Close to the 30th anniversary of the death of bassist Cliff Burton, who died on September 27, 1986, James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett recalled the moments of panic over the musician’s death. Burton was killed in a bus accident in Sweden.
James Hetfield explained that he slept on the back of the bus where the band was because he had a sore throat.
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“All the American tour buses have metal sides, this one had windows, which caused the death. We went through what is called black ice (a layer of glassy ice on a surface), the vehicle slipped and Cliff was thrown, with the bus falling on him, “he said.
Hetfield revealed the feeling of anguish after the accident. “Finding your friend crushed is not something anyone wants to see.” The first reaction was anger. “I walked around a bit and heard the staff, who was stuck in the hardware, screaming in pain, with broken bones,” he said.
Kirk Hammett acknowledged that the band didn’t devote much time to recovering from the trauma.
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“We’ll never know the truth, we were asleep on the spot, maybe even the driver was.” It was difficult to call friends and family, revived everything, still fresh in our memories, and when we got back home we still dealt with the feeling of loss and funeral. Today, I think we have not had enough time to recover. We came back two weeks later to decide to move on, “he said.