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You joined Metallica in February, 2003. How much did you know about the dynamics within the band at the time?
They were in the middle of a bunch of transitional things. They were recording the album [St. Anger], still doing tracking and mixing, and also trying to find a new bass player. I received a phone call. I was in Tahiti on vacation. I checked my voice mail, and I had Lars and Kirk on there. Lars was in the background: "Join our band!" They were probably out on the town, having a few cocktails, calling all the bass players on their list.

Do you know how you got on that list?
I'm not 100 percent sure. I think it was a combination of things. One was I toured with Metallica, with Suicidal Tendencies. That's where I originally met everybody. And less than a year prior to me receiving the call, a mutual friend of Kirk's called and said, "Kirk and I are coming down with some friends. Can you show us some surf spots around L.A.?" I thought that was neat: that Kirk, the vampire I knew, the nocturnal man, was ready to explore daylight and surfing in Southern California. He was in an RV with three friends. We spent a weekend hitting different spots.

The whole thing, at least from what I understand, was they each had people they wanted to bring into the auditions. I became Kirk's guy. From my understanding, Lars wasn't aware of much that I had done. [In addition to playing with Suicidal Tendencies, Trujillo toured and recorded with Ozzy Osbourne and worked with Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell.] I don't know where James' head was at.

What was the audition like?
This was 2002, somewhere around December. I was going to San Francisco for a birthday party. They got word I was going to be in town: "Well, come on over to the studio, we'll hang out." We're talking zero time to learn songs. I'm going north to play with the coolest band in rock, and I don't have time to do anything. I did the best I could. I pulled a few songs together, not knowing what they were going to play.