METALLICA Bassist On ZAKK WYLDE's Health, OZZY's Driving Skills

KNCN's (C-101) Monte Montana conducted an interview with METALLICA bassist Robert Trujillo when the band played a sold-out show in San Antonio, Texas on September 28, 2009. You can now listen to the chat in two parts below. A couple of excerpts from the interview follow.

On Zakk Wylde's current health status (Trujillo played with Zakk in both Ozzy Osbourne's band and BLACK LABEL SOCIETY):

"I think he is doing a lot better. The last I heard, he hasn't had a drink in over a month, which is absolutely incredible for him, because this guy, if you don't know him, he's a drinking a machine and can be dangerous [laughs] if you catch him at the wrong time, or the right time. But Zakk has a heart of gold; he's really a special human being. He's very giving. And we all hope that his health gets better and that he gets it right, 'cause he is a good person. We all make mistakes and sometimes we make mistakes because of the drinking. I'm sure he's hopefully learning from that. When alcohol or drugs start taking over your health and your family and all that, that's crazy. But again, Zakk's a wonderful person; I love him dearly. He's an amazing musician, and I don't just mean guitar player. The man can play piano, he can sing, he's a got a lot of soul and he's a good spirit."

On Ozzy Osbourne recently passing his driving test:

"Ozzy, he wasn't driving legally, but Ozzy knows how to drive. But I wouldn't trust him if my life depended on it, especially in a city like San Antonio or any major city. He can drive. He's a sneaky guy and he's actually very coordinated. People don't think Ozzy's coordinated, but if you've ever seen him on stage and you've seen someone throw a bra at him or a crucifix or something, and that hand pops up and — SNAG! — and he catches it. He's got good motor skills, believe it or not. I don't think anyone will believe me on that one, but I've seen it in person. If I were to have a baseball team and I needed Ozzy as my clean-up hitter, I think I'd trust him on that; he'd hit a couple of home runs."

METALLICA has launched an iPhone application that "creates a streaming interface to your LiveMetallica account," meaning that any live show fans have downloaded from the site will automatically stream to their iPhones once they launch the app, which costs 99 cents. Fans just have to purchase the app at the iPhone store and log onto their account at LiveMetallica.com to access every gig they've downloaded, as well as a free stream of the band's latest concert. More developments and features are also on the way.

METALLICA has added single-song downloads to the LiveMetallica.com web site. Instead of buying only entire concerts, fans can pick whatever individual songs they want from any concert they choose from. Every song that the band has recorded in concert since 2004, covering a span of 269 shows, is available for 99 cents per MP3. Full shows are still $9.95 as MP3 files and $12.95 as higher-quality FLAC files.

Frontman James Hetfield told The Pulse of Radio about deciding to release individual songs, "Yeah, I think the song-per-song vs. album is kind of a long lost battle, I think. You know, people in the fast-food world we live in want what they want, and want it now, and when they're done with it, they're done with it. So yeah, it's about time, and I think it's the right move."

LiveMetallica.com was launched in March 2004 and makes downloads available for purchase of every show the band has played since then, often within hours of the gig's finale.

More than 300,000 downloads have been purchased at the site since its launch.

The "Vault" section of the site offers free downloads of shows recorded before 2004.

More shows will crop up at the site in upcoming weeks, since METALLICA just launched a new North American tour last month. The band has dates booked through mid-December.

Part 1:

Part 2: