 
It was approaching dawn on Saturday 27, 1986. Metallica's two tour buses
were making their way down a road that lies somewhere between the
Scandinavian cities of Stockholm and Copenhagen. There was no one else
traveling on this road besides the tour buses. Suddenly, just before 6:15am
one of the buses started to swerve violently to it's right and was becoming
out of control on the wrong side of the road.
The bus then tipped over landing on it's side and screaming it's way into
a near by ditch where it laid 60 feet from where it started. During the
next few minutes that followed a vast majority of the bus' passengers managed
to scrabble free from the wreckage. Only 3 of the 4 band members emerged
dazed and confused with barely nothing on.
The bus driver was standing in the cold morning air trembling and repeating
it was black ice. Kirk and James didn't believe him and searched for hours
in their socks up and down that Swedish road looking for it. In fact, the
ice was never found, but the driver was arrested and released some after. |
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Unfortunately, one fatality came from the crash. To make it worse it was
a member of the band itself. So, in the short seconds of the hellish event
on that back road, Metallica's dreamlike existence was suddenly transformed
into a hellish nightmare. Their 24 year old bassist was dead. |
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" I saw
the bus lying right on him. I saw his legs sticking out. I freaked. The
bus driver, I recall, was trying to yank the blanket out from under him
to use for other people. I just went, 'Don't fucking take that. That's
his blanket!' I already wanted to kill the guy. I don't know if he was
drunk or if he hit some ice. All I knew was, he was driving and Cliff wasn't
alive anymore."
- James
Hetfield
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I've heard stories that they had to tie James to a tree because he was
so upset that he wanted to kill the bus driver, and they left him there
for a few hours until the police arrived. I've also heard that they pulled
cards that night to see who would get what bunk. It came down to Kirk and
Cliff, and Cliff pulled the Ace of spades. He then looked at Kirk, pointed,
and said "I want your bunk." So, still to this day Kirk thinks about how
that could have been him instead of Cliff because the top bunk that was
by the window was the one that Cliff was in..
Also, a major factor that played in the crash was the way the buses were
made at the time. They weren't made like buses are now. They had cardboard
covering the windows, and weren't very safe. But un top of all that people
say Cliff could have lived. When everyone tried to help and lift the bus
off of cliff it ended up slipping and fell right back on him. When this
happened there was truly no helping him. Everyone tried to help that day
but nothing could have saved him. This was a sad event in Metallica's history,
and probably will always be remembered by every single fan. Cliff was an
amazing bassist and will be remembered forever.
In memory
of Cliff Burton. May your
life live
on through your music.
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