“Not that Kirk doesn’t get enough solos, but Cliff took his solo, which I think is just so cool”: Robert Trujillo on the time Metallica mixed up their solos…
This week would have marked the 64th birthday of Cliff Burton, and his legacy hasn’t gone unnoticed. Current Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo paid tribute while reflecting on some of the band’s most iconic material during an appearance on the Metallica Report podcast.
The conversation turned to Master Of Puppets and its sprawling instrumental centerpiece, “Orion.” Trujillo shared an intriguing behind-the-scenes detail about the track’s soaring mid-section bass feature — a part that, according to him, wasn’t originally meant for Burton at all.
“Kirk was actually supposed to take that solo,” Trujillo revealed, referring to guitarist Kirk Hammett. “He’d stepped away from the studio, and when he came back the next day, Cliff had already recorded it. The solo was done — and there wasn’t one left for Kirk.”
Trujillo said it was Hammett himself who later told him the story, adding with a laugh that while Kirk certainly isn’t short on solos, Burton claiming that moment on “Orion” was a bold and brilliant move. “Cliff taking that solo — that’s just so cool,” he said.
Though “Orion” isn’t a nightly fixture in Metallica’s setlists, the band still dusts it off from time to time. According to Trujillo, it holds a special place not just for fans, but for the members themselves.
“It’s one of those songs that immediately pulls us together,” he explained. “There’s something about its emotion and personality. It’s infectious — you feel like you have to be locked in with each other, and with the audience.”
Much of that connection, he suggested, comes from Burton’s enduring presence within the music. “Is it Cliff’s spirit? Absolutely,” Trujillo said. “That song is probably the closest thing to capturing who he was. And that’s why, when we play it, you feel that unity. It’s about being together.”