Robert Trujillo has revisited the distinctly odd sequence of events that ended with him joining METALLICA in 2003 — a story that involves very little bass playing and a great deal of alcohol.
Invited up to the band's Bay Area complex, Trujillo found himself with essentially nothing to do. "Lars and James and Kirk kind of live in this bubble. They were just, like, 'Yeah, make yourself at home. Just hang out.' And I was just kind of hanging out in this big complex up north. And I'm kind of lost, because no one's really completely communicating with me, and I'm just there."
Then, at 11 p.m., Lars Ulrich suggested a nightcap. "We go to the first bar, have a couple of cocktails, we go to the second bar, have a few more, go to the third bar. Then we end up at his house for more cocktails. By this time, it's five in the morning. I can't even drive to where I'm staying; it's impossible."
Four hours later, the drummer was on a treadmill. "It's like he doesn't know me anymore. He's already sobered up... And he's, like, 'All right. Let's go. Let's go to the studio.' And I'm driving behind him. I couldn't even keep my eyes open."
The timing was catastrophic. METALLICA were then deep in their sessions with performance coach Phil Towle, documented in Some Kind Of Monster, and James Hetfield had recently gotten sober. "Here I am with a pounding headache... the last person he wants to see anywhere near his band is a drunk Mexican. That would be me."
Trujillo is fairly sure it was deliberate. "Lars did this to me, 'cause he was checking me out, to see if I could hang with him. It was a test; it had to have been. He's a Viking, really." He spent the morning splashing water on his face in the bathroom: "I really wanted to say, 'I can't do this right now, guys. I don't feel good.'"
He stalled by going to pick out gear with bass tech Zach Harmon, whom he knew from SUICIDAL TENDENCIES' 1993 tour with METALLICA and who remains his tech today. Then they played "Battery."
"I think it helped me not be nervous," Trujillo said. "And that's what you see in the film, and everybody seems to think it was pretty slamming. But other than that, I was brain dead. If I could play, I was fine. But in communicating with Hetfield, 'cause he would come over to me and ask me questions, I would come up with really stupid answers, because, literally, I was not all there."
One detail in the film still amuses him. "I see myself wearing this brown Armani t-shirt, which I would never own in my life. You know why? 'Cause it's not mine. It's Lars's."