ROBERT TRUJILLO Reflects On His First Gigs With METALLICA: 'My Head Was Swimming With The Pressure'

In May 2003, METALLICA played four special concerts for Met Club members only at The Fillmore in San Francisco, California. The performances were in support of METALLICA's "St. Anger" album, which arrived a couple of weeks later, and introduced new bass player Robert Trujillo to fans before the band went out on tour.

In a new interview with 107.7 The Bone's Nikki Blakk, Trujillo reflected on his first gigs with METALLICA. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "What I remember most about that in 2003 was not knowing what the setlist was gonna be each night. It was like really sort of loose. And I don't know if that was on purpose or we were so overwhelmed or Lars [Ulrich, METALLICA drummer, who is in charge of putting together the setlist] was so overwhelmed, he couldn't tell me exactly what we were gonna play. So I was learning songs like 'Phantom Lord' on the spot. And they hadn't played 'Phantom Lord' in a very long time. So there was just all this energy around me and my head was sort of swimming with the pressure of the show, the pressure of being the new bass player, but also the pressure of having to put together a song earlier in the afternoon the day that we would be playing it."

He continued: "METALLICA songs are challenging, but then, I believe around that same time we were playing [at the legendary] San Quentin [prison]. So there's just a lot of stuff going on all at once. And it was kind of, like, 'Welcome to your new existence.' You've just gotta kind of learn, adapt and do your best, and that's how it was at that show at the Fillmore. I did hit the ground running, and when I got caught up a couple of years later, I said, 'I am gonna go out of my way to learn songs that we're not even playing that aren't even on the radar. I'm gonna learn 'Orion'. I'm gonna learn 'Dyers Eve'.' I just was, like, I don't like being at the edge of my seat, having to learn songs day or anything like that. So I found a way to get caught up."

Eight years ago, Robert spoke to the "WTF With Marc Maron" podcast about his 2003 audition to replace METALLICA bassist Jason Newsted, as captured in the 2004 band documentary "Some Kind Of Monster". He said: "It was a very surreal day for me. But when you get a gig like that, it's so… strange. Really, strange is the word. Because I remember going up there. I was late. I was always late back then."

He continued: "I'll tell you a quick story about the audition. Basically, it was a two-day audition. The first day of the audition, I was kind of just there to be a fly on the wall. [Producer] Bob Rock's there. The bass [for METALLICA's 'St. Anger' album] had already been recorded; Bob Rock recorded the bass. So I'm just hanging around. And Lars and James [Hetfield, METALLICA guitarist/vocalist] and Kirk [Hammett, METALLICA guitarist] kind of live in this bubble. They were just, like, 'Yeah, make yourself at home. Just hang out.' And I was just kind of hanging out in this big complex up north [in the Bay Area]. And I'm kind of lost, because no one's really completely communicating with me, and I'm just there. And, okay. So [they tell me], 'Come on in the control room,' and I'm just there. They're cutting tracks. And that's it; hanging around. Eleven o'clock rolls around at night, and Lars... We're in the parking lot. We're the last ones leaving. And Lars says, 'Hey, man, let's go get a drink. Let's go get a nightcap.' So I'm, like, 'All right.' And we go to the first bar, have a couple of cocktails, we go to the second bar, have a few more, go to the third bar. Then we end up at his house for more cocktails. By this time, it's five in the morning. I can't even drive to where I'm staying; it's impossible. And he even says, 'Here, crash out in my guest room.' So, at nine in the morning, four hours later, he's on the treadmill, this guy, and it's like he doesn't know me anymore. He's already sobered up. And he's on the treadmill. And I've got this crazy headache. And then he's, like, 'All right. Let's go. Let's go to the studio.' And I'm driving behind him. I couldn't even keep my eyes open. I get to the studio."

He went on to say: "This is when [the members of METALLICA] were going through this sort of therapy thing, [with] this guy Phil Towle, who was… what do they call it? Kind of a life coach, kind of a motivator, which was, at the time, I guess, good for the band, but I wasn't used to that. Here I am with a pounding headache. James has just gone through this whole thing where, of course, he's sober, and the last person he wants to see anywhere near his band is a drunk Mexican. That would be me. So I'm sitting at the table, and I've got the worst headache, [I'm] completely hung over. And I'm thinking, 'Lars did this to me, 'cause he was checking me out, to see if I could hang with him.' It was [a test]; it had to have been. He's a Viking, really. I'd go into the bathroom. I was throwing water on my face, slapping it, going, 'Oh, man, you've gotta… Hang in there. Hang in there.' 'Cause I really wanted to say, 'I can't do this right now, guys. I don't feel good. I really can't do this.'"

Trujillo added: "I stuck it out. I knew the tech, the bass tech, from back when SUICIDIAL TENDENCIES was touring with METALLICA, which would have been in 1993 on the 'Black Album.' So, Zach Harmon, who is now still my bass tech. I didn't have a bass, so [I went], 'Let's go grab a bass. Let's choose the amp setup.' So I kind of used that as my way to get out of this hangover situation."

Despite the fact that he was in no shape to perform to his usual standards, the audition went remarkably well. "We played 'Battery', and I think it helped me not be nervous," he recalled. "And that's what you see in the film, and everybody seems to think it was pretty slamming. But other than that, I was brain dead. If I could play, I was fine. But in communicating with Hetfield, 'cause he would come over to me and ask me questions, and I would come up with really stupid answers, because, literally, I was not all there."

He added: "When I watch 'Some Kind Of Monster', I see myself wearing this brown Armani t-shirt, which I would never own in my life. You know why? 'Cause it's not mine. It's Lars's. His wife at the time, Skylar, gave me that shirt, because the one I'd been wearing, which was probably pretty funky, was not happening."

Asked about the differences in the way he had to approach the material originally recorded by Newsted compared to the songs that were laid down by METALLICA's late bassist Cliff Burton, Trujillo previously told the "Talk Is Jericho" podcast: "A lot of the stuff that Bob Rock produced was a bit more… Obviously, groove is very, very important on those songs, like 'Black Album' songs. But then just really keeping it fairly simple in that style. With Cliff, we're talking about a little bit more aggro, but tight. So they are different styles. I still play with my fingers, even on the 'Black Album' material. But the great thing about… What I can say I'm pretty proud of being in METALLICA these years is being able to play, like, the 'Black Album' in its entirety — songs that were never played live: 'The Struggle Within'. There was about three songs on that album [that had never been played live]. And even 'Orion'… We play 'Orion' a lot now; it's kind of an active song in the set. And that was a song that hadn't really been played years before. And 'Dyers Eve', off the '…And Justice For All' album, that was a song that had never been played live as well. So the fact that, here we were, age 50, and we're attacking songs that hadn't been attacked… And in a lot of ways, I feel that that challenges us, and it actually makes this unit a better band."