As long as there is communication, everything can be solved.
I've been a baseball fan in the early part of my life, so through the '70s and the '80s, I was a huge fan. I actually followed the Dodgers back then, back in the Kirk Gibson years, Steve Garvey.
Traditionally, the role of the bass player was just to keep things simple and solid, so it's really a special thing when you can get a player that can actually bring in a lot of presence and also a visual presence, too.
I feel that music is such an inspirational form of energy, as baseball is. And especially with Metallica, believe it or not, our shows are very physical. Sports is a very physical thing, too.
I've been wearing Vans since I was a little kid. I wear them on stage, and I grew up skateboarding and surfing.
We used to go to Palm Springs, ditch school when I was in eleventh grade, and go hang out poolside with our ghetto blaster and listen to Pat Metheny 'Offramp' and kind of trip out on a lot of his music.
Sabbath is always some of the best music ever. And the reason is because it grooves. It's funky. It's heavy. It's got lots of great changes, twists, and turns.
What we're doing is special and unique in its own way but still keeping it heavy. For me as a listener, part of the journey I'm on with Metallica, there's just a certain edge that needs to be there.
With the fretless bass, you have a different tone and different sound, a different dynamic to the instrument, so you can really make it sing.
I feel like I've always been a great mediator.
I call it a process of elimination. You're nurturing ideas, and that takes time. What happens is there's so many, what I say, 'great ideas.' What you have to do is try to consolidate them and put them into one song, and then your song becomes eight minutes long.
You can make an album, and people won't get it. Or won't connect with it. Or won't - whatever is going on in the universe at that time, it doesn't really register.
It's really, really great; it's special when people embrace your music.
Sometimes artists die young, and we don't know exactly why. I think that, in life, you have these special individuals, whether it's Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin or Kurt Cobain. They're on this journey - they're on this earth to change things, to make things incredible - and then they're not with us anymore.
I knew Rocky George, the guitar player, 'cause I went to junior high school with him, so I've known him for many years.
The cool thing about the smaller gigs - it's the intimacy. You really feel connected to the crowd.
With Metallica, it's hard. I tend to like it all, but the older stuff, when we get into the deeper cuts, it really excites me personally.
When I first heard the song 'Eruption,' which is Eddie Van Halen's most famous solo composition, I was confused because it sounded incredible, but I didn't know what it was. I didn't know if it was a guitar. I didn't know if it was a synthesizer or a keyboard. I couldn't figure it out.
Playing with Ozzy was a dream come true.
I've played with the best drummers in rock, ranging from Josh Freese to Brooks Wackerman to even Dave Lombardo.
