As long as there is communication, everything can be solved.
Robert Trujillo
Traditionally, the role of the bass player was just to keep things simple and solid, so it's really a special thing when you can get a player that can actually bring in a lot of presence and also a visual presence, too.
I've been wearing Vans since I was a little kid. I wear them on stage, and I grew up skateboarding and surfing.
Sabbath is always some of the best music ever. And the reason is because it grooves. It's funky. It's heavy. It's got lots of great changes, twists, and turns.
What we're doing is special and unique in its own way but still keeping it heavy. For me as a listener, part of the journey I'm on with Metallica, there's just a certain edge that needs to be there.
It's all about the experience and having a good time and connecting with the fans.
With my experience with Metallica, I've already surfed Portugal, Morocco, and all over Australia with Kirk.
My father had a friend who actually had a hollow-body bass guitar and didn't work through an amp, but because it was hollow body, I could play it. So I kind of played on that for about a year, learning scales and all that. And here I am.
We used to go to Palm Springs, ditch school when I was in eleventh grade, and go hang out poolside with our ghetto blaster and listen to Pat Metheny 'Offramp' and kind of trip out on a lot of his music.
One thing about being in Metallica is I've always felt challenged.
I call it a process of elimination. You're nurturing ideas, and that takes time. What happens is there's so many, what I say, 'great ideas.' What you have to do is try to consolidate them and put them into one song, and then your song becomes eight minutes long.
You want your fanbase and new fans too, to embrace the music, the new music.
When I first heard the song 'Eruption,' which is Eddie Van Halen's most famous solo composition, I was confused because it sounded incredible, but I didn't know what it was. I didn't know if it was a guitar. I didn't know if it was a synthesizer or a keyboard. I couldn't figure it out.
I play in Metallica, and I have fun in Metallica. I tell you, I am the luckiest man on the planet because we have a good time and we're happy. When we put on our guitars, we're teenagers again, and that's where the fun comes in.
There's a lot of personality in Lars's drumming. That's what makes it unique.
It's really a rush and a thrill to feel you've been part of a body of music that's inspiring.
I went to jazz school. Not to say I'm a great jazz musician, but I studied under some great teachers. It was an important part of my life.
Mike Clark, who's a really amazing surfer, got me back into surfing. I surfed a lot from '82 to '86, and then I kind of started slacking.
You can make an album, and people won't get it. Or won't connect with it. Or won't - whatever is going on in the universe at that time, it doesn't really register.
I've been a baseball fan in the early part of my life, so through the '70s and the '80s, I was a huge fan. I actually followed the Dodgers back then, back in the Kirk Gibson years, Steve Garvey.
I feel that music is such an inspirational form of energy, as baseball is. And especially with Metallica, believe it or not, our shows are very physical. Sports is a very physical thing, too.
Lemmy is, I think, for anybody in the world of rock n' roll - you don't have to be a bass player - he is a pioneer, and he was true to his music and also the lover of a lot of different styles of music.
Sometimes artists die young, and we don't know exactly why. I think that, in life, you have these special individuals, whether it's Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin or Kurt Cobain. They're on this journey - they're on this earth to change things, to make things incredible - and then they're not with us anymore.
I've played with the best drummers in rock, ranging from Josh Freese to Brooks Wackerman to even Dave Lombardo.
Playing with Ozzy was a dream come true.
That's what I find so special: when you actually imagine something. But really, when it comes to you in a dream, and then you can bring it to life on the screen, it's very powerful.
Don't make music to make money, because that's not why you should be doing it. Have fun, be creative, and embrace the past.
I feel like I've always been a great mediator.
The cool thing about the smaller gigs - it's the intimacy. You really feel connected to the crowd.
With Metallica, it's hard. I tend to like it all, but the older stuff, when we get into the deeper cuts, it really excites me personally.
I knew Rocky George, the guitar player, 'cause I went to junior high school with him, so I've known him for many years.
You listen to a Metallica song, and you listen to the drums, and they're not necessarily swinging, but the arrangements are different. Why is that? Because it's more in tune with jazz arrangements. It's very different. It's not a traditional rock and roll production, in terms of the drums.
With the fretless bass, you have a different tone and different sound, a different dynamic to the instrument, so you can really make it sing.
It's really, really great; it's special when people embrace your music.
That's all I ever do, just try and do the best I can and cater to the song, cater to the music.
The Big 4 tour was really great.
We enjoy playing small shows, big shows, whatever. There's the energy of the visual production, and all that stuff starts to happen, so when you see it come to life, it's pretty exciting.
I'm a person that takes on situations from passion. I get passionate about things, and I try to help.
We like to challenge ourselves, and having new material and presenting it to the world is fun and exciting and fresh.
I believe in rock and roll and heavy music in general.
When Lars said, 'We want you to be in Metallica,' I was blown away.
What I have learned about Metallica is that it's all about taking chances and challenges.
'Some Kind of Monster' is a challenge, and 'Through the Never' is an extension of that. Even the album we made with Lou Reed, it was a challenge.
For me, the most important thing that I tell young people is to have fun.
I think that young people should embrace artists like Lemmy from Motorhead but also be open to different styles.
Any band that you have, any relationship in your life, is gonna come with moments of tension.
Joe Walsh is somebody who... he's a writer, obviously, and he's a singer-songwriter, whatever, but at the end of the day, when it comes to the Eagles, he's there to play guitar, and he's there to supply whatever is needed for that band, and that is what I feel with Metallica.
There is a lot of energy between Lars and James, and sometimes that energy can erupt. I know that before I was in the band, Kirk was the guy who was often in the middle, and it was important at that time. And now I feel like sometimes I'm the guy that's in the middle between not just James and Lars, but even Kirk.
I feel, in my life, in any situation I've been in, I've always been sort of in the middle.
Each album you make, each body of music, you just never know how the world's going to relate to it.
