Metallica’s Robert Trujillo reflects on the harrowing conflict he and his family had with members of the Manson Family in the ’70s.
The bassist, 59, appeared on The Offspring’s podcast It’s time to relax with The Offspring on Thursday and told the story of the time he took cover during the Manson Family’s infamous raid on a military surplus warehouse in Hawthorne, California that resulted in a shootout in 1971.
The heavy metal musician explained that the event happened shortly after Charles Manson was arrested, and he, two of his cousins and his father were staying at his grandparents’ apartment in Hawthorne at the time.
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“Long story short: Charlie Mason has just been arrested and [I’m in] Hawthorne, California, I was staying at my grandmother’s house,” Trujillo recalled, setting the scene for the podcast hosts. “The military surplus store around the corner on Hawthorne Boulevard was robbed.”
“Basically, the Manson family had this big plan — you can check it out online — they wanted to rob a gun store and take their ammunition and everything, and they went to LAX,” he explained of the incident. “They were going to go to LAX and their plan was to hijack the 747 and demand that Charlie be sent to them, and they were going to take this plane to God knows where. That’s what they thought.”
Roker continued, “Obviously, the plan didn’t work. The cops show up. There is a shooting.”
Robert Trujillo of Metallica performs in Indio, California on October 8, 2023.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Power Trip
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The Metallica member then spoke about his terrifying experience in hiding. He said: “We heard the shots, the whole deal. That’s how you suddenly get [police helicopters], and they fly around. They talk over the intercom, no matter what’s going on: ‘Everyone take cover’… And so my dad turns off all the lights. We hide in the shower. And it was really creepy. It was like that scene in Close encounters [of the Third Kind] where you see the light coming through the windows.”
“My dad opened the door at one point to see what was going on – ‘Get the fuck back in the house, now,'” he added, mimicking his father’s intense tone.
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Trujillo explained that one Manson family member ended up hiding in a carport that belonged to his grandparents’ unit in their apartment complex. “He was hiding in a carport, so of course they surrounded our place,” he said. “Luckily there was a laundromat that shared the unit we were in, so he would have gone through the window of the laundromat, which could have been the window of the house, and then he would have been taken hostage.”
Trujillo ended the anecdote by joking that he and his relatives went looking for bullets the morning after, and admitted that he was often afraid of cult activity in the area when he was growing up as a child in Venice Beach.
According to Vox, Mary Brunner, Catherine “Gypsy” Share, Dennis Rice, Charles Lovett, Larry Bailey and Kenneth Como were involved in an incident on August 21, 1971 that resulted in a shootout with authorities and Brunner and Share were injured.
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Trujillo appeared on the podcast while Metallica is in the middle of their massive M72 world tour in support 72 Seasonstheir 11th studio album which was released in April.
The Grammy winners kicked off their tour in early April and have four more concerts to wrap up in the US this November.
In 2024, Master of Puppets will tour Europe in the spring and return to North America for their No Repeat Weekend leg of their M72 World Tour, playing two weekend shows each night with different lineups and openers.
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Source: HIS Education