During an interview on the Toby Morse One Life One Chance podcast, Robert Trujillo described Metallica’s ‘Ride the Lightning’ as his ‘ultimate album’ and reflected on his connections to the band before joining in 2003.
“That was the album I would train to. The other one was Slayer’s ‘Reign in Blood’, and sometimes I had some Anthrax in there too. But ‘Ride the Lightning’ was really the ultimate album for me,” he explained. “The thing that was so great about Metallica — and I didn’t, unfortunately, get to see Cliff play, and it’s really weird because I became such good friends with Mike Bordin [drummer & Burton’s bandmate in their first band EZ-Street.]. They were really close, and Mike’s Ty’s godfather…”
Trujillo’s love and admiration for ‘Ride The Lightning’ is clear as day. While picking the best Metallica song to introduce new fans, the bassist talked about the albums that motivated him during his earlier days.
“I liked [‘Disposable Heroes’] before I even joined the band. I used to go running in the hills in the Santa Monica mountains to prepare for Suicidal Tendencies tours. I had three or four cassettes that motivated me: one of them was ‘Master of Puppets,’ and then, like, ‘Reign in Blood’ and ‘Ride the Lightning’ were in there, too. That’s how I really, really dissected and discovered ‘Master of Puppets,'” Trujillo said.
The band’s M72 World Tour continues. They will perform in Los Angeles, California on December 12 for the All Within My Hands Helping Hands concert and auction. This will be their final show of the year.
