METALLICA's LARS ULRICH Pays Tribute To RAY BURTON: 'Thank You For Lighting Up Every Room You Walked Into'

January 20, 2020

Lars Ulrich has paid tribute to Ray Burton, father of the late METALLICA bassist Cliff Burton, who passed away on Wednesday, January 15 at the age of 94.

Late Sunday night (January 19),the METALLICA drummer took to his Instagram to share a photo of him with Ray Burton and included the following message: "Ray... Thank you for lighting up every room you walked into, for inspiring all of us with your positive energy, your perseverance, your effortlessness and for always making everyone feel comfortable in your presence... and of course, thank you for giving the world the gift of Cliff and his unique talents. I'm honored and humbled to have played and stood beside him. Rest In Peace."

Ray died just 15 days shy of his 95th birthday.

Cliff joined METALLICA in 1982 and performed on the band's first three studio albums: "Kill 'Em All", "Ride The Lightning" and "Master Of Puppets". He also received a posthumous writing credit for the song "To Live Is to Die" from the band's fourth studio album, "...And Justice For All" and was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame as a member of METALLICA on April 4, 2009.

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.

View this post on Instagram
Ray... Thank you for lighting up every room you walked into, for inspiring all of us with your positive energy, your perseverance, your effortlessness and for always making everyone feel comfortable in your presence... and of course, thank you for giving the world the gift of Cliff and his unique talents. I’m honored and humbled to have played and stood beside him. Rest In Peace. . . 📸 @RossHalfin
A post shared by Lars Ulrich (@larsulrich) on Jan 19, 2020 at 8:56pm PST

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