In the eighth episode of their documentary series, Anthrax 40, Anthrax revisited their iconic European tour with Metallica and the tragic death of bassist Cliff Burton . Cliff was only 24 years old and was the sole fatality in the bus accident involving the members of Metallica .
According to Scott Ian , Anthrax woke up the morning after a show in Stockholm to find their tour bus parked in front of a hotel in Copenhagen, which was unusual since the band never stayed in hotels. It was there that they received the news of the accident and Cliff's death.
“Nobody was prepared for something like this to happen,” says Charlie Benante . “The moment was vibrant, everyone was in high spirits. The day before we were saying, ‘See you tomorrow, it’s our day off, let’s visit some shops, go out for drinks,’ those were the plans for the next day. The only thing you can do is hug everyone and cry and scream and get angry.”
Charlie went on to tell a story that happened before Cliff's death, when the two of them and some other band members went to a diner and he wanted to know what James Hetfield said in the song "Master of Puppets" right before the guitar solo, to which Cliff supposedly replied: "I think he says 'pancakes'." "For the rest of the tour, whenever they played 'Master of Puppets', Cliff would turn to me and yell 'PANCAKES', and it became a thing. I told this story to James [after the accident] and he started doing it too. I think it was a way to remember Cliff and celebrate his sense of humor," Charlie recounts.
At the end of the episode, the band members reminisce about what it was like to return to touring with Metallica after the mourning period, and Frank Bello states: “ Among The Living [Anthrax album] was dedicated to Cliff because he was one of us.”
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