Metallica honours their late ‘beloved’ band member Cliff Burton

Metallica would be paying a tribute titled ‘Orion: A Tribute To Cliff Burton’ for their late bassist

Metallica honours their late ‘beloved’ band member Cliff Burton

Metallica just revealed their plans for the Black Box exhibit, Orion: A Tribute To Cliff Burton.

Honouring their late band member as well as one Rolling Stone’s greatest bassist of all time, the Fade To Black rockers said, “For our final installment of Orion: A Tribute to Cliff Burton, we’re bringing you intimate conversations with seven people who knew Cliff best: James Hetfield, Ray Burton, Zach Harmon, Jim Martin, Les Claypool, Charlie Benante, and John Cruz. Bandmates, a father, friends, and fellow musicians, these men share Cliff’s profound impact on their lives in their own words.”

“Curating an exhibit to honor the beloved Cliff Burton was a true passion project. Thanks to his family, friends, peers, and fans, we were able to paint a complete picture of a man who lived a brief life but left an immense impact,” Metallica added.

For the unversed, Cliff or Clifford Lee Burton, served as the bassist for the heavy metal band, Metallica, a music group who is a part of the “big four” heavy metal thrash bands.

As the band shot to stardom with their album Master of Puppets, while touring in 1986 to support their music endeavor, Burton died due to bus crash in Sweden.

Cliff Burton is usually remembered for his musicianship and influence, posthumously being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as well as being cited on Rolling Stone‘s list of the 50 greatest bass players of all time.

Metallica have shared a new video for ‘(Anesthesia) – Pulling Teeth’ featuring many previously unseen photos of late-great bassist Cliff Burton.

Four-minute instrumental track ‘(Anesthesia) – Pulling Teeth’ first appeared on Metallica’s seminal 1983 debut album ‘Kill ‘Em All’ and it’s essentially a searing Cliff Burton bass solo accompanied by drums from Lars Ulrich.

Sharing the new video, Metallica wrote: “We recently acquired hundreds of photos shot by late photographer Russ Marino in Detroit and Chicago in 1985 and 1986. While a few of the photos got the print treatment in magazines back in the ’80s, the vast majority – many of which are alternate images from the same shoot – are seeing daylight for the first time.

“Clark Eddy, whose name you may recognize from the credits of several other Metalli-projects, edited a new music video for “(Anesthesia) – Pulling Teeth” featuring some of the more electric moments and portraits.

“Visit The Metallica Black Box at metallica.com to check out “Orion: A Tribute to Cliff Burton,” an exhibit dedicated to honouring the man and musician’s life and legacy. Including photos, images, and video from the past alongside newly conducted interviews, we hope this collection helps you connect with Cliff in a larger way than before.

“A huge thanks to the Burton family and friends for helping us celebrate Cliff this way.”

Cliff Burton was a member of Metallica from 1982 until his death in a tour bus crash in Sweden in September 1986 aged just 24.

Watch Metallica’s new ‘(Anesthesia) – Pulling Teeth’ video:

Prior to untimely passing, Burton appeared on Metallica’s influential first three studio albums ‘Kill ‘Em All’, ‘Ride the Lightning’ and ‘Master of Puppets.’

In a 2023 interview with Planet Rock, Metallica’s James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett said their one regret about the Cliff Burton years is that there isn’t more video footage of him.

Kirk said: “I really wish that the first three or four years of (Cliff) Burton being the band was documented more because there’s just not enough footage of him, there’s not enough pictures of him, there’s just not enough of him for people who are coming into Metallica and finding out about Metallica. There’s just not enough information about him.

“If there’s one thing that I actually have a regret about it’s not documenting Cliff enough. But you know back then we didn’t know that it would be the situation that it is now. And so it would have been weird (to say): ‘Okay, Cliff come here, we’re just going to film you.’ Weird. If there’s one thing, I just wish there was just more Cliff footage.”

Commenting on his memories of Cliff, Kirk continued: “Cliff, he was hilarious all the time. Other than music his other like huge things in his life were beer and breakfast. He lived for beer and he lived for breakfast. He was always talking about beer and breakfast!

“I wish I would have had footage of him getting excited about going to a pub, or whenever he had a plate full of food he would like walk differently. Like, he would walk with a sense of urgency. I would just crack up because it was just so weird to me.”

James chipped in: “He loved fishing and hammers. He would take his little pocket fisherman on tour and find any little lake and he carried a hammer in his suitcase. It was like ‘what are you doing with this?’ (He said) ‘I don’t know, just in case. Just in case you need a hammer!’

“He was quite a character and very, very himself. He was unapologetically Cliff. And yeah, we miss him to this day.”