Cliff Burton was born on February 10th of 1962 in Castro Valley, California.

He is best known as the bassist for Metallica for their first three albums; 1983′s Kill ‘Em All, 1984′s Ride the Lightning, and 1986′s Master of Puppets.

“(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth” from Kill ‘Em All is probably the best example of his bass playing as it’s a bass solo accompanied only by Lars Ulrich on the drums. His bass is heavily distorted on this song and he used a wah-wah pedal and tapping to give it a “lead” instrument sound that is unusual for a bass part.

He was an important part of Metallica’s sound on these albums, particularly on the second album Ride the Lightning where he had songwriting credit on 6 of the 8 tracks and on the third album Master of Puppets where he had songwriting credit on 3 of the 8 tracks and it is believed that the instrumental “Orion” was composed entirely by Burton (although drummer Lars Ulrich & singer James Hetfield also received songwriting credit for it.)

Burton was killed on September 27, 1986 at the age of only 24 while the band was on tour in support of Master of Puppets. Their tour bus flipped over in Sweden and Burton was killed. The other members of the band were not seriously injured.