“As I always do, whenever I’m doing something away from Metallica, I always let my guys know.”

Following the Jason Newsted incident in the ’90s, which led to the bassist’s eventual departure from the world’s biggest Metal band, common knowledge among fans was that Metallica and side projects simply don’t gel.However, it’s been decades since James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich’s kerfuffle with Newsted over the bassist’s nascent supergroup Echobrain, and going through that whole experience — as well as having years to ruminate on it and mature in other ways — seems to have made James and Lars much more accepting of side projects, as most recently (and most decidedly) proven by the release of Kirk Hammett’s debut solo EP “Portals” in 2022.

Robert Trujillo, on the other hand, has been enjoying an on-and-off relationship with the supergroup Infectious Grooves, although he admits in a new interview on the “Everblack Podcast” that it tends to be more “off” than “on.” This year, however, proved to carry one of those “on” moments, when Trujillo and his former Suicidal Tendencies bandmate Mike Muir will embark on a tour, with the former Slipknot drummer Jay Weinberg manning the drums. Trujillo said (transcription via Killer Guitar Rigs):

“So, what’s happened over the last 20 years — we’ve done three shows in 20 years, that’s crazy — is [that] every once in a while, I get a call from [Mike Muir].”

“And he’ll see… Maybe he’s checking out my schedule, as it appears with Metallica, and then if he notices, ‘Okay, Suicidal [Tendencies] is not doing anything during this two-month period, Metallica is not doing…’ — which is very rare, not doing anything during that time period as well — ‘Let’s see if we can throw a couple shows together.'”

Although Trujillo notes how their schedules aren’t compatible in the vast majority of cases, this year turned out different:

“It just so happened that these five months, this whole sort of break from the Metallica tour allowed us to [do something else]. Mike was like, ‘Let’s do some shows. Are you available?’ And I looked at my schedule. I said, ‘Actually, I am.'”

Trujillo added that he immediately let James, Lars and Kirk know about the plans, noting that his bandmates were “actually very supportive”:

“And of course, as I always do, whenever I’m doing something away from Metallica, I always let my guys know — Lars, James, and Kirk.”

“I had the opportunity to work with Ozzy on his new record, or this one-off with Infectious [Grooves], or whatever it is. We just try to stay connected on that. And they were actually very supportive. You know, ‘Have fun!'”