Jason Newsted Remembers Cliff Burton 40 Years After Legendary Metallica Bassist’s Passing

Legendary Metallica bassist Cliff Burton was tragically killed in a tour bus crash in Sweden on September 27th, 2026. 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.” Get Metallica Tickets Here 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 re...