To this day, I think of him (Cliff Burton) every day. It's really strange. It's something that pops into my head every day and I'm constantly reminded of it because he played such a large part in our lives.
1988
He was always against looking too pussy, he was always into just looking natural.
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 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 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.
If we had hung it up, Cliff would've been so pissed off.
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.
Sometimes I'd get so drunk the strings on the guitar would play themselves.
My guitars are my umbilical cord. They're directly wired into my head.
I'm not into that whole Satanic thing. It's just something to fall back on if you don't have much imagination. Singing you fiftieth song about having lunch with Satan--I'm not into it. It's silly."
At the audition the guys kept smiling at each other. I was like, "Do they think this is funny? Or are they perpetually happy people?
1983
We're the underdogs. We haven't had a Top 10 hit, and we look like a bunch of bums out there. Amidst all this glam and this huge production, we're going to stick out. But that's what we're here for--and that's what put us here in the first place.
