James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich formed Metallica in 1981 the group’s original bassist Ron McGovney was part of the group for about a year, leaving in 1982. He was replaced by the late legendary Cliff Burton, who was part of the first three albums the band released and tragically passed away in 1986 at the age of 24. He was then replaced by Jason Newsted who remained a member of the group until 2001, when he decided to leave. The group then invited the former Suicidal Tendencies and Ozzy Osbourne bassist Rob Trujillo to join them and he has been their bassist ever since.
In an interview with Eddie Trunk, Trujillo talked about his predecessors, giving his opinion on them and he said that they are really different bassists.
What is Rob Trujillo’s opinion on Cliff Burton and Jason Newsted
As Trujillo said, in his opinion, Burton was really a composer like Jaco Pastorious and Stanley Clarke, for example. For him, Newsted was a bass player that kept things together, keeping it solid and simple.
“It’s interesting because between Jason and Cliff, they’re very different players, and I think that’s great. I love the fact that we’re all different, we all have our thing that we bring to the band. And, obviously, with Cliff, he was such an incredible musician. I mean, he was really a composer when it came to the instrument. In the same way that sort of a Jaco Pastorius or Stanley Clarke would’ve been a composer. They’re thinking about the song, but they’re also thinking about the voice of the instrument within the song and how to present it.
Rob Trujillo continued:
“Sometimes that’s utilizing distortion or overdrive or the wah pedal and being melodic with it. And I love that; that’s what I love about (Cliff). And then you’ve got Jason who was really keeping it and holding it down, keeping it solid. A lot more simple, but in a good way. Definitely not in a pedestrian way; I would never say that. I think it’s just really solid,” Rob Trujillo said.
Trujillo joined Metallica in 2003 but wasn’t part of their album “St. Anger” released in that year. It was the producer Bob Rock who played the bass on that album. Rob’s first studio work with the Thrash Metal band was “Death Magnetic” released in 2008. Since then he also recorded with the group “Hardwired… To Self-Destruct” (2016) and “72 Seasons” (2023).