“I didn’t want James Hetfield to smell the alcohol on me”: Robert Trujillo stayed up drinking until 5am before his Metallica audition
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Robert Trujillo has revealed he stayed up drinking all night the day before his Metallica audition.
The bassist, who joined the metal giants in 2003 to replace Jason Newsted, makes the admission in a recently released snippet from documentary Behind The Bassline. The band had already recorded their 2003 album St Anger at the time, and were searching for a new bass player to handle the impending tour dates.
“It was a two-day audition [to join Metallica], but the first day was more fly-on-the-wall,” Trujillo remembers (as transcribed by Guitar World). “[Longtime Metallica producer] 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.”
“The evening rolls around and Lars [Ulrich, Metallica drummer] 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.”
Trujillo’s situation was made even worse by the fact that Metallica frontman James Hetfield had very recently stopped drinking, following a stint in rehab in 2002.
“James is sober,” the bassist continues. “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. 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 likely didn’t feel like a loser for long, however, as he was ultimately granted the Metallica gig. He beat out such names as Pepper Keenan (Corrosion Of Conformity), Danny Lohner (Nine Inch Nails) and Eric Avery (Jane’s Addiction) to get the job and has held onto it ever since. Trujillo had previously manned the low end for Ozzy Osbourne and Suicidal Tendencies, among others.
Metallica recently wrapped a tour of North America and are playing a string of dates in Mexico City from September 20 to 29. See below for details.
Metallica 2024 tour dates:
Sep 20: Mexico City Foro Sol, Mexico
Sep 22: Mexico City Foro Sol, Mexico
Sep 27: Mexico City Foro Sol, Mexico
Sep 29: Mexico City Foro Sol, Mexico
