Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bass Players Human Too?

Hey!

Olé!

- We don't need no stinking guitar players. - We don't.

: I'm Geddy Lee.

Bass player in the band Rush for almost five decades.

But also, a bird photographer,

a wine collector, baseball aficionado, you know, a nerd!

Which got me wondering whether my fellow bass folk are more

than just the shadowy figures

we see skulking around the stage.

I wanna know, "Are Bass Players Human Too?"

Topanga Canyon, California.

Where the mountains meet the sea.

A bohemian paradise nestled between Los Angeles and Malibu.

For decades, artists of every stripe have lived here,

Is that something a TV host would say?

Beats me. I'm just a rookie.

: And action!

: I'm here to meet Robert Trujillo,

bass player for Metallica.

I've met Rob before in a musical context,

but I'm eager to hang with him on a more human level.

What's going on, man?

How you doin'? : You could call it a bass players' play date.

Great to see you, man. - Great to see you.

How you feeling today? - I'm good.

- Good day? Yeah. - I'm great. I'm awesome.

Look at this place. - Yeah.

- It just blows my mind on entry.

Rob's wild Spanish-style home is really something to see.

- We're actually gonna go through the kitchen.

- How did this rocker land in such a magical place?

- On the bass guitar, my friend, Roberto!

: Rob grew up a few miles away in Santa Monica.

As a kid, he was an avid skateboarder and surfer,

and he still is.

In the 80s, you may have seen him in the crossover

thrash band Suicidal Tendencies.

Mr. Robert Trujillo!

: And he spent much of the 90s playing bass with Ozzy!

(* For Whom the Bell Tolls by Metallica)

But in the early 2000s, he landed metal's most coveted gig.

- We want you to be a real member of this band,

not just a hired hand. - Right. Right, absolutely.

- And um... : Oh, wow.

- ...we'd like to offer you, just to show you how serious we are about this,

offer you $1,000,000.

: Talk about a life-changing moment.

For the past 20 years, he's been travelling the world

with Metallica, metal's all-time monster band.

On stage, he's a beast.

: But is he human, too?

We've got pineapples, piña.

And bananas. You know, crystals.

Chloé loves crystals, so you're gonna see a lot of crystals in the house.

: Rob lives in this wonderland

with his wife, Chloé.

Why, thank you very much.

Keep talking, keep talking. : Yeah!

: His daughter Lola, and his son, Ty,

a monster bassist in his own right.

- Awesome. - There ya go.

- There ya go. Thank you. - My pleasure.

Stoked!

: Let's see the rest of the house.

First up on our play date is the tour of their home.

It's kinda like MTV Cribs, but for bass players.

That's really a feast for the eyes.

Yeah.

This is our library.

Um, of course, there's an amp in almost every room

and at least three basses.

We've got five strings,

we've got the Music Man Saber bass.

And the good old T-Bird right here.

: Mm-hmm.

- We're entering what I call the great room.

We've got an upright bass here.

So, this area, this is, uh, temporary right now.

During the pandemic, this was my zone

where I was able to unleash new grooves, new song ideas.

A lot of the new Metallica stuff that we were working on,

that happened here. You've got the surf report right here.

Not the Pro Tools session right now.

- It looks like a Pro Tools session. - You know? Yeah.

Different kind of waves.

Your first introduction to bass,

what was the song, what was the sound?

What made you wanna be a bass player?

- Let's go way back to hearing Motown bass lines,

James Brown songs. - Mm-hmm.

- All of that bass somehow resonated with me.

I felt that.

And then, my first concert was The Isley Brothers,

an amazing funk rock band.

And I remember everybody being on their feet

and they were all rocking out and dancing.

And what I did take from that was

hey, this music is really driven by the rhythm section,

the drums and the bass. It was all about the groove.

And that was the first time that I realized that

that's what I wanted to do.

- Now, do you find every time you pick up

a different instrument, it makes you play a tiny, little bit differently?

Absolutely, yeah.

- And might inspire a different kind of creative spark?

- This eight string is great 'cause of the chordal movements.

It's a writing machine, you know.

You can... yeah.

It's like having your guitar player and a bass player

in the palm of your hands.

Yeah, yeah.

: Yup, from sound waves to real waves,

Rob is taking me to the beaches of Malibu

to share another one of his lifelong passions.

Although, I've got to admit,

I'm kinda more into the birdwatching.

I'm a 69-year-old Jewish man from Canada.

So, uh, I know nothing about surfing.

- Okay. - When you've finished a tour,

how many times a week will you come down here?

- If the waves are good, as much as possible.

The minute I see the Pacific Ocean, it's already healing.

Conditioning is important in what we do, you know.

- Absolutely. - The shows are long.

- Yeah. - So, it is a workout

and there's a lot of cardio involved,

and rotating mic positions.

And surfing's obviously great for your cardio and your exercise,

but it's also therapeutic, you know?

You can work out your problems in the ocean.

It's also something that when you're on tour,

it's a great way to kinda experience the world.

Kirk and I, like, we've surfed all over the world,

Australia or New Zealand, Hawaii.

And of course, Kirk and I actually created this friendship

and this bond before we were even playing in Metallica together.

- Oh, really? - He surfed, I surfed,

and I think that helped get the audition too,

was because of him, as a surfer.

So, thank you, surfing.

And so, you know, when...

I just saw somebody go under there.

Right, right, right.

So, obviously,

this is a death-defying sport, in many ways.

- Oh, this is... - The digits, man. You gotta protect the digits.

Yeah, man.

There's obviously that risk. But with surfing,

you just kinda gotta go

with your instincts and your abilities.

And you take your beatings and you accept it.

: Oh!

- That's awesome. - Feels good, right?

That's awesome.

Little Pacific on my feet. - There you go.

: All right, all right, Rob's convinced me.

This city boy from the Great White North

needs to give surfing a go.

Hey, this ain't as tough as it looks.

I'm already getting the hang of it.

Don't snake me, Rob!

Geddy, you're such a Barney!

Whoo!

: Now, this ride is more my style.

Veer right, veer right.

: This is Dogtown, AKA Venice Beach,

Rob's stomping grounds for much of his life.

: Cop, cop, cop.

Ooh!

: We're headed to the offices of "Juice,"

a skate and surf magazine that

has featured Rob's love for boarding.

Here, we meet Dan Levy,

central figure of Dogtown's legendary skate culture.

- Wow, this is a whole new thing!

Between two bass players. - Between two bass players.

Dan, can you give us a brief history

in the culture of skating?

: Where we are right now is just north Venice,

like right where Santa Monica kind of starts.

So, back in the day, there was a very famous pier

called the POP Pier, which was Pacific Ocean Park Pier.

That's where like, Tony Alva and Jay Adams

and the Zephyr Team were formed.

And then, surf-skate style and aggression was born.

You hear about the attitude and punk rock.

Performance-based atmosphere was all born right here.

Not to mention the graffiti culture,

the photography, everything, it's all here.

Like, it's like a bohemian beach side of creativity.

: I grew up here.

As a little kid, this boardwalk here and the energy of it,

it was very exciting and it was a little bit scary.

You would see the Manson family

walking down the boardwalk back in the 70s.

The Hare Krishna community was very strong.