Jason Newsted has shared in a new interview his initial thoughts about “Enter Sandman” when looking back on Metallica’s classic 1991 self-titled album.
When asked by Metal Hammer if there were any tracks in particular from “The Black Album” that really stood out during recording, he responded, “I’m going to go back to ‘Sad But True,’ because that’s my highlight of the whole project, because of the weight. I struggled with ‘Nothing Else Matters.’ I knew it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up – it was undeniable – but I was kinda scared of it, to be honest, because I still wanted ‘CRUNCH!’. ‘[Enter] Sandman’ I thought was kinda corny, honestly. The beautiful thing was that we all sat in the room together and played it out; 70 takes of ‘Nothing Else Matters.’ After a while, you’re too close to it. ‘How much more delicate can I make it?’”
He would add, “It’s crazy I’ve just realized this. Our softest song ever took down the biggest walls to allow our hardest songs ever to penetrate the world. When it was No. 1 in 35 countries in one week, and seven of those countries we hadn’t even been to yet? Dude, that doesn’t happen to a band who go ‘Die! Die!’ most of the time.”
Interestingly enough, Newsted isn’t the only one who didn’t take to “Enter Sandman” right away. Back in March 2020, producer Bob Rock said in an interview with GibsonTV, “I remember Lars [Ulrich] saying, ‘Well, Sandman is the single.’ And I’m going, ‘What?’ To me it was like, I didn’t get it yet…Because all the lyrics weren’t there. I was thinking ‘Holier Than Thou, ‘only because that kind of energy was up-tempo and that kind of works for me. What do I know? It ended up being Sandman, obviously a good choice.”
