Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction?’ is back with a new season of episodes! Every Wednesday, we’ll have a new Wiki segment for you, starting today (Aug. 2) with Metallica legend Jason Newsted!

At Newsted’s ‘RAWK’ art exhibition in New York City, we sat down with the iconic bassist to prove and disprove what’s written about him on Wikipedia. Newsted actually started playing guitar instead of bass, writing religious songs on an acoustic axe before even knowing how to tune the thing. Newsted. shares how his first bass was actually a six-string with two tuning knobs snapped off and how his father still keeps the instrument in Jason’s childhood room.

Turns out there is some truth to Metallica’s famous wasabi initiation story. Just 11 days into his role as Metallica’s bassist, Newsted was tricked by Kirk Hammett into eating “mint ice cream” while eating dinner in Japan. Already wasted, Jason ate a massive glob of wasabi, burning his mouth to hell. As Newsted describes, Metallica then abandoned the bassist, making Jason think he was stuck paying the massive bill.

Newsted corrected some fiction when we brought up a Wikipedia entry about Black Album producer Bob Rock. Wikipedia states Rock altered Metallica’s working schedule and routine so much that the band swore never to record with him again, but Newsted emphatically rejected the report. “I remember being so happy about the result that we wouldn’t work with anybody else except for him,” Newsted says. “We were very proud of finally getting him into our camp … [The Black Album] sells four thousand, five thousand copies a week still, guys!”

Watch the Jason Newsted episode of ‘Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction?’ above and check out more Wiki segments below!

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