Robert Trujillo ‘Coming Full Circles with Infectious Grooves’

Posted on March 13, 2024 by Paul 'Browny' Brown

Robert Trujillo Interview 2024 Infectious Grooves Australai 2024

Some people say you should never meet your heroes, but this isn’t one of those circumstances. Not by a long shot.

When he’s not crab walking his way across the stage with Metallica, So-Cal native Robert Trujillo is constantly finding ways to throw back to his formative years in bands such as Suicidal Tendencies and the newly reformed Infectious Grooves. Those early years set the bassist up for massive things prior to joining the Metal Titans in 2003, and time has come full circle as he prepares to head back down under to Australia – certainly to make up for lost time while he’s at it.

After dropping his son Tye off at the airport (who’s travelling to tour Japan with Suicidal Tendencies), Rob pulled up a chair at his local car servicing shop to chat candidly with Wall Of Sound’s Ricky Aarons (who also happens to be touring Japan with his family by sheer coincidence).

The pair hooked right into the highly anticipated return of Infectious Grooves, who will reform for a string of Australian shows, including a stop into Bluesfest with an updated 2024 lineup consisting of Rob, frontman Mike Muir, drummer Jay Weinberg and guitarists Dave Kushner and Dean Pleasants. You can watch the full interview here, or read on for some of the best bits.

As the chat commenced, the keywords ‘Full Circle’ first made their way into the conversation. Ricky threw back to the start of Rob’s career in Suicidal Tendencies, to then having his son Tye take over bass duties, to now touring with Mike again in Infectious Grooves. When quizzed about the forces of nature coming together, Rob wasted no time getting stuck into it.

“It’s definitely surreal. Every once in a while Mike will get ahold of me and ask if there’s availability. He kinda checks the schedule to see what my schedule is – this is over the course of 10 or 15 years – we’ve only done three shows in 25 years, it’s kind of crazy – but any time that we do a show it’s a lot of fun and there’s something special about Australia.

I feel like the two places for the Infectious Grooves that had a real solid, loyal following was Australia and actually France. We did extensive touring in those two countries; so getting back down to Australia for me is really exciting – plus I haven’t been there in over 10 years even with Metallica.

I have a lot of friends there. I surf and most of my friends that were Pro Surfers were actually not Americans, they were Australians for some reason. They adopted Suicidal Tendencies and Infectious Grooves and back in 2003 when I joined Metallica, I was able to bring those friends into the Metallica world because Kirk [Hammett] also surfs.

We created this connection and this bond with all these wild Aussies and for me to go back with this particular band is pretty exciting. It was always a party.”

Those wild antics gave Infectious Grooves a notable reputation down under, so we can only expect total bedlam when the group finally make their way back down under, with a fresh new lineup to boot.

Speaking of the lineup, the conversation turned to Grooves’ latest recruit, drummer Jay Weinberg, who joined both Mike Muir-fronted acts following his departure from Slipknot late last year. Ricky compared Jay’s new and strange times to when Rob was drafted for Metallica in the early 2000s with Rob then sharing a story about how the two finally met for the first time at rehearsals.

“It’s interesting with Jay because I didn’t know him before all of this. One of the things with Metallica is we get very busy and I almost feel like we’re in this [creative and touring] bubble. It’s just this zone and when you get home from tour, sure, you’re gonna reconnect with your musician friends or friends in general, and sometimes you’re gonna run into other musicians.

Jay would have been a musician I didn’t have a prior connection with. We just didn’t cross paths. I know he crossed paths with Lars [Ulrich] and all that. So it was a bit of a mystery for me. I was excited to finally meet him (I am a big fan of his dad’s playing), so it was kind of a surreal thing for me. It’s like, ‘Wow, you know this drummer from Slipknot, I only ever see this dude in the mask… who is he?'”

“I didn’t know what he looked like. That was pretty funny ’cause I almost didn’t want to know what he looked like until we were in that room rehearsing together and that’s how it was.”

Rob also touched on previous drummers who worked with the group; and for the ill-informed, it’s a who’s who list of modern-day icons that also cut their teeth in their own formative years within Infectious Grooves, before going onto bigger projects as the years went by.

“I think about Josh Freese who’s now at the Foo Fighters and him being 19 and playing in Infectious. I think about Brooks Wackerman, again, he was 15 when he recorded the Groove Family Cyco album. I think about Stephen Perkins [Jane’s Addiction].

There’s a drummer that is not often talked about who played on the first album, his name is Scott Crago – Scott is actually the drummer for the Eagles currently. So we’ve had quite a lineage of players in this particular band – so Jay is entering a position that’s carried a lot of powerful lineage I guess you could say.

The music has been really centred around the drums anyway. Drummers love it cuz they can just go crazy and we don’t really care, as long as we can keep up with them [laughs]

As for the reunion tour itself, it’s presenting new ground for Rob and his fellow groovers to step foot on – even after all these years.

“I know it’s a short run – it’s 7 shows altogether and this is the first time in (I can’t even remember) when we did more than one show. It’s a bit of a dream come true. Time becomes the most valuable treasure in your life at a certain point and it just so happens that we have the time, this time, to do this.

And we cannot wait to see how it all goes down.

To wrap up the interview, Ricky ever-so-professionally donned his best ‘Tallica game face and questioned the inclusion of Australia on Metallica‘s 72 Seasons World Tour. With no make-up dates following the cancellation of the ill-fated Sliptallica Tour in 2019, fans have been waiting for any hints, whispers or clues as to when the Titans will make it back down our way. So Ricky went straight to the source.

“Yes, we will be there and it’s definitely going to happen. I can’t give you specific dates right now but just understand, believe and know that we’re coming down to you. It’s gonna happen. We’re excited.

Kirk and I – whenever we go to Australia, it’s so special because it becomes not just a music experience, it becomes a surf experience! We almost forget we’re on tour because we’ll be going to Bells Beach, or we’re going to Kirra, hanging out on the Gold Coast. We even went surfing in Wollongong and we went to Kalbarri on the West Coast outside of Perth.

We go on these adventures and the music is a part of that. It’s almost the soundtrack to the experience that we’re having with our friends and the ocean – and we haven’t had that in a long time – so I’m looking forward to that part of the 72 Seasons Tour cycle – having that again with Kirk.

And kicking it all off is being down there with you all in a couple weeks. It’s all happening. The party’s getting started.”

Interview by Ricky Aarons.
Write-up by Paul ‘Browny’ Brown.

Infectious Grooves drop into Australia on March 30th.
Tickets via theinfectiousgrooves.com