ROBERT TRUJILLO On His Place In METALLICA: 'My Role Is Always To Support What's Needed For The Team'

During an appearance on a recent episode of the "One Life One Chance With Toby Morse" podcast, METALLICA bassist Robert Trujillo, who joined the band in 2003 but only got a chance to write and record with them for the first time on the 2008 album "Death Magnetic", spoke about how involvement in the group's creative process. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "As writers, and you come into a new situation, you don't know if you're gonna be a writer. And I was a writer — a hundred percent — in my other situations. And even [when I was playing] with Ozzy [Osbourne], I was getting into some serious writing before I left. So that's always been important to me. But at the same time, it's, like. I'm joining METALLICA. And these guys write amazing songs, and I'm just not gonna suddenly insert myself into that.

"I like to keep people happy and comfortable, and my role is always to support what's needed for the team," he explained. "So if I'm writing a song with the guys, contributing that way… We're always contributing. Whether you see the name on the song or not, we're always… I'm in the room every time we're working on music, I'm in the room — I'm there with Lars [Ulrich, METALLICA drummer] and James [Hetfield, METALLICA guitarist/vocalist], a hundred percent. And there are times where it's, like, I've got some cool ideas, and James is always receptive. That's the one thing. It's, like, if you listen to the middle section of 'You Must Burn!' on the new record ['72 Seasons'], that's James and I actually jamming in the tuning room and then it becomes a part of this particular song. So a lot of what we do kind of happens from actually jamming. Someone will come and come up with a riff and bring it in. James is, like… I mean, he picks up a guitar to turn a tuning peg and he comes up with an insane riff. There's guys like that. So, I like to make sure that as long as the river is flowing the right way, that's the most important thing."

Robert went on to discuss the importance of getting along with his bandmates and the role interpersonal relationships play in a group situation.

"How do you cater to the personalities?" he said. "You're gonna live with these people. You've gotta respect that and respect people, and when you're in each other's space, you've gotta respect each other. And you've gotta help lift people. And all that kind of stuff plays into it.

"There's a million incredible players," Trujillo added. "Yeah, guys have a certain feel that are better for the band and whatnot, but at the same time, there's still that kind of bond and that trust and that connection you have to have with each other so that you're helping each other through life. It's like a life thing. You all work together, and the weak links, man, they get cut real quick. That's the one thing about our team — everybody gets along. You're there for the right reasons and you trust everybody. And that's what happens, and that's the way it's supposed to be."

In a 2016 interview with Germany's Rock Antenne, Trujillo was asked how much input he had on METALLICA's then-latest album, "Hardwired…To Self-Destruct". "Actually, a lot," he said. "A hell of a lot. What we do is even though when you read, a lot of people like to read credits and obviously on 'Hardwired' compared to 'Death Magnetic', there's writing credits that are really centered around Lars and James. The truth is that we jam. Even though the original riff, or the idea comes from Hetfield on this album, these are all great Hetfield riffs. You don't see the riffs from Kirk [Hammett] or myself as much as you would have on the previous record. I'm there every day jamming and I'm writing my bass parts. I'm playing my parts as bass parts. What determines a songwriter's [credit], you have to ask Lars. [Laughs] That's okay.

"I always say my role in METALLICA is to support the song and to support my team and whatever that means, I'm there for it," he explained. "I'm like Joe Walsh with THE EAGLES. Joe Walsh with THE EAGLES was a songwriter, he did a lot of great things, but when it came to THE EAGLES, he was there to play guitar, he was there to sing, he was there to do whatever he needed to do. If he had to write sections, he did.

"Songwriting credits… it's not a big deal," Robert added. "I think what the bigger deal is like how the songs develop and my role in supporting Lars and James with a song, whether the idea comes from Kirk or James or me, or whatever, it doesn't matter. What matters is, does the song sound great when it's finished?"

Trujillo, who was born on October 23, 1964 in Santa Monica, California, tasted success as the bassist in SUICIDAL TENDENCIES and Ozzy Osbourne's band. But in 2003, he successfully auditioned to replace Jason Newsted in METALLICA, a process chronicled in the warts-and-all documentary "Some Kind of Monster".

METALLICA's much-loved former bassist Cliff Burton died in 1986 when the band's tour bus crashed travelling through Sweden on the "Damage Inc. Tour" in support of "Master Of Puppets".

Back in 2021, Trujillo humorously revealed in an interview that before he signed on as the bass player for METALLICA, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES would gobble up METALLICA's leftover dinners whenever they could during a joint 1993 tour. And even though the METALLICA members respected Trujillo's playing with SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, Hetfield admitted that when Robert's name came up during bassist auditions, he thought, "there's no way he's going to join us. He's too amazing, he's too spectacular."

Photo credit: Ross Halfin