“My Friend of Misery” was originally intended to be an instrumental, and Jason Newsted wrote its main riff.
Newsted had joined Metallica after the death of bassist Cliff Burton and contributed ideas to the band's fifth album. For The Black Album, he wrote the principal riff for “My Friend of Misery,” which was initially planned as the instrumental track traditionally associated with each of Metallica's first four studio albums.
The band ultimately developed the piece into a vocal song. James Hetfield wrote the lyrics, while Lars Ulrich and Newsted are credited with the composition. The finished track appears as the eleventh song on the standard album, immediately before “The Struggle Within.”
The song is sometimes overlooked because it was not one of the five commercial singles. Its origin is nevertheless important to the album's songwriting history: it shows Newsted contributing more than performance ideas and connects the record to Metallica's earlier practice of including an instrumental. “My Friend of Misery” therefore has a distinct place in the album's evolution.