What do you get the man who has everything? It is a question that the members of Metallica probably ask each other every time it’s one of their birthdays. “He’s in Metallica,” they probably say, “what more could he possibly want?” And then they go and devise some plan that only influential and famous hard rock stars can, and arrange for a rock legend to pie their unsuspecting bandmate in the face with a birthday cake. That’ll do.
Metallica’s Robert Trujillo can verify this, for it was the bassist whose face was on the receiving end of a wad of sponge and icing back in 2016. Metallica were appearing at Neil Young’s annual charity bash the Bridge School Benefit in 2016, playing on October 23, Trujillo’s birthday. They ended their short, nine-song set performing a cover of Buffalo Springfield’s Mr. Soul with Young himself, and it was at the song’s end that the Rockin’ In The Free World icon decided to give Trujillo his birthday present.
“The most surreal moment of my life was when Neil Young pied me,” Trujillo told this writer last year. “I didn’t think I was gonna get pied that night. We were doing the song with Neil and who pies me first? Neil does, like, ‘Happy birthday!’. I was like, ‘This is really crazy.’”
The pieing occurred on the last note of the set, Trujillo recalled. “I’m looking at Neil and it’s almost like in slow motion,” he laughed. “I just see a pie hit me in the grill.”
The bassist said it was one of many memories he’d always treasure. “All those kinds of experiences have been really special,” he said. “Sometimes you’ve got to pinch yourself and realise this is the reality and it’s pretty special. I don’t think things for granted, I always understand what it takes to get here and how fortunate we are.”
Luckily, the event is not just stored inside Trujillo’s memory as it was captured on camera too. Witness the Young/Metallica team-up and consequent cake attack below:
