Original METALLICA Bassist Explains How CLIFF BURTON Joined The Band
July 19, 2018, 6 years ago
Original Metallica bassist Ron McGovney, who was in the band for a brief period in 1982, recently appeared on the Talk Is Jericho podcast, hosted by Fozzy frontman and professional wrestler Chris Jericho. During their chat, McGovney shared the story of how his replacement, Cliff Burton, came to join Metallica. An excerpt has been transcribed as follows:
McGovney: "I wanna say sometime in the fall of 1982. His [Cliff's] band Trauma came to play at the Troubadour [in West Hollywood, California]. Brian Slagel from Metal Blade had invited us to go watch them. So we were all sitting there watching them. And I’m like ‘Well, that kind of music’s not my kind of thing.’
It was me and James (Hetfield) and Lars (Ulrich), and all of a sudden Cliff starts going into this solo. And they’re just like looking at him and their eyes are wide open. And I’m looking at them and they’re looking at him. And I’m like ‘This is the guy, this is it.’
So I kind of knew right at that point. Like ‘Yeah, this is the guy that they’re gonna go after, I can feel it.’ I could tell. I mean, he was just a thrashing headbanging crazy awesome bass player. I thought he was awesome too. He’s doing stuff that I could never do. So as soon as I saw their reaction I kind of knew."
Listen to the entire podcast via the audio player below.
