Jason Newsted Recalls ‘Initiation’ Pranks After Joining Metallica

When Jason Newsted first joined Metallica in 1986, he was initiated with the kind of pranks that would get posted to YouTube today.

The bassist says he was out to dinner with the band and doing some “hard drinking” when Kirk Hammett tossed him a glob of wasabi and told him it was “mint ice cream”.

After getting a mouthful of scorching hot wasabi, Newsted was subjected to Prank #2 – the rest of the band ditching the table while he got stuck with a massive bill, despite the fact that “I was making $500 a week”.

Metallica’s current bass player, Robert Trujillo, got a much warmer welcome in 2001 – he was famously given a million dollars upfront, as captured in the documentary Some Kind of Monster.

Who’s your favorite Metallica bass player?  Why did Newsted get a harsher welcome than Trujillo?