Original subtitles

- Hey!

- Olé! (Rob chuckles)

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

(theme song)

(Geddy): 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?"

(goat bleating)

(heavy metal music)

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.

(director): And action!

(hands clapping)

(Geddy): 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'? (Geddy): 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?

(crowd cheering)

- On the bass guitar, my friend, Roberto!

(Geddy): 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!

(Geddy): 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... (Rob): Oh, wow.

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

offer you $1,000,000.

(Geddy): 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.

(Robert beatboxing)

On stage, he's a beast.

(James shouts indistinctly)

(Geddy): But is he human, too?

(birds chirping)

- 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.

(Geddy): Rob lives in this wonderland

with his wife, Chloé.

Why, thank you very much.

Keep talking, keep talking. (Chloé): Yeah!

(Geddy): 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!

(Geddy): 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.

(Geddy): Mm-hmm.

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

We've got an upright bass here. (bass plucks)

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.

(laughs)

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.

(plucking)

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

in the palm of your hands.

- Yeah, yeah.

(**)

(waves crashing)

(calm ethereal music)

(Geddy): 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.

(chuckles) 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.

(surf rock music)

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. (Geddy laughs)

So, thank you, surfing.

(wave rushes)

- And so, you know, when... (laughs)

I just saw somebody go under there.

- Right, right, right.

(playful music) - So, obviously,

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

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

- Yeah, man. (Geddy laughs)

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.

(graceful orchestral music)

(Rob): Oh!

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

- That's awesome.

Little Pacific on my feet. - There you go.

(Geddy): All right, all right, Rob's convinced me.

This city boy from the Great White North

needs to give surfing a go.

(surf rock music)

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!

(Geddy): Now, this ride is more my style.

- Veer right, veer right.

(Geddy): This is Dogtown, AKA Venice Beach,

Rob's stomping grounds for much of his life.

(Rob): Cop, cop, cop.

Ooh!

(Geddy): 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?

(Dan): 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.

(heavy metal music)

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.

(Rob): 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.

I mean, I loved the percussion and everything,

but that was like, wow, this is intense!

- First thing that drew me when I walked in the room was this.

- This was the first skate photo ever shot

at the Venice Park before it was done being built.

This is Jesse Martinez who,

for Dogtown culture, is probably one of the epitomes of it.

And this is about 6 in the morning.

I don't know, you're lucky if you get one iconic song maybe,

or one iconic photo, and this one, to me, is that.

And it's in focus, which is a bonus for me, so I'm psyched. (Rob): There you go.

(* For Whom the Bell Tolls * by Metallica)

(Geddy): It was local skaters that led the initiative

to build the Venice Skate Park.

It's a vital community hub

where local kids practise their grinds, rails, and fakies,

whatever the hell those are.

I'd step on that thing

and I'd go flying in a heartbeat. - Same here.

Yeah. - But you,

you do that. - I don't ride these bowls.

Hell no.

That'd be my death wish.

- Oh, is that what you call grinding?

- Yeah. Yeah, that's grinding.

He's the best at that. (crowd cheers)

- He's really good. - He switched his feet around.

- Yeah, yeah. - He just spun his feet around.

- Yeah. - That's insane.

(Rob): Like, watch this.

He works the whole park.

- You're amazing. - Yeah. - Thanks!

- Incredible.

(**)

- Oh!

- Skating kinda teaches you humility.

- Yeah. Oh, yeah. - Because you're gonna fall.

- Yeah. Yeah, exactly. - And you just gotta get back up again.

- Yeah.

Keep trying, right?

(Geddy): Oh, yeah! Right on!

(Rob): Yeah, bring it!

Bring it over here! Come on, over here! Yeah, yeah!

- That was major, dude! Major!

(birds chirping)

(Geddy): After being wowed by the skaters,

it's back to Casa Trujillo,

where Robert shares the twisted tale of what

I consider to be one of the most

important instruments on the planet.

We're sitting in the presence of the bass.

- The Bass of Doom. - The Bass of Doom.

Jaco Pastorius.

(* Portrait of Tracy by Jaco Pastorius)

Jaco Pastorius, who was the Jimi Hendrix of bass,

a unique and remarkable player

that elevated jazz bass, funk bass,

into a whole different area.

- I saw Jaco play three times

and I've known the Pastorius family for many, many years.

Jaco had that long hair and he reminded me of

all the skateboarder, surfers that I grew up with in the neighbourhood.

- And not only was his playing pyrotechnic,

but he had a sound that was haunting.

Part of that beautiful tone was down to the instrument itself,

a 1962 Fender Jazz Bass

which, according to legend,

Jaco modified by removing all of the frets with a butter knife.

- The instrument itself has its own personality

and its own existence. It's been through a lot.

There's a lot of drama that's followed this thing around.

Some people have even said, "That bass is haunted," you know.

- You see old pictures of this bass.

- You know, it doesn't look like this.

- Right. - It got damaged at one point

in the middle 80s. - Yeah.

- And Jaco wanted a new laminate put on the front.

- He did. He wanted a new, fresh look, front and back.

But the neck is the same. The neck is...

you can see it's been in traction, you know.

You've got a... - Yeah, it's damaged.

- ...a lot of damage here.

But the feel is just... - It's just...

(bass guitar sings deeply)

- You can just do that. It's...

and it's already singing.

- There you go.

(* Portrait of Tracy resumes)

(crowd cheers and claps)

- Nicely done. - Chords like that.

- Yeah, yeah. - I mean,

who does that? Who does...?

(bass sings deeply)

It's got the personality

and can only sound like that on this instrument, you know.

It just speaks.

(**)

(Geddy): Jaco lost the bass in 1986

and tragically died a year later.

Rob helped the family produce a film on Jaco's life,

and it was around that time

that the bass mysteriously resurfaced.

(Rob): A collector had it.

The family had no idea that

the bass was even out there, you know.

It'd been missing for so many years.

So, there was a legal dispute

and I basically sponsored the money

as it was very important that

the instrument gets back to the family

and the family circle.

- His life was not a straight line.

It was up and down and there was some...

- Yeah. - ...tragic moments.

- Yeah. - And so, to see the bass back

into the family hands, thanks to you,

I think is what I would call a mitzvah.

You know, you've done a good thing for the universe.

- I'm gonna hand this over to the man.

- I'm not gonna play any Jaco parts 'cause I can't.

(bass guitar sings deeply)

It's just a privilege to hold this instrument. - Yeah, it is.

(**)

(Geddy): My visit has been such a blast

learning about surf and skate culture

and noodling on one of the world's great basses.

I'm not sure what could top that.

(Rob): Hola! (Lala): Hi.

(Rob speaking Spanish)

(Geddy): Oh, yeah, LA tacos.

They make everything better.

Lala's Kitchen. (Rob): Yeah, Lala's Kitchen.

Local style. - Love it.

(Lala and Rob speaking Spanish)

(Geddy): Put my stuff on. (Rob): Your salsa.

This is deadly right here.

Cilantro, savoyas.

(Geddy): It's Saturday night in Santa Monica.

Rob's son, Ty, has a band of his own called OTTTO,

which has really piqued my curiosity.

So, Ty's band is a three piece. (Rob): They are.

Oh, yeah. - And how would you describe their sound?

- They've got great melodies,

heavy riffs, cool bass lines.

A lot of energy up there.

I get tired just looking at 'em. - Right on.

- That really sucks ya into the pit.

I mean, it's like, first song, you know, you're...

you're 10 seconds in and it's like, wah! Psh!

(laughs) You can't help yourself.

So, there's a lot of fun music, you know.

A lot of great bands.

This is local style. This is how we do it.

- Yeah, but this feels like community. - Yeah.

- One thing I've really been impressed with today is

that everywhere we went,

there was a different sense of community.

- Mm-hmm. - The surfing community, the skater community.

- Mm-hmm. - And now, this feels like

a family community gig.

All supporting the next generation.

That's a tribute to you and the life that you lead.

- Well... - Very human life you lead.

- Thank you. I believe in helping the youth,

as much as possible.

If they have a passion for music,

for writing, acting, art, whatever it is, you know,

creativity, us, as adults,

should help the young generation cultivate that.

- Well, you're giving them tools to have a creative and happy life.

- We're doing the best we can. - I'll say cheers with this taco to them, man.

- Cheers with that taco. - Yeah.

(indistinct shouting in background)

Is that them? - That's them.

- All right, do we gotta go.

- Yeah, let's do this.

I'm gonna go jam out. I'll be right back!

(energetic heavy metal music playing)

(crowd cheers)

(Geddy): What an eye-opening trip it's been

for this Canadian snowbird.

Whether he's surfing the waves

or riding down the boardwalk,

Rob is equally at home in all these worlds.

He's involved. He's supportive.

And that's the epitome of a caring human.

(crowd cheers)

- Oh, he's got some shades?? too, right?

- Yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah!

Subtitling: difuze