Robert Trujillo

“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.”

“'Frayed Ends Of Sanity' off the 'Justice' album is a song that I really wanted to play with the band, and for years and years, I was always like, 'Let's play this song!' But I'll tell you something: I started working on that song almost from the very first time I joined the band.”

“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.”

“There were a lot of different styles in the house - Motown, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, jazz - and my dad played flamenco guitar. Soon I realized that bass was what was really grooving me.”

“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.”

“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.”

“If you choose to take care of yourself, you're going to get more mileage for your career.”

“I always say, 'Hey, I'm in Metallica, but I wasn't on the Black Album.'”

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

“Being able to surf in Tahiti and places like Brazil was unreal.”

“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.”

“When I was younger, I was trying to create from attitude more than anything else.”

“To have the opportunity to bring 'Tallica Parking Lot' to life through images was really special. And also to have a lot of my heroes and my friends in the film was really, really special. People like Lemmy from Motorhead.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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 just wanted to experiment with the bass, and my main influence from Jaco Pastorius inspired me to write music in a certain way.”

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

“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.”

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