Metallica's Robert Trujillo Talks Jaco Pastorius Film and New Music

Metallica’s Robert Trujillo Talks Jaco Pastorius Film and New Music

2014-05-01

Story by Charles Ken

Metallica bass player Robert Trujillo is a fan of jazz fusion bass player Jaco Pastorius

Robert Trujillo is known for laying down bass in hard-hitting bands Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne and Suicidal Tendencies, but his greatest influence falls outside the metal arena. Trujillo calls late jazz fusion bass player Jaco Pastorius his favorite bass player, and now, Trujillo is honoring Pastorius by producing a new documentary called “Jaco,” which will see a widespread release this fall.

“You know, back in the day, being a young, inspired bass player, I started to gravitate toward jazz fusion,” Trujillo told VH1. “I almost would have called myself an elitist… So I got into that, and I started hearing about this bass player called Jaco—one name, right to the point, you know—and it was intriguing; everyone started talking about this guy. It was like, “Whoa.” I was intrigued by the mystique of the name alone. Before that, it was all about (bassist) Stanley Clarke and there were a couple other players. I was really into Anthony Jackson. And then Jaco just kind of came out of nowhere and started tearing it up.”

Switching gears to new music, Trujillo says Metallica are working on new songs right now. “We’re writing man,” he said. “We’ve prepared one song, which may or may not be on the album, but it’s a lot of fun. We’re playing it live. It’s called ‘Lords of Summer.’ We had some fun putting that together. And there’s a lot of really, really great riffs and possibilities for some great new songs. I’m really excited. I think we’re all very excited.”

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Charles Ken

Meet the expert - Charles Ken is a graduate of Michigan State University where he studied writing and history. He's a longtime music buff and covers classic rock for Audio Ink Radio. Contact him at ken@audioinkradio.com.