Jane’s Addiction Bassist Reveals What Shocked Him At Metallica Audition

Back in the early 2000s when bassist Jason Newsted left Metallica, the group would go on to audition a host of players including Pepper Keenan, (Corrosion of Conformity) Scott Reeder (Kyushu), Danny Lohner (Nine Inch Nails), Jeordie White (Marilyn Manson), Chris Wyse (The Cult), Robert Trujillo (Suicidal Tendencies, Ozzy) and Eric Avery (Jane’s Addiction). The job, of course, eventually went to Trujillo who has been in the band ever since.

In a new interview with Bass Player magazine , Avery talked about his audition and revealed what shocked him the most about the experience.

“It was Flea who first planted the idea that I might actually get the gig,” he explained. “I was talking to him a few days before I went to audition, and he was like, ‘Well, why wouldn’t you get the gig?’ I said, ‘I’m not that guy. I’m not Metallica’s new bass player.’ Flea was like, ‘Why not? They write rad music, and you’re a great bassist.'”

“Up to then, I hadn’t really even considered it. I was just looking at it as a chance to go play ‘Master of Puppets’ with Metallica for an afternoon. I remember being at a small dinner party with some friends the night before the audition. They were like, ‘So, are you excited? Tomorrow you could become Metallica’s bass player, you’ll become a millionaire!’ My friend said she could see it all beginning to dawn on me, and I got this deer-in-the-headlights look, and I receded from the conversation in terror. It was a shocking realization, but it turned out to be an amazing day.”

Avery said that the audition gave him a new perspective on the band. “They flew me up and gave me the red-carpet treatment, which was really charming,” he said. “When we started playing, I was shocked that it was just guys with amps facing each other as if we were in a garage. It was like hearing Metallica as if they were playing in their garage and we were all 20. We played through ‘Master of Puppets’, ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’, and ‘Fuel’. It was a lot of fun.”