In a recent episode of The Metallica Report, James Hetfield paid tribute to his late bandmate Cliff Burton on the 38th anniversary of his passing.
“Cliff still lives in all of us,” Hetfield says. He inhabits me in such a way that I get to channel, “Cliff, what would be really cool right here?” And I — I do respect him so much that I continue to seek his assistance. ‘Would Cliff like this?’ I ask myself. I think that’s a really high bar. Even if we already hold ourselves to a high level, it was a successful day if I was able to win Cliff over.
Cliff Burton was killed during the Master of Puppets European tour when the band’s tour bus crashed between Stockholm and Copenhagen. In Ljungby, Sweden, he lost his life when the band’s tour bus capsized. His contributions on Metallica’s first three cherished albums, Kill ‘Em All (1983), Ride the Lightning (1984), and Master of Puppets (1986), were made while he was just 24 years old.