Former METALLICA bassist Jason Newsted recently spoke with Knotfest.com and spoke about how he always wore the band’s t-shirts while performing live. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I believed in myself and I believed in my band… I would do whatever I could, what was within my power, to promote and forward our success. I would sacrifice myself in any manner asked; there were no limits. I would do whatever it took, what I could possibly do, in my limited knowledge and experience, to play my role to the best of my ability to make us successful. Flying the colors made me — as [American singer-songwriter] Jason Isbell says — ‘black metal t-shirt my shield.’ It was. And it always was. And it was the name of my fucking band across the front. And guess what? There is no bigger one. So I pridefully wear this — I fly my colors more pridefully than any Hell’s Angel or whatever through all of time.”
He continued: “And one little side note that goes along with doing what I can for the cause. If you go back and you talk to the guy after the show that comes to tell Lars [Ulrich, METALLICA drummer] about the dough… He says, ‘By the way, Jay, you know the ‘executioner’ shirt you’ve been wearing the last three days? It’s outsold everything else by 40 percent. So take that with you, okay?’ And everybody gets that money — manager, crew guy, band guy. Everybody shares in that money. There you go, bro.”
Newsted’s departure from METALLICA was documented in the band’s 2004 documentary, “Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster”.