Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo recalled being in the middle of a crime scene at a young age.
Trujillo, 59, shared his frightening encounter with the Manson family, as the musician detailed running for cover during a shootout.
"Long story short… Charlie Mason just had gotten arrested… and [I’m in] Hawthorne, California, I’m staying at my grandma’s house," Trujillo began on the "Time to Relax with The Offspring" podcast. "The army surplus shop there around the corner on Hawthorne Boulevard was robbed."
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"Basically, the Manson family had this grand scheme – you can check it out on the internet – they were going to rob the gun store and get their ammo and everything, and they were going to go to LAX," he continued.
"They were going to go to LAX and their plan was to hijack a 747 and demand that Charlie gets sent to them, and they’re going to take this plane to God knows where. This is what they were thinking."
Trujillo went on to say that the group’s plan didn’t work and the police pulled up to the scene.
Moments after, there was a shootout. The rocker described his harrowing experience as he hid to avoid the crime scene.
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"We were hearing gunshots, the whole deal. So, all of a sudden you get the [police helicopters], and they’re flying around. They’re talking through their intercom, whatever they got going up there: ‘Everybody, take cover’… And so my dad turns off all the lights. We’re hiding in the shower. And it was really eerie. It was kind of like that scene in ‘Close Encounters [of the Third Kind]’ where you see the light come through the windows."
"My dad at one point opened the door to see what was going on – ‘Get the f--- back in the house now,’" he recalled his father yelling.
The Metallica band member added that a Manson family member was hiding in the carport that his grandparents owned and then was surrounded by police.
"Luckily, there was a laundry room that separated the unit that we were in, so he would’ve gone into the window of the laundry room, which could have been the window of the house and then taken hostage."
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After the chaotic incident, Trujillo laughed and said he and his cousins were searching for bullets the following day. He additionally shared that cult activity was normal growing up in the Venice Beach area.
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Mary Brunner, Catherine "Gypsy" Share, Dennis Rice, Charles Lovett, Larry Bailey and Kenneth Como were involved in the Aug. 21, 1971, incident that led to a shootout with the authorities, with Brunner and Share being injured, according to People via Vox.
Meanwhile, Metallica is currently on the road for their M72 World Tour and will continue their performances into 2024, playing in Europe and North America.
Metallica band members are Trujillo, Kirk Hammett, James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich.
