Jane’s Addiction Bassist Reveals What ‘Shocked’ Him at Metallica Audition: ‘It Was Like Hearing Metallica as if They Were Playing in Their Garage’

“We played through ‘Master of Puppets’, ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’, and ‘Fuel’. It was a lot of fun.”

Jane’s Addiction bassist Eric Avery recalled auditioning for Metallica in the early 2000s, noting how “shocked” he was to see the iconic band rock out as “just guys with amps facing each other as if we were in a garage.”

Around the time Metallica was looking for a new bassist after the departure of Jason Newsted, Eric Avery had already put a lot of ground between him and Jane’s Addiction, as he didn’t take part in the short-lived 2001 reunion. After collaborating with Alanis Morissette and playing in bands of his own such as Deconstruction and Polar Bear, Avery got the opportunity to audition for Lars Ulrich & Co. — although, as he told Bass Player in a recently published interview, he was “basically looking for a story to tell the grandkids” rather than steady employment.

According to Avery, his colleague from Red Hot Chili Peppers was one of his greatest supporters in the process:

“It was Flea who first planted the idea that I might actually get the gig. I was talking to him a few days before I went to audition, and he was like, ‘Well, why wouldn’t you get the gig?’ I said, ‘I’m not that guy. I’m not Metallica’s new bass player.’ Flea was like, ‘Why not? They write rad music, and you’re a great bassist.'”

“Up to then, I hadn’t really even considered it. I was just looking at it as a chance to go play ‘Master of Puppets’ with Metallica for an afternoon.”

He added:

“I remember being at a small dinner party with some friends the night before the audition. They were like, ‘So, are you excited? Tomorrow you could become Metallica’s bass player, you’ll become a millionaire!’ My friend said she could see it all beginning to dawn on me, and I got this deer-in-the-headlights look, and I receded from the conversation in terror. It was a shocking realization, but it turned out to be an amazing day.”

As for the audition itself, Avery recalled how “shocked” he was by Metallica’s adherence to their garage band roots:

“They flew me up and gave me the red-carpet treatment, which was really charming. When we started playing, I was shocked that it was just guys with amps facing each other as if we were in a garage. It was like hearing Metallica as if they were playing in their garage and we were all 20. We played through ‘Master of Puppets’, ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’, and ‘Fuel’. It was a lot of fun.”

Eventually, the role went to Robert Trujillo, and after a brief spell with The Smashing Pumpkins, Avery found a new home in Garbage. Eric Avery returned to Jane’s Addiction in 2022 to take part in the classic lineup’s reunion, although the band’s future is looking uncertain following the recent caustic on-stage fallout.