The life of former Metallica bassist, the late Cliff Burton, will be honored on “Cliff Burton Day.” On February 10th, his 60th birthday had he lived, there will be a special live stream event to honor the fallen musician. The livestream is scheduled for that day at 7 p.m. PST. The event will be emceed by Nicholas Gomez, with guests including Big Mick, Metal Joe, Gary Holt of Exodus and Slayer, Dan Riley, Brian Lew, Dean Delray, Brian Slagel, Charlie Benante of Anthrax, Mike Bordin of Faith No More, Canada Dave and Connie Burton.
Fun Fact, Burton was asked to join Metallica in 1982 but was not willing to move to Los Angeles, where the band was based, so they moved to the San Francisco area so that he would join. Burton played on Metallica’s Kill ‘Em All (1983), Ride The Lightning(1984) and Master Of Puppets(1986). His life was tragically cut short at the age of 24 in a tour bus crash on September 27, 1986 in Sweden.
Fans deep connection to Burton continues to this day. His powerful life and tragic death has turned him into a kind of folk hero to those who experienced his presence in the band and even those too young to have known him. Burton’s huge talent and achievements were chronicled in book form with the 2009 global publication of “To Live Is To Die: The Life And Death Of Metallica’s Cliff Burton”, written by U.K.-based author Joel McIver and published by Jawbone Press.
