"His kid goes to our kid’s school, he's a lovely guy": how Metallica's Robert Trujillo and James singer Tim Booth became unexpected lunch buddies

28 Sep 2024, 08:20 · louder

By Niall Doherty
( Classic Rock )
published 28 September 2024

The James frontman has been hanging out with the Metallica man in LA

(Image credit: Monica Schipper/Getty Images Andy Willsher/Redferns/Getty Images))

It must be an unwritten rule in Metallica that members of the hard rock giants should have at least one Mancunian indie-rock star in their friendship group. It’s always felt like an odd pairing that Lars Ulrich and Noel Gallagher are good friends but now it transpires another member of Metallica has made in-roads into the Manc-Metallica Club too. In an interview with this writer earlier this year, Tim Booth of veteran indie crew James explained that him and Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo were lunch buddies. It came to light as he explained a funny if slightly awkward anecdote involving Trujillo.

“I was in Topanga, Los Angeles with Robert, a lovely guy,” he began. “It was the first time I’d really hung out with him – his kid goes to our kid’s school and we were having lunch together, a lovely meal.”

Booth said the pair hadn’t spoken about it their respective backgrounds, and that as far as he knew, Trujillo had no idea he was even in a band, let alone a band that has sold over 25 million albums and had a run of sizeable UK hits. They were just two dads having some lunch.

“These two fans come up and go, ‘Excuse me?’,” Booth continued. “And of course Robert turns to them, not knowing what I do or anything, and he’s like, ‘Oh yes, of course, and gets out his pen to sign something and they go, ‘Are you Tim Booth from James?’ and they do a real fan number on me in front of him. He just knows me as Luca’s dad! It was so funny and such a nice little flip moment because I was expecting it to be Metallica fans. I wasn’t expected James fans in Topanga. That was a funny moment.”

What with Lars and Robert now paired up, we just need Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield to complete the set. Maybe Kirk could become mates with one of the Courteeners, and I think James and one of Blossoms could be a pretty decent duo.

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Niall Doherty

Niall Doherty is a writer and editor whose work can be found in Classic Rock, The Guardian, Music Week, FourFourTwo, on Apple Music and more. Formerly the Deputy Editor of Q magazine, he co-runs the music Substack letter The New Cue with fellow former Q colleagues Ted Kessler and Chris Catchpole. He is also Reviews Editor at Record Collector. Over the years, he's interviewed some of the world's biggest stars, including Elton John, Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, Muse, Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Depeche Mode, Robert Plant and more. Radiohead was only for eight minutes but he still counts it.

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