Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo reached far into the archives to uncover his favorite deep cut to perform live in concert with the band. The subject came up during a recent chat with the musician that appeared on the mixed martial arts website MMA Junkie.

The bassist explained that his pick, a non-single track from 1988's …And Justice for All, represents for him some of the more progressive aspects of the influential heavy metal act founded by singer-guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich back in 1981.

Hear Trujillo's full interview near the bottom of this post.

Trujillo explains, "My favorite deep cut with Metallica is, by far, 'The Frayed Ends of Sanity.' That is a song I think we've played twice, maybe — not more than three times. We did play it a couple of times on tour, but it is a rarity."

The song is "probably the craziest" of Metallica's entire catalog, he adds.

"What I like about that particular song is that it has all the ingredients that I like about Metallica. It has the power grooves, the stuff that makes you headbang, but at the same time, it gets crazy in the middle section," the bassist continues. "It feels progressive like that, and that's what I actually like about it because there's something that's loose and reckless, but at the same time it's tight, so it has to be a conceived body of music in that section." [via BraveWords]

Of course, Trujillo covered many other topics during the Nov. 26 talk with MMA Junkie's Mike Bohn. After all, the rocker is nearing two decades into his Metallica career, and it's almost astonishing to think he's now the longest-tenured bassist in the band, followed by his predecessor, Jason Newsted, the late Cliff Burton and original bassist Ron McGovney.

In September, Metallica released a remastered reissue of their 1991 "Black Album." Around the same time, Ulrich said that it was "way too early" to talk about a new Metallica album, although the band has seemingly been working on one for a while.

More recently, Metallica launched a MasterClass series about all about being in a band, and Trujillo covered rock instrumental "Frankenstein" with Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett to celebrate Halloween.

Metallica's Robert Trujillo Talks to MMA Junkie - Nov. 26, 2021

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