Jason Newsted , former bassist of Metallica , reflected on the watershed moment in 1996 when his bandmates decided to cut their hair and presented a theory that they copied something he himself had done in 1992 and that helped him in many ways.
In an appearance on The Metal Hammer Podcast , Newsted, who left Metallica in 2001, explained that he was living a completely different life from his bandmates, all because of his short haircut.
“You know what’s really funny? When we started traveling to more countries, and when the borders started getting a little complicated, and all those guys still had their messy hair and I had short hair, and sometimes [it was] just really cool, like [I was] a cop or something. I’d go straight through customs, man (…) And those guys would get stopped every time.”
Jason also revealed that his colleagues were inspired not only by his haircut, but also by his beard style: “I used to style my beard, [with] clean sides, I did that for a while, and then James [ Hetfield ] slowly picked it up, and then Kirk [ Hammett ] slowly picked it up too, the three of us had that in common.”
Listen to the full episode by clicking here.
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