Which track on Metallica’s The Black Album began as bassist Jason Newsted’s instrumental idea?

“My Friend of Misery” began as bassist Jason Newsted’s instrumental idea on Metallica’s The Black Album.

Newsted wrote the main riff and initially intended the piece to remain instrumental. That plan connected with a tradition in Metallica’s earlier albums, each of which had included an instrumental track. During the Black Album sessions, however, the band developed the idea into a vocal song instead of preserving it as a purely instrumental composition.

The finished track is credited to Newsted, James Hetfield, and Lars Ulrich. Hetfield wrote the lyrics, while the arrangement became one of the album’s darker and more reflective moments. It appears near the end of the original ten-track sequence, between “The Struggle Within” and “The God That Failed” in the album’s broader recording context.

Newsted’s songwriting role is sometimes understated because Hetfield and Ulrich wrote most of the album’s material. “My Friend of Misery” is the clearest Black Album example of a song developing from an idea supplied by another band member, and it shows how the bassist’s contribution shaped the finished record.