Metallica’s Trujillo Talks ‘Weird Situation’ of Having to Re-Record Bob Daisley’s Bass on Classic Ozzy Albums, Recalls Seeing Randy Rhoads at Guitar Center Pre-Fame

“I didn’t even know what we were doing,” the bassist said.

During an appearance on The Vinyl Guide, Metallica bassist Rob Trujillo talked about re-recording Bob Daisley’s bass parts on the first two Ozzy albums – 1980’s “Blizzard of Ozz” and 1981’s “Diary of a Madman” – his first introduction to Jaco Pastorius, and more.

The re-recordings of the classic albums were made in 2002, following legal battles between the Osbournes on one side and Daisley and drummer Lee Kerslake on the other. Apart from the bass tracks, the drum parts were also fully re-recorded by Mike Bordin.

When asked about the “unique situation” of re-recording the albums and if “the mission was to play kind of note-for-note or to be able to add your own flavor,” Trujillo replied (transcribed by UG):

“Well, that was a weird situation. I didn’t even know what we were doing. It was like – I was asked to do this session, and then we were doing it, but I don’t even know why we were doing it.

“I was employed by Sharon and Ozzy at the time, so I just did what I was told to do, and I didn’t look into it too deep. In fact, I forget about it – I forget that even happened, and I wasn’t sure if there were other players playing on it too.

“So I didn’t put a lot of thought into that. I mean, at that time, I would’ve definitely tried to play as close to what he [Daisley] did, and definitely try to not bring me into that.

“For me, Bob Daisley is a tremendous player, and nobody can touch his style and his approach to writing bass or his technique. He’s a pick player who plays kind-of like Jaco [Pastorius]. He has a very strong attack and the feel of a finger player, and he’s really, really funky.

“So I have nothing but love and respect for him, and I’m super stocked that, I think, at the end of the day – I’m not 100% sure, but I’m almost sure that his version of the music, I always knew they were always there, so it didn’t even matter.

“You were always gonna get Bob’s version of the music because that’s what you were gonna hear 98% of the time, and it ends up coming out anyways as a kind of a remastered release as well.

“The thing that I had done was sort of a moment in that time over the years, and then, of course, Bob’s stuff lives on, and that’s what everybody ends up hearing in the long run.”

Playing along with Randy’s [Rhoads] guitar work, solos, that must’ve been quite an experience.

“Yeah. I mean, in that sense, Randy is one of my heroes. I had the good fortune of seeing him play at Guitar Center before he was playing with Ozzy.

“It was in the middle of the day, they were handing him guitars, there was nobody in there except me, and I was like – I don’t know how old I was, but I was just blown away.

“And I think I remember he was playing what would’ve been ‘Diary of a Madman,’ and I said to him, ‘Wow, those are beautiful chords’ I said something like, ‘Do you like John McLaughlin?’

“I said something weird, and he was very quiet, it’s kind of like, ‘Don’t bother me right now’.

“Selfishly, I can say at least one of the rewards, if there was any reward for that – was hearing the outtake jams they were doing beyond what you heard on the original arrangements.

“All of a sudden, ‘Oh, the song goes another minute, and Randy’s still soloing?’ And there’d be some jokes, you can hear them talking…

“That was, again, selfishly, that was really like, ‘Wow, I’m hearing this, and nobody else in the world is hearing this.’ That’s one thing I do remember, and then Lemmy coming in the studio and hanging out for the first time.”