Metallica’s Trujillo Says Some People Thought He Didn’t Have the Right to Make a Movie About Jaco Pastorius

“They wanted to sort of control the idea of Jaco as their own.”

During an appearance on The Vinyl Guide, Metallica bassist Rob Trujillo talked about the late bass great Jaco Pastorius, and producing the 2014 documentary “Jaco.”When asked, “At what age did you discover Jaco?”, Trujillo replied (transcribed by UG):”

“Well, I discovered Jaco probably… I saw him first play in 1980, ’79, it was at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, it was with Weather Report.

“And I just remember when I first saw a picture of him – because I was in a record shop with friends of mine that were into jazz and fusion, we had all these bass players that we were really into, and then I saw that picture of him at the back of [1977’s] ‘Heavy Weather.’ I was like, ‘What is this guy? He looks so mysterious.’

“It was really exciting to actually go see him and not really know much about him. All we knew about him is that he was this incredible bass player, and then you go see him live, and you see the energy, this incredible performer…

“I remember him sliding into his bass. He had, like, powder on the stage, he put the bass on one side of the stage, and he slid into it, it was just really entertaining. I’ve heard stories about that show, there was a lot of crazy energy back then.

“I think my very first experience with Jaco was through Weather Report, and it was ‘Heavy Weather’ – I remember buying that record, it was the first one I got, and then I got the solo record [1976’s ‘Jaco Pastorius’] after, and then I got the Joni Mitchell recordings [featuring Jaco on bass], which I thought were amazing.

“For me, he was one of the biggest influences. I’d have to say – Jaco, Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath, and Anthony Jackson who played bass on [The O’Jays’] ‘For the Love of Money.’

“And I ended up meeting him around the time that we were filming for the interviews [for the ‘Jaco’ documentary], and he ended up being really cool, and we stayed in contact, and I always sort of channeled their energy into what I would write for Infectious Grooves.

“There’s a lot of specific moments where I’m actually pulling directly from the people that I grew up listening to, and Jaco is definitely a huge inspiration for Infectious, absolutely.

“A song like ‘Violent & Funky,’ you know, it’s not a fretless bass, but that is absolutely kind of inspiration from him. And the same thing with the song ‘Therapy,’ which featured Ozzy, so it’s all there.”

I believe you have the Bass of Doom [Jaco’s primary sunburst 1962 Fender Jazz bass that Rob is a custodian of after helping the family recover it as it was stolen]. Have you used it on the recordings yet?

“Actually, yeah, it’s on the EP [‘Take You on a Ride’ by Infectious Grooves]. I used it on the EP, and I was heading out the door, and I knew I was gonna try, and I cut the bass track already on the new song ‘Take You on a Ride.’

“I’m looking at the bass and I just grabbed it and brought it to the studio; and I’ll tell you, it was so beautiful. I mean, the sound and the way the instrument felt.

“And I remember [singer] Mike Muir coming in, he was gonna do some vocals, and the bass actually brought the song into a whole other realm – the personality of that instrument just took it into a different zone.

“The weirdest thing is that when I took on the project [of filming the documentary], and then the bass had something to do with it, there were people – and I didn’t understand this – they didn’t want to believe that the bass player of Metallica could be making or should be making a film about Jaco.

“They didn’t know me, so they didn’t know about Infectious Grooves, they didn’t know that I went to jazz school when I was 19, they didn’t know that I saw Jaco, and a lot of these people, some of them weren’t even born, but they had the attitude…

“I guess there was this sort of – I don’t know, I call it ‘flexing.’ It’s not in my DNA, so I didn’t understand it, and I started to get it a little bit that there was this perception that I maybe didn’t have the right to do this.

“All these incredible bass players who were older, the older musicians, got it, and they loved it and respected it, but some of the younger players didn’t get it at first.

“They wanted to sort of control the idea of Jaco as their own, and for a specific type of music guy, like, ‘Hey, this dude played on Ian Hunter’s record,’ it’s kind of like, ‘Wait, he inspired Infectious Grooves, 100%, I wrote the music, I know.’

“And I was really puzzled, so I think – in fact, I know, once the film got out, people got it, they really got it, but they didn’t get it at first.”

Rob also pointed out:

“When you take on the doc film, you are inheriting all their musicians, all their friends, some of them don’t like each other, family members, like, it’s really a huge responsibility.

“And you’re kind of caught in the middle of a lot of different things, and my job became sort-of to really try to keep the balance – a lot of times to keep the peace.

“It’s also to make a film of quality, and then there’s music releases and everything, it’s very expensive.

“I kind of went into it not realizing that there were all these tentacles that were gonna be so challenging attached to that experience but, you know, it’s funny, I literally was like, I love what I did with Jaco, but I could never do a documentary film ever again.

“And then I started going down the YouTube rabbit hole, and I was checking out Eric Burdon from The Animals, and you know, seeing him with War – this guy is amazing. And hearing a little bit about his story; obviously, he’s still alive, I’m just like, ‘Oh man, this will be a great film.’

“But again, it’s tough. It might be even tougher too when you’re dealing with somebody who is here now, and they’re gonna have their opinion too along with the other opinions and everything.

“When you’re in a band and there’s a lot of great players, the hardest thing is getting the people to get along – people have different points of view.

“And one of the things in Metallica that is really interesting to me is that we’re all very different people. We don’t always get along, we don’t always see eye to eye, but I generally end up being kind of a guy who tries to see the positive.

“In all of the situations I’ve been in, whether it’s with Ozzy or with Suicidal, or even when I did the Jerry Cantrell record, there’s always a certain level of understanding.

“It’s like, ‘OK, this is my job and what I do, and I feel why I’m here and how can I make this work, how can I help create the magic. If there’s choppy waters, how do we get through choppy waters?’

“And I think that goes back to the family. Growing up, your parents, your youth, what you dealt with, it’s like how can you take the energy of that and offer it to the band situation, or the personalities of specific situations.

“And I tell you, I’ve been blessed with the people, a lot of people that I grew up looking up to, being inspired by, and even current people that are peers and that I’ve had a good fortune of working with today, and it’s never always just easy, you’re gonna have some challenges.

“It’s almost like the more special, creative person is, the more challenge you’re gonna get, but you stick it out because you know the end result is gonna be important to you, and maybe to people out there too. It’s art, and art’s never that easy.”