Robert Trujillo has been Metallica's bassist since 2003, and is the only member of the current line-up who arrived with a career already established in another territory. Born in Santa Monica, California, he spent the 1990s in Suicidal Tendencies and Infectious Grooves, projects whose whole point was the crossing of thrash, hardcore and funk — and that is the school his playing comes from. Trujillo plays with his fingers rather than a pick, which gives him a rounder attack and a rhythmic agility uncommon in heavy metal. His stage posture, crouched and moving sideways, became a visual trademark of the band live. Before Metallica he backed Ozzy Osbourne and Jerry Cantrell, and his arrival was filmed in Some Kind of Monster (2004), the documentary that captured the moment a band in crisis offered him the job. He debuted on record with Death Magnetic (2008) and continued through Hardwired… to Self-Destruct (2016) and 72 Seasons (2023) — more than twenty years, now the second longest-serving bassist in the group's history. Outside the band he produced the documentary Jaco (2014), about Jaco Pastorius, a personal project that reveals the root of his formation: before metal, the bass he listened to was jazz fusion.
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