"While Kirk already has plenty of solo moments, I think it's awesome that Cliff took his turn," says Robert Trujillo about the time Metallica swapped solos.] - Guitar | Technique

Original Metallica bassist Cliff Burton would have turned 64 this week and the man currently holding down that position in the band – Robert Trujillo – has been honouring him and talking about some of the band’s biggest songs on the Metallica Report podcast.

Talk turned to Master Of Puppets and the eight-minute instrumental track Orion. Trujillo let slip a little nugget, that the bass solo on the track was originally supposed to a Kirk Hammett guitar solo.

“He was originally supposed to play the solo there, Kirk was,” Trujillo said of the track. “And he was away from the studio, came back the next day and Cliff had laid the track. He played the solo there, and there was no solo for Kirk.”

Trujillo said that it was Hammett that explained the story of Orion’s bass solo to him.

“Not that Kirk doesn’t get enough solos, but Cliff took his solo, which I think is just so cool.”

Metallica still play Orion live occasionally and Trujillo noted that it remains a favourite not just of fans, but of the band members themselves: “This is a song that automatically brings us together and it has to do with the emotion and the personality of the song,” he said. “It’s so infectious that you have to be together and you also have to be together with the fans.”

Part of that is that it reminds everyone of Burton. “Is it the spirit of Cliff? Absolutely. The song is probably the closest thing to the spirit of Cliff, and that’s why you need to be together.”

Meanwhile, back in 2026, Metallica recommence their M72 world tour, which has been going on for three years now, in May in Athens. They return to the UK in late June for dates at Glasgow’s Hampden Park, the Principality Stadium in Cardiff and two nights at the London Stadium on July 3 and 5.

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