DIARY OF A BASS MAN

EIGHTY SEASONS (AKA 20 YEARS) INTO HIS CAREER WITH METALLICA, BASSIST ROBERT TRUJILLO TALKS US THROUGH THE WRITING AND RECORDING PROCESS FOR 72 SEASONS, REVEALING HOW CERTAIN MOMENTS REMIND HIM OF SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES, BLACK SABBATH AND... CHEECH & CHONG?

- AMIT SHARMA

WHILE THERE’S NO question Cliff Burton and Jason Newsted’s contributions to Metallica will echo for eternity, Robert Trujillo has now been in the group longer than any of his predecessors. The Warwick endorsee — who had played in Suicidal Tendencies, Ozzy Osbourne, Black Label Society and Jerry Cantrell’s solo band prior to joining — was hired in 2003 at the end of the audition process famously captured on their fly-on-the-wall Metallica: Some Kind of Monster rockumentary. With Hammett co-writing four of the new songs and Trujillo helping pen three, he describes their latest work as “a very collaborative experience” — especially in light of its 2016 predecessor being solely composed by Hetfield and Ulrich, save for his contributions to “ManUNkind.” This time it was very much a team effort.

“Every record is like a different journey,” says Trujillo, calling GW just a few days after we spoke to Hammett. “There are some that lean more on Lars and James, which was the path we took for the previous record… and that ended up being a great album. And before that one, [2008’s] Death Magnetic was more collaborative. I’m not saying one is better or worse; it just makes for a different experience, but it’s always great. This record had more involvement from all of us. There was also all that interesting energy around the pandemic — how we had to create these songs and get the process going was a challenge because it was all happening from our home studios. That was a challenge in itself, trying to start writing and creating from that kind of first launch pad.

It must’ve been nice when you all finally got into a room together.