Legendary Metallica bassist Cliff Burton was tragically killed in a tour bus crash in Sweden on September 27th, 1986. Forty years after his passing, Jason Newsted, the man who had the difficult task of replacing him, reflected on Burton’s musical brilliance in an interview with Heavy Consequence.

Newsted spoke in awe of Burton’s talents, telling us, “Cliff could wake up and do it. James [Hetfield] could wake up after how many ever beers and do it. Just wake up 10 minutes out of bed and play as good as I could after working for five hours to get to that spot.”

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He continued, “By the time [Burton’s] 16, 17, pretty, pretty goddamn good already. Same as Les [Claypool]… They’re the same age and the same deal and live some miles from each other, same trip, both those cats in that way. By the time they’re 17… they are… already there.”

Newsted then spoke of Hetfield and Lars Ulrich’s decision to relocate from Los Angeles to San Francisco in order to get Burton to join Metallica. “James and Lars, who are also very exceptionally talented people, recognized it so strongly that they moved their lives to be just in a band with the guy before they even made a fucking record… He was that fucking good.”

He continued, “From a bassist fan player person, I saw him play in 1985… a year and a little bit before he died… It was like, why do you even fucking bother? Here’s the firewood. Let me get that for you. Maybe if I try really hard, I could be a tenth of as good as that… I think ultimately it was inspiring, and made me want to try harder, but it was intimidating as fuck the whole time.”

Newsted also expressed appreciation for the love from metal fans that Cliff Burton still gets 40 years after his death, noting, “I think that what I like the most or what I really appreciate is how everyone continues to show such respect for his efforts, because they were so fantastical in his brief span.”

Meanwhile, Metallica are still going strong four decades later. With current bassist Robert Trujillo, the band is set to launch its highly anticipated “Life Burns Faster” residency at Las Vegas’ Sphere this Thursday, October 1st, and will launch a new North American leg of their long-running “M72 World Tour” in 2027 (pick up tickets to both the residency and the tour here).

Watch Jason Newsted share his memories of Cliff Burton in the video below.