TRUJILLO: 'Where METALLICA Is At Right Now, I Feel It's An Important Time And An Exciting Time'

March 20, 2009

Patrick Range McDonald of LA Weekly conducted an interview with METALLICA bassist Robert Trujillo earlier today (Friday, March 20) at the Four Seasons Hotel in Austin, Texas, prior to the band's "secret" gig tonight at Stubb's Bar-B-Q as part of the "Guitar Hero: Metallica" showcase during the Texas capital's annual South By Southwest music and media festival.

"For me, 'Guitar Hero' is a great way for people to experience the music of a band. Not just METALLICA, but many bands," he said. "It's almost educational in that sense, where people can learn about groups that range from SANTANA to LYNYRD SKYNYRD to JOURNEY, whatever. I mean, my son loves rocking out to 'Paranoid' by (BLACK) SABBATH, and he's only four years old. And it's great way for us to interact with each other. I always end up picking up the microphone and singing. I'm Ozzy (Osbourne),and he's Tony Iommi. So it's fun in that sense, too. Hopefully this encourages young people, and all people, to maybe want to buy an instrument or go see a rock show and hear it in person."

On what the band was currently trying to do with their music, Trujillo said, "Where METALLICA is at right now, I feel it's an important time and an exciting time. I feel that the thrash element is back, and it's exciting the band even more and it's opened those doors again. For me, personally, being the newer member it's a great honor to actually play that style of music in this band. And it's fun for me as a bass player, and it's challenging. I also think that the direction in terms of being progressive and us challenging ourselves again is very exciting. And it seems our fans have picked up on it and they're excited about the guitar solos again. It seemed that the guitar solos had taken a breather there over the last couple of years. And they're back with a vengeance. The riffs, I feel, are back and in your face again. And it's been exciting to work with a producer like Rick Rubin, who's definitely opened some doors for us in terms of the creative side, especially in getting Lars [Ulrich] and James [Hetfield] to step up and get back into the swing of things, and especially with the old-school element."

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