Cliff Burton , the talented bassist for Metallica in their early career, died in one of the most tragic accidents in metal history. At the time of the sad event, the band was on tour promoting their classic album Master of Puppets , released a few months earlier, when the bus carrying all the members and crew of Metallica was involved in the accident.
Although he only recorded three albums with Metallica, the young bassist, just 24 years old, left a lasting legacy in the band and, consequently, in the history of heavy metal itself, being a reference for all who have occupied that position in the band since then and a living memory in the minds of his colleagues and fans.
Cliff Burton's death: what happened?
On September 27, 1986, the course of Metallica changed forever. The night before, the band had performed a great show in Stockholm, Sweden, where the last photos of Cliff Burton alive .
After the performance, the band would continue their bus trip to their next destination: Copenhagen, Denmark, but not before a game of cards between Burton and guitarist Kirk Hammett . As Ultimate Classic Rock , the winner of the game could choose where to sleep on the tour bus that night. Cliff Burton emerged victorious and claimed the bunk previously occupied by his bandmate.
“On that European tour, we had a really bad bus. [In the card game], the first card Cliff picked up was the Ace of Spades. He looked at me and said, 'I want your seat!' and I said, 'Okay, take my bunk. I'll sleep up front, it's probably better that way,'” Hammett recounted about that night in an interview with the VH1 program Behind The Music .
Early the next morning, around 7 a.m. on the fateful September 27th, while the musicians were still asleep after a successful night of drinking, the bus skidded off the road and overturned. Startled, the members of Metallica exited the vehicle and discovered Cliff Burton's body underneath. During the skid, the bassist was thrown through the window and the bus landed on top of him. Reports indicate that attempts were made to rescue Burton by lifting the bus with a crane, but the equipment slipped and the vehicle fell on top of the young musician a second time.
According to the driver, the bus skidded due to the alleged presence of black ice on the road, a phenomenon in which a layer of glassy ice forms on a surface. This phenomenon is usually virtually invisible to drivers.
Still shaken and drunk, James Hetfield claimed he walked several kilometers down the road immediately after the accident and found no trace of ice, which resulted in a violent reaction against the driver. Some band members suspected the man was on drugs or had fallen asleep at the wheel, something the driver denied. "I wanted to finish him off right there," the vocalist told VH1 .
Scott Ian and the moving account of Cliff's death.
Metallica's tour, interrupted by Cliff Burton's accident and death, was a joint tour with Anthrax , with whom he was more than just a colleague; he was also a close friend. As a result, the other band also felt the impact of this loss firsthand.
One of the most detailed and moving accounts of Cliff Burton's death is Scott Ian , I'm the Man: The Story of That Guy From Anthrax , in which the Anthrax guitarist recalls the unsettling feeling of receiving the news.
Anthrax were already checking into their hotel in Denmark when they saw their manager talking to someone. They approached to greet him and realized something was wrong: “I saw the look of complete shock on his face. He was pale and looked scared. Something wasn't right. 'The promoter of today's show told me there was an accident,' he said. 'Metallica's bus overturned on the way here.' He stopped talking for a moment, and then started talking again as if forcing the words out of his mouth. As if he were coughing the words up. 'Cliff died in the accident. Everyone else is okay. Lars suffered some minor injuries and was taken to the hospital,'” Scott recounts in the book.
At first, the guitarist couldn't process the information and thought it was some silly joke from his Metallica colleagues. “My brain started spinning. I started replaying the phrase in my head repeatedly. 'Cliff died in the accident.' After what seemed like five minutes, which was probably ten seconds, I shook my head and said, 'Seriously? Seriously? And you believe that?!?' I was in denial. 'It's not possible. I'm sure they were too crazy to take the bus and made up this crazy story. We'll laugh about it later.' Anything seemed more plausible than imagining that the bus had overturned and that Cliff was actually dead. I had never heard of anything like that, like a bus overturning, let alone causing the death of a colleague. It seemed surreal. When you're in that touring bubble and things are going really well, you feel invincible. Something like that happening seemed completely improbable. I asked the promoter, 'Are you sure?' 'Yes, I'm sure,' he said.”
Cliff Burton's legacy in Metallica
At the time of the accident, Burton was only 24 years old. Even so, the musician had already recorded three iconic albums with Metallica: Kill 'Em All (1983), Ride The Lightning (1984) and Master Of Puppets (1986), in addition to being responsible for one of the most beautiful instrumental tracks in metal: “Orion”.
Cliff Burton's importance to Metallica is undeniable. Frequently mentioned by James Hetfield, Burton was the one who taught the frontman harmonies, as the bassist had a classical music background that his bandmates lacked. "We would never have composed guitar harmonies, instrumental pieces with such deep melodies, or orchestral pieces, if it weren't for Cliff. We would never be here if it weren't for him," he commented in an interview with a Swedish newspaper in 2006.
In 2012, during an interview with Wikimetal , Lars Ulrich also commented on the former bassist's influence on the band. “Of course, Cliff was a big part of Metallica's sound and a big part of shaping the Metallica experience. Not just for the fans, but for the people in Metallica, he brought a lot to the band. He was the first guy, I think, in Metallica to talk about Lou Reed, Velvet Underground, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, Peter Gabriel, Misfits . He brought a lot of different things. But I can't tell you if Metallica would sound different today, I have no idea. Cliff was always interested in experiments, in taking risks, he wasn't one to always stay in his comfort zone. Maybe the band would have been more experimental and crazy, I don't know,” he said.
Metallica's bass players after Cliff Burton
After Cliff Burton's death, Metallica went in search of a new bassist. Jason Newsted , bassist for Flotsam and Jetsam , joined the band three weeks after Burton's funeral. Chosen with the enormous responsibility of replacing the deceased musician, Newsted received the approval of Burton's own parents after a final audition.
“I was just composing myself for a second, putting my bass down, unplugging Cliff’s amp – I was playing Cliff’s fucking amp! – and Jan [Burton, Cliff’s mother] walks into the room alone and holds me, calling my attention. She said, ‘Great job, son.’ She hugged me for a good long time and said, ‘You’re the right one, you should be you. Please stay safe, we love you,’ and gave me a kiss. That was 35 years ago, and I will never, ever forget it,” Newsted told Metal Hammer in 2021.
With Newsted's controversial departure from the band in 2001, Metallica recruited Robert Trujillo , who remains in the band to this day. During the audition period to join the band, Robert was living at the home of Mike Bordin of Faith No More , a personal friend of Cliff, who had a large photo of the late bassist in the living room.
Faced with that image, the musician decided to make a promise to Metallica's original bassist: “I talked to the photo. I said, 'Cliff, I won't let you down, I promise. I'll do my best.' In a strange way, I feel connected to Cliff, I feel like I know him,” Trujillo revealed in an interview for the book To Live Is To Die: The Life and Death of Metallica's Cliff Burton , according to an excerpt published by Bass Player .
READ ALSO: James Hetfield and the near-fatal accident at a Metallica concert in 1992
