Top 60 Robert Trujillo Quotes

I feel like I’ve always been a great mediator.

My first gig with Metallica was at San Quentin State Penitentiary.

We just like to make great songs and have fun, and if people want to nominate us for a Grammy and celebrate it, then we’ll take it.

I’ve been friends with Jaco Pastorius’s son since 1996 – Johnny Pastorius, the eldest son. And I remember when I first met him, I said, ‘Some day, you’ve gotta make a film about your father,’ because his influence is so broad.

It’s really, really great; it’s special when people embrace your music.

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.

I like that Metallica has found a way to have these non-pedestrian arrangements but then the vocal melody is strong and intense. I’ve always appreciated that as a fan.

Flamenco was probably the first music that I may have heard as a baby, because my father played flamenco.

The great thing about Santa Monica civic auditorium was it was a place you could ride your bike to. In this case, my dad dropped me and my friends off, and we’d go see Ronnie James Dio or Jean-Luc Ponty or Weather Report or the Pretenders.

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.

There’s a lot of personality in Lars’s drumming. That’s what makes it unique.

Each album you make, each body of music, you just never know how the world’s going to relate to it.

One thing about being in Metallica is I’ve always felt challenged.

We all grew up with Black Sabbath. I mean, there’s no secret there. Any of us, any of the members of any band I’ve ever been in, or anyone I’ve ever worked with.

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 knew Rocky George, the guitar player, ’cause I went to junior high school with him, so I’ve known him for many years.

You want your fanbase and new fans too, to embrace the music, the new music.

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.

James Hetfield, I mean, the minute he plugs in his guitar and adjusts the tone knob, he comes up with the world’s greatest riff.

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.

‘Tallica Parking Lot’ is, basically, roughly about a four-minute animated short which is centered around the parking lot of Metallica, and that can be anywhere in the world.

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.

We absolutely cherish our kids. But the fact that we all have them – it’s definitely created an additional bond. It’s not just Metallica – it’s our families. And we also have Metallica.

‘Mama I’m Coming Home’ is one song that I think is incredible. One of his best songs ever written. Lemmy wrote the lyrics to that.

A lot of the hardcore fans wanna hear the deep cuts – songs like ‘Orion’ or maybe like a ‘Disposable Heroes’ – you know, songs that we don’t play all the time – and then, of course, they wanna hear ‘Sandman’ and ‘Nothing Else Matters’ and some of the hits.

Between ‘St. Anger’ and ‘Death Magnetic,’ we had, if I’m not mistaken, five kids born. And, of course, that would allow things to take time.

The cool thing about the smaller gigs – it’s the intimacy. You really feel connected to the crowd.

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.

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.

Any band that you have, any relationship in your life, is gonna come with moments of tension.

It’s all about the experience and having a good time and connecting with the fans.

I’ve been wearing Vans since I was a little kid. I wear them on stage, and I grew up skateboarding and surfing.

When Lars said, ‘We want you to be in Metallica,’ I was blown away.

It’s always nice, no matter what style of music, as long as it’s grooving and you feel that, I feel that’s what makes… part of what makes a great song, for sure.

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.

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 a rush and a thrill to feel you’ve been part of a body of music that’s inspiring.

I’ve always been a fan of animation. As a kid, I used to watch a lot of the Saturday-morning cartoons, and I was always a fan of even claymation and that whole medium.

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.

‘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.

I feel, in my life, in any situation I’ve been in, I’ve always been sort of in the middle.

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.

We like to challenge ourselves, and having new material and presenting it to the world is fun and exciting and fresh.

Jaco Pastorius gave the bass a new voice. I mean, he was very inspired by singers like Frank Sinatra. And in a lot of ways, maybe he wanted to be a singer himself.

For me, the most important thing that I tell young people is to have fun.

You’ve gotta be careful because art is really important to most people, and you wanna respect that as much as possible. So I live by that rule.

I believe in rock and roll and heavy music in general.

With my experience with Metallica, I’ve already surfed Portugal, Morocco, and all over Australia with Kirk.

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.

Writing a Metallica song is a journey and a process, and it takes time, but that’s what’s special about it.

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.

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.

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.

What I have learned about Metallica is that it’s all about taking chances and challenges.

It’s very important to us, family, and the balance of family within the band is probably the most important. Metallica is important, but when you have your wife and your kids, and you need to maintain that and keep the peace, it’s important to work around the schedule of the kids’ schools.

I’ve played with the best drummers in rock, ranging from Josh Freese to Brooks Wackerman to even Dave Lombardo.

As long as there is communication, everything can be solved.

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.