The popular American heavy metal band being formed in Los Angeles in California in 1981 presently have vocalist James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, Robert Trujillo who is the bassist and Kirk Hammett as the guitarist.
When bassist Jason Newsted had left the band auditions started being held to find his permanent replacement. After conducting three months of auditions Robert Trujillo who had been a member of Suicidal Tendencies, the trash metal band as well as Black Label Society, the heavy metal band was finally chosen as their bassist.
During his appearance on Talk is Jericho, the subject of his association with Metallica came up. He nostalgically relates that his association with the band was rather a strange and amusing thing. He relates that a mutual friend of Metallica’s guitarist Kirk Hammett and he had asked him to take the both of them surfing. When they were on their surfing spree for a week they did not discuss much about music.
However Hammett and Trujillo had bonded with one another during this time and when they began searching for Newsted’s replacement the bassist was remembered. After a year of their surfing spree he was on another surfing trip in Tahiti when Kirk and Lars had voice mailed him, inviting him to jam with the band. It was a two day audition and on the first day he was literally relaxing.
He had formed a good rapport with the members which he says is equally important along with performing well while joining a band. He spend the whole night drinking with the members. On the second day he went out to perform and secured a place in the band, the rest all being history.