his reasons for leaving as:
“private and personal reasons, and the physical damage I have done to myself
over the years while playing the music that I love.” At this stage Newsted was
heavily involved with his side project Echobrain and was on the verge of
releasing an album. Patriarch of Metallica, James Hetfield, was sided against
the idea saying; “When someone does a side project, it takes away from the
strength of Metallica" and a side project is "like cheating on your
wife in a way". Hetfield made a compelling argument by posing questions
such as, "Where would it end? Does he start touring with it? Does he sell
shirts? Is it his band?”. The tiff between Hetfield and Newsted had started
back in 1987 when Newsted joined the band to replace the late, great bassist
Cliff Burton and the Echobrain project seemed to have poured fuel on the fire
