Robert Trujillo spent some time chatting about Metallica‘s bassists with Eddie Trunk on his radio show, Trunk Nation. The conversation highlights Trujillo’s thoughts on the differences between the way Cliff Burton and Jason Newsted played.
“They’re very different players and I think that’s great,” Trujillo told Trunk.
“I love the fact that we’re all different, we all have our thing that we bring to the band.”
“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.”
As for Newsted, Trujillo praised him for “keeping it and holding it down” when playing with Metallica.
“A lot more simple [than Cliff], but in a good way. Definitely not a pedestrian way; I would never say that. I think it’s just really solid.”
Newsted Shares His Respect For Trujillo
When Hardwired…to Self-Destruct was released in 2017, Newsted talked to Ultimate-Guitar about his thoughts on the album — which also happened to include his thoughts on Trujillo.
“Robert’s a great fuckin’ bass player and he’s always been a great bass player,” Newsted admitted. “I’ve known him for 25 years at least. He’s always been good and I owned all the Infectious [Grooves] records and I wore Infections T-shirts. I’m down. That guy has always got my respect.”
As for Hardwired, Newsted simply stated, “[It’s] a bit different than the other effort that led up to it.”
Fans Debating Metallica’s Bassists + Newsted’s Thoughts on Burton
In a 2023 Reddit thread at r/Metallica, fans debated who was a better bassist between Newsted and Trujillo. Though the thread didn’t generate the kind of interaction the original poster likely expected, the responses were generally in Trujillo’s favor.
However, one fan broke it down like this: “I’ve always said that Rob is technically the better bassist but Jason had the better stage presence.”
More than 20 years prior to that question being shared on Reddit, Newsted was part of an interview with Guitar World‘s Bass Player in which he shared his thoughts on his style compared to Burton.
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“He was an extraordinary player,” Newsted said about the late legend.
“He had this huge grumble thing going on live. Plus, he was an incredible soloist — that was his forte. But with no disrespect to Cliff, I think my picking brought Metallica around to a new tightness and unit strength. Cliff’s sound wasn’t very defined, especially when he was playing low on the neck.”
WATCH: Jason Newsted Reflects on Metallica’s …And Justice For All
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