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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.
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I ended up playing "Battery," a song I kind of knew. I played "Sad But True," "Whiplash," "For Whom the Bell Tolls." Funny thing is, it's a two-day audition. And the first day was just hanging around, a fly-on-the-wall thing. They don't tell you what they're gonna be doing. They don't tell you a film crew is going to be there, and they're making a documentary [2004's Some Kind of Monster]. They don't tell you until 20 minutes before — "You're OK with that, right?" It's funny. Prior to that, I was always trying to hide from the cameras Ozzy had following him around for his TV show. This was obviously going to be different.
You joined at a tumultuous time.
It was intense. I had to learn the catalog of music, 22 years of
music. And I had to learn the St. Anger album. "We've
never played this material as a band, but you've gotta learn it.
And your first gig is going to be at San Quentin State
Penitentiary." [Metallica filmed a video for St. Anger
there.] It was almost like I lived at the studio then. The guys
would leave at 11 PM, and I would be there until two or three in
the morning, just trying to do the best I could.
It's like you're caught inside a massive set of waves. You get thrown, you're down under, and you come back up again and get thrown around some more. Now I feel I've come out and seen the light of Metallica. I feel more comfortable with the catalog. But I also feel more comfortable with the guys. We've grown together, connecting on tours past, knowing how each personality clicks. You gotta know how to balance each person, because they're so different.
You also joined the band at a time when the maturity
thing hit.
We absolutely cherish our kids. But the fact that we all have them
— it's definitely created an additional bond. It's not just
Metallica — it's our families. And we also have
Metallica.
Isn't there an irony in that Metallica now books tours
around the first day of school, then goes out and sings "Seek and
Destroy?"
It's pretty funny. But that's our reality now.