Late METALLICA Bassist CLIFF BURTON's 'Dawn Of The Dead' Shirt Returned To His Family After More Than 30 Years

A "Dawn Of The Dead" t-shirt that once belonged to Cliff Burton has been returned to the late METALLICA bassist's family 35 years after his death.

Cliff was reportedly a big fan of the the original "Dawn Of The Dead" film, widely considered to be one of the scariest zombie movies from the 1970s, and often appeared in public and in photographs wearing a shirt displaying the film's title logo across his chest.

Earlier today, the Instagram account that is controlled by Burton's family shared a photo of FAITH NO MORE drummer Mike "Puffy" Bordin holding a vintage "Dawn Of The Dead" t-shirt and it included the following message: "A huge Thank You to Mike 'Puffy' Bordin for bringing Cliff's original Dawn of the Dead shirt back home where it belongs It's been a roller coaster of emotions and we appreciate Mike and the person who kept it safe for us for 30 plus years. Our only regret is Ray [Burton, Cliff's father] isn't here to see it."

In a 2012 interview, METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett, who has a vast array of horror movie memorabilia, said that "Dawn Of The Dead" was one of his favorite zombie movies because it was Burton's "favorite movie."

Cliff was asked to join METALLICA in 1982 after the band saw him perform with his group at the time, TRAUMA.

The bassist was not willing to move to Los Angeles, where METALLICA was based, so they decided to move to the San Francisco area so that he would join.

Burton played on METALLICA's first three studio albums — "Kill 'Em All", "Ride The Lightning" and "Master Of Puppets" — and co-wrote classic songs like "Ride The Lightning", "For Whom The Bell Tolls", "Fade To Black", "Creeping Death" and "Master Of Puppets".

His life was tragically cut short at the age of 24 in a tour bus crash on September 27, 1986 in Sweden.

Burton's initial replacement in the group was Jason Newsted, who stayed in the lineup until 2001. Robert Trujillo joined in 2003 and remains in the band to this day.

February 10, 2018 was proclaimed "Cliff Burton Day" by Alameda County supervisors. The late METALLICA bassist would have turned 56 years old on that date had he lived.