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In an interview for Beneath the Bassline documentary, Robert Trujillo revealed that he tried to avoid James Hetfield to hide the alcohol smell during his audition for the band.
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“It was a two-day audition, but the first day was more fly-on-the-wall,” the bassist recalled. “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.”
Trujillo continued, “The evening rolls around and Lars says, ‘Hey, let’s go get a drink.’ I could hold my own with a few beers, but we end up drinking until 5 in the morning. I wake up with the worst hangover of my life, and now I’ve got to play with Metallica.”
“James is sober. He’s gone through rehab. So I decided I would connect with my bass tech and decide what bass I was going to use, and what amp,” Rob further explained.
The musician added, “What I was really trying to do was get away from Hetfield because I didn’t want him to smell the alcohol on me. Lars was probably just testing me to see how much I could handle, but I just felt like a loser.”
Trujillo joined Metallica in 2003 to replace Jason Newsted. In a previous Bass Player feature, Trujillo remembered promising Cliff Burton something before he became a member of the band. He said, “When I auditioned for Metallica in 2002, I was playing in Ozzy Osbourne’s band with one of Cliff’s best friends, Mike Bordin of Faith No More.”
“I was staying at Mike’s house in San Francisco and in the guest room at Mike’s house, where I would be practising Metallica’s music, there is a big photo of Cliff – and at a random moment at two in the morning, I looked up and saw that photo. I actually spoke to the photo. I said, ‘Cliff, I won’t let you down, I promise. I’ll give it my best shot.’ So in a weird way, I feel connected to Cliff. I feel like I know him.”
Bassists like Pepper Keenan, Jeordie White, Scott Reeder, Eric Avery, Danny Lohner, and Chris Wyse also auditioned for Metallica. After three months, Trujillo was chosen as the new bassist.
