Jason Newsted remembers Cliff Burton 40 years after Metallica bassist’s death: “Maybe if I try really hard, I could be a tenth of as good”
Metallica’s Jason Newsted has looked back at his memories of Cliff Burton, 40 years after his death.
The iconic musician and metal icon was tragically killed after the band’s tour bus crashed while in Sweden on September 27 1986. He was the band’s second bassist and played on their first three studio albums: ‘Kill ‘Em All’ (1983), ‘Ride The Lightning’ (1984) and ‘Master Of Puppets’ (1986).
He also co-wrote classic songs including ‘Ride The Lightning’, ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’, ‘Fade To Black’ and ‘Master Of Puppets’.
After his passing, it was Newsted who took his place in the group – staying there until 2001, and later being replaced by Robert Trujillo, who joined in 2003 and is still in the group today.
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Now, 40 years after Burton tragically died, Newsted has looked back at his memories of the bassist and reflected on his admiration for the bassist.
“Cliff could wake up and do it,” he said. “James [Hetfield, frontman] could wake up after how many ever beers and do it. Just wake up 10 minutes out of bed and play as good as I could after working for five hours to get to that spot.”
He went on to discuss how Burton was “pretty, pretty goddamn good already” by the time he was 16-years-old, and both “James and Lars [Ulrich, drummer], who are also very exceptionally talented people, recognised it so strongly that they moved their lives to be just in a band with the guy before they even made a fucking record” – refering to how they moved from LA to San Franciso to get him to join the band.
“He was that fucking good,” Newsted added, also sharing saying that seeing him play live made him think “why do you even fucking bother?” and “Maybe if I try really hard, I could be a tenth of as good as that.”
He concluded: “Ultimately it was inspiring, and made me want to try harder, but it was intimidating as fuck the whole time.”
Back in 2016, James Hetfield also looked back at his memories of Burton and revealed what he thought the late bassist would have thought of the band’s records they made after his death – particularly with them shifting from a hardcore thrash metal sound to a more mainstream rock sound.
Metallica are still going strong, and are still on their epic ‘M72’ world tour, which has seen them play across the globe already and celebrate the release of their ‘72 Seasons’ album.
Already, there are rumours that they could be hitting the road with Limp Bizkit in 2027, and later this week, the heavy metal legends will be heading back over the pond for a run of residency dates at the Sphere in Las Vegas. Those shows commence on October 1, and will run into next year.
As for Newsted, the bassist revealed earlier this spring that he has been declared “free and clear” after a battle against throat cancer.
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