Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo has credited Ozzy Osbourne as the inspiration behind his famous ‘Crab Walk’.
Speaking in the brand new issue of Metal Hammer ahead of Metallica’s appearance at Ozzy and Black Sabbath’s farewell gig at Villa Park on July 5, Trujillo recalls how his signature move – which sees him squatting low while he plays bass – stems from a gig he played as a member of Ozzy’s solo band.
Trujillo reveals that he first encountered Ozzy during sessions for the latter’s No More Tears album. The bassist’s own band, Infectious Grooves, were recording in the same studio at the time, and they found themselves bonding with the Double O.
“It was like a frat house – the whole complex became Ozzy World and Infectious Grooves happened to be part of it,’ Trujillo tells Metal Hammer. “We were on the same label and that created a connection. Ozzy was always going missing and they’d be looking for him in this big studio complex. He’d always end up in our control room, hanging out.
“He even guest sang on one of our songs, Therapy. He’d come into the room and everything would stop, and we’d play the song to him and he’d do a little Ozzy dance. He was wild and crazy at the time, but he was so fun to be around.”
Such was the bond with Ozzy that he tapped up Trujillo to join his solo band in 1996
“I got a call from Sharon’s office to audition. The funny thing was, I had the drum intro from [Ozzy’s 1981 solo song] Over The Mountain on my answerphone message. And Sharon hears it and was like, ‘Oh my god…’,” he remembers. “So that’s how I got the invite. There were, like, 500 bass players at the actual audition. I was fortunate enough to get the gig. For me, it was a dream come true.”
Trujillo recalls been told that Ozzy might get a little physical onstage.
“I was warned, ‘Hey, you might come out of the gig with scratches and scrapes, he might bite you, he might pull your hair, get ready for it,’ he says. “So I was kind of scared going into my first couple of shows.”
It was during a show in Las Vegas that Trujillo inadvertently came up with that signature move.
“I do remember the show in Las Vegas,” he says. “We go into Iron Man, that main riff, and Ozzy and I kinda start stomping in each others’ faces, and getting lower and lower like two sumo wrestlers. And that’s how the crab walk was born – it was Ozzy and I dancing together to the Iron Man riff.”
In the same interview, Trujillo reveals that Metallica have decided which song they’ll cover at the Back To The Beginning show on July 5.
“We definitely have an idea of what we want to play and we’re very excited. I can honestly say I haven’t seen my bandmates get this excited about covering songs before. We cover songs often, but it feels so good to dive into Sabbath. We have got something up our sleeves, but I don’t want to divulge it.”
Read the full interview with Robert Trujillo, plus Black Sabbath’s last interview, in the brand new issue of Metal Hammer, out now. Order it online and have it delivered straight to your door.
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