First, they went to look for a bassist, to replace their friend Cliff Burton who tragically passed away in 1986. They remembered that they already had one, Jason Newsted. James Hetfield asked “Hey man, where the hell have you been?". Jason, the bassist, replied “uh, you guys were totally abusing me and not letting me play. And when you did, you turned the bass real low, to make it seem I wasn’t even there”. "Oh yeah!" James remembered.