Watch: Life Of Late METALLICA Bassist CLIFF BURTON Celebrated On What Would Have Been His 64th Birthday

The life of late METALLICA bassist Cliff Burton was celebrated with "Cliff Burton Day" on what would have been his 64th birthday, February 10, at the historic Chabot Theater in Cliff's hometown of Castro Valley, California. The event featured touching Cliff stories from the road crew of the "Damage Inc." tour, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year: Eddie Kercher, Big Mick, Bobby Schneider, John Marshall, Howard Ungerleider, Andy Battye and Aiden Mullen; as well as Mike Bordin and Bryan Kehoe. Hosted by Baby Huey, it also included live musical performances by Humma Kavula, CATACLYSMIC and Harald Oimoen and more.

Video of the 2026 "Cliff Burton Day" can be seen below.

Commemorative t-shirts and posters were made available at the event, with all proceeds going to the Cliff Burton Music Scholarship Fund to help children achieve their musical dreams.

This year was the ninth annual Cliff Burton Day, as officially declared by Cliff's hometown of Castro Valley and the greater Alameda County.

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".

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.

Burton died in a tragic tour bus accident in 1986.

Cliff's huge talent and achievements were chronicled in book form with the 2009 global publication of "To Live Is To Die: The Life And Death Of Metallica's Cliff Burton", written by U.K.-based author Joel McIver and published by Jawbone Press. The foreword was provided by METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett.