Metallica bassist Rob Trujillo sat with Toby Morse for a new interview and recalled replacing Jason Newsted.
“As far as all of that that you’re talking about the pressures, you have to remove it,” he said of the fan hatred and the pressure. “You have to go, ‘You know what? They want me in this band. I’m experienced and I’ve played with everyone from Ozzy to Suicidal Tendencies. So I have the confidence in what I do and I’m not taking anything for granted. I want to improve and grow with these guys but I’m not going to listen to what’s being said and whatever. I respect Jason and I respect Cliff [Burton],'” the bassist continued.
He then mentioned particular fans who weren’t happy with the band’s new lineup. “The first tour I did, I remember everybody, for the most part, was cool, but occasionally you get one guy that’s giving you the finger. You get something weird like that, and it makes you feel uncomfortable. There’s like 20,000 people, and there’s one guy, and he’s doing that, and you’re just fixated on that one guy.”
“I had a guy in LA actually who was like a gang banger and James had said Rob Trujillo from the West Side Venice!’ All of a sudden I started hearing some people go ‘Yeah,’ and then I heard some people go ‘Boo, what’s up?’ Then I was getting hit up. Nobody knew except me but I was looking at this one guy and he had his bandana and he was throwing signs at me and sh*t. I was just fixated on that energy. So whether it was like a guy who whatever didn’t like that I was Hispanic and over in like Indiana or some sh*t because it did happen a couple of times. I mean, it hasn’t happened since 2003,” Trujillo added.
It has been over 20 years since Trujillo joined Metallica, but his two-day audition was almost ruined. “It was a two-day audition, but the first day was more fly-on-the-wall,” said Trujillo in a clip from Beneath the Bassline documentary. “Bob Rock had already recorded bass guitar and he was also producing ‘St Anger,’ so I’m just there at the studio watching guitar tracks go down.”
