‘Jason Newsted and Cliff Burton, They’re Very Different Players’: Rob Trujillo Shares Opinion on His Metallica Predecessors

“We all have our thing that we bring to the band.”

Robert Trujillo reflected on what made Cliff Burton and Jason Newsted stand out as Metallica bassists, and noted how he’d always strive to learn from every musician he’s had the opportunity to play with throughout his career.

As the thrash giants’ longest-serving bassist by far, Rob Trujillo and his sound are integral to what makes Metallica truly great. However, 21 years of playing the band’s old classics and shaping new ones while staying true to its core also means that Trujillo knows Jason Newsted and Cliff Burton’s playing inside-out, and is in a unique position to speak on what made each Metallica bassist stand out.

During a recent appearance on SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk”, Trujillo noted how great it was that he and his two predecessors were all different players, as each would bring out their unique strengths (via Blabbermouth):

“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.

“And 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.”

As the bassist explains, always learning has been the one constant in his professional journey so far:

“Whether it’s Metallica, or playing in Ozzy’s band and recording with Ozzy, [or] working with Jerry Cantrell, which I’ve done on and off over the years, I just learned from every situation.”

Singling out the Alice in Chains icon, Trujillo especially praised Cantrell’s approach to bass:

“Jerry, for instance, is an incredible bass player. He would never cop to it, but this guy, as a composer, I’m saying, where he positions the notes within a song and the dynamic sort of value of that note in the simplicity is incredible. If you listen to a song like [Alice in Chains] ‘Rooster’, you can hear the bass that has a personality within the song and it resonates and it’s got space. But he’s really great at taking the bass and using it in a simple form, but also having its presence be known in a very dynamic way, which lends itself to the song.

“That’s why you always hear bass in Alice songs or Jerry’s music. I recorded with Jerry recently, and it’s just always a blessing and an incredible experience. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, it’s special because he’s such an amazing composer. And I just feel blessed with any situation I’ve been able to record in and be a part of.”

Similarly, Trujillo notes how being a part of Metallica for all these years has been particularly rewarding thanks to the musicianship of his bandmates:

“The songwriting is just always at the highest level, and working with Lars [Ulrich], James [Hetfield], and Kirk [Hammett], for 21 years, has been an incredible experience because they’re composers. And that’s special, when you can be in a band and work with people that love the art of songwriting.”