Clifford Lee Burton was born on February 10th 1962. Because of his fantastic on stage presence, and his brilliant bass solos, Lars and James wanted Cliff to replace Ron McGovney on bass guitar. Cliff, however, initially was reluctant to join as he did not want to leave the San Francisco Bay Area, so in the end Metallica moved to San Francisco.
From 1982 till 1986 Cliff contributed as lead bass player to Metallica's now famous Heavy Metal sound. Cliff brilliant career was unfortunately cut short, when he died in a bus crash in September 1986. The other Metallica members survived the crash. Cliff was succeeded by Jason Newsted.