METALLICA's ROBERT TRUJILLO: 'JAMES HETFIELD Is One Of The Best Drummers In The World… On His Guitar'

In a recent interview with Polar Music Prize, bassist Robert Trujillo, who joined METALLICA in 2003, was asked what influences he adds and brings to the group. He responded (see video below): "In order to play in this band, you've gotta have [the edge and the attitude]; that's one of the most important things. You can be an incredible player, but when you get onstage, you've gotta be yourself and you've gotta bring it, as we say, and that just means give 120 percent. 'Cause it is a gig that requires a lot of energy, and there's an intensity in the music that sort of carries you through the show and turns you into maybe somebody that you aren't normally in your day-to-day casual existence. So that's a lot of fun. But at the same time, there's a groove factor. And I also go back to [groundbreaking jazz bassist] Jaco Pastorius, because it was always about the groove. So no matter what he was playing, whether it was a ballad or a bebop song or something really funky, there was always the groove. And it's the same thing in METALLICA."

He continued: "I always say James Hetfield [METALLICA frontman] is one of the best drummers in the world — on his guitar, because he is really a groove machine with that instrument. And it's an unusual combination of players, but it works. Everybody's unique and different in their own way, and we come together and we do what we do. And I think it's what the crowd feels when they see us or when they hear our music."

Trujillo added: "The new [METALLICA] album ['Hardwired… To Self-Destruct'], to me, is interesting, because there's really, I feel, a very powerful presence, actually, in the rhythm section on this record, which is really exciting to me."

As previously reported, METALLICA will receive the Polar Music Prize, a musical equivalent to the Nobel Prize, this spring. The award, which recognizes international excellence in music, will bestow the metal legends with a cash prize of one million Swedish kronor, roughly equivalent to $126,000. The band will donate the money to its own All Within My Hands organization, which aids communities in need with workforce education, food-bank donations and other local services.

METALLICA and the San Francisco Giants will hold the sixth annual "Metallica Night" on April 23 at AT&T Park in San Francisco, with the Giants taking the field that evening against the Washington Nationals.

The band is currently on tour in Europe through mid-May.