Once there was a boy who lived
near the San Francisco bay.
The second October of 1962
was when he first saw the light of day.
His parents were old hippies
like whom he wanted to be.
He bought bell-bottom jeans
so that everyone could see.

He got interested in music
and started reading books.
He was playing the piano
instead of caring about his looks.
He took a College course in music
after buying a bass guitar.
When people watched him play it
everyone knew he would go far.

He rarely ever spoke
but when he did he said something wise.
This way he earned respect
‘cause he never believed in lies.
He loved playing music,
it was the reason of his birth.
You may also say that it was
the reason of his mirth.

He didn’t like being called a rock-star,
though many said that he was.
When he died in an accident
the world suffered a great loss.
His music made him popular
though he never believed in fame.
His death was a tragedy,
Cliff Burton was his name.

"I could just see them go, 'oh my God! Look at that guy!' The thing that stuck them most was that while you see lead guitar-playing, here you had a guy playing lead bass! They thought that was great."---MetallicA drum tech, Marrs, on the first time James and Lars saw Cliff play.

"To this day, I think about him every day."---Kirk, 1988

"We always miss Cliff, but he is kind of on the record (...And Justice For All.) The song "To Live Is To Die" is really based on a number of riffs that Cliff wrote a couple of years ago. It's kind of cool to have something written by Cliff on the new album."---Lars V "He was a great and very special talent...Cliff's solos were absolutely brilliant."---Jason V "Knowing Cliff's attitude, he'd kick our butts if we quit."---James (on continuing after Cliff's death) V "I know Cliff, more than anyone else in the band, would have been the first guy to give us a kick in the ass, and wouldn't want us to sit around. It's what he would have wanted us to do."---Lars

"He was always against looking too posey, he was always into just looking natural."---Kirk

"...we came up here and played with Cliff, who just blew the doors off of anyone we've ever played with. He's the new Steve Harris of metal."---Dave Mustaine

"Cliff had a lot of very loyal fans, including me."---Jason

"I had seen Cliff in this band called Easy Street when I was like 16 years old at a club called International Cafe in San Francisco...It always stuck out in my mind. 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 fucking' wild!"---Kirk

"There was a huge shadow there. I'd always looked up to him so much."---Jason (upon replacing Cliff)

"People probably thought, 'Oh they're not going to do the heavy lyrics now because of what happened.' Man, those lyrics mean a lot more to me now."---James

"If we had hung it up, Cliff would've been pissed off."---Kirk

"In Denmark while recording Master Of Puppets, we hung out a lot. We'd go out and play poker for 8 hours straight after being up for 24 hours. We'd find a seafood restaurant that was open, eat raw oysters and drink beer, scream at the natives while we were drunk...that's some of my best memories of him."---Kirk