Cliff Burton
February 10, 1962 - September 27, 1986
He was a wild, hippie-ish, acid-taking, bell-bottom-wearing guy. He meant business, and you couldn’t fuck around with him. I wanted to get that respect that he had. We gave him shit about his bell-bottoms everyday. He didn’t care. “This is what I wear. Fuck you.” He loved music. He was really intellectual but very to the point. He taught me a lot about attitude.- 1993, James Hetfield
Cliff Burton was the man who had that wild spirit that makes a band like Metallica a quality band. He wasn't only the bass player, or someone else in the band who co-write the songs, he was the man who made Metallica reach the sky. After his death, Metallica sold their souls for fame and fortune, things that he would never wanted to deal with. He'd never allowed all that "Black Album" to happen, and neither that damn "Load" thing. When Metallica lost their bass player, they also lost their soul.- Lars Ulrich
This guy with wild, wild red hair flying all over the place and a Rickenbacker and a real distinct bass style and I thought to myself, ‘This guy is fuckin’ wild!The only person who was able to figure out a time and write it on a piece of paper was Cliff. He had an immense knowledge of timing, musical harmonies and music theory in general. - 1987, Kirk Hammett