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Metallica: Thrash Metal, Murder, and the Death of Cliff Burton · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is a
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: story about Metallica, about one of the greatest bands of
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: all time. Call them heavy, call them rock, call them thrash,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: call them whatever you want. There's no getting around the
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: fact that Metallica was fucking metal, and so is this story.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Because it's not only a story about Metallica, it's a
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: story about their original bass player, Cliff Burton, and no
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: one was more metal than Cliff. This story is so metal.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: It's a gun that shoots knives. It's angrier than a
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: pit bull who's drug dealing guitar playing owner forgot to
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: feed it. It's more metal than a deranged psychopath high
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: on LSD murdering a man in cold blood and quoting
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Metallica lyrics. It's the story of a tragic end that
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: took place before the most metal band of all really
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: even got started. It is, like I said, a story
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: about Metallica, a band that made great music, some of
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: the greatest music ever. Unlike that music I played for
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: you at the top of the show that wasn't great music.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: That was a preset loop from my mellotron called Jerk
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: of All Trades MK two I played you that loop
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: because I can't afford the rights to Stuck with You
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: by Huey Lewis in the news. And why would I
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: play you that specific slice of hip to be square Cheese?
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Could I afford it? Because that was the number one
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: song in America on September twenty seventh, nineteen eighty six,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: And that was the day that Metallica's bus crashed while
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: on tour in Sweden, flipping over and instantly killing the
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: band's bass player, Cliff Burn. On this episode Hammers pitbulls,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: a gun that shoots knives, murder, tragedy, metal and Metallica.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland. Metallica's James Headfield
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: is one of, if not the greatest rhythm guitar players
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: of all time. He's up there with John Lee Hooker,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Malcolm Young, Keith Richards. Like those other guys, James Headfield
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: did not just play. He innovated. He created something new
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: when he took the rapid fire downstrokes of punk rock
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: guitar and added in shuddering upstrokes. The result was a
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: whitlash riff unlike anything anyone had heard before, and don't
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: get me started on that gnarly tone. To get the
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: tone you heard on Metallica's early masterpiece Master of Puppets,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: you had to do what James Hetfield did, not one,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: not two, but three layer guitars, all playing the same thing.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: James called that third guitar the Thickener, so fast, so tight,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: and so metal, and just like no one had ever
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: played the guitar quite in the same way, No band
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: had ever brought that kind of playing, that kind of
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: music to the mainstream like Metallica did in nineteen ninety one.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Their fifth album, self titled, also known as the Black Album,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: was a phenomenon. Upon its release, number one album on
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: the chart for four straight weeks. Metallica was no longer
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: playing to niche crowds of outcasts, weirdos, and burnouts. They
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: were now playing arenas packed with the popular kids, prom kings,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: beauty queens, even Metals longtime nemesis the Jocks. In the past,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: it was mostly dudes out there in the audience, mirror
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: reflections of the four guys on stage, Rick Jeans, long hair,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: misfits T shirt with sleeve sawed off, working on a
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: butt heavy, full body buzz. Now the crowds were at
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: least fifty to fifty dudes and chicks, which is when
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: you know as a metal band that you've truly made it.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: But making it didn't come without compromise. Metallica in nineteen
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: ninety one was not the same Metallica from nineteen eighty one.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Their music was simpler, more anthemic, a change that welcomed
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: sour grapes from the diehards been there from the beginning,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: You know, the ones, the ones who cried sell out
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: as soon as Metallica started not just selling out stadiums
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: but selling out stadium tours and being called sellouts, being criticized.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: It wasn't the music that was the problem. The music
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: was fucking great, and anyone who told you differently at
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: the time did so because they're having a hard time
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: grieving the loss of something that was gone forever. Cliff
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: would have never let this happen, was a common complaint, referring,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: of course, to Cliff Burton, Metallica's former bass player, who
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: died five years prior. Cliff was quickly replaced with Jason Newstead,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: who'd been doing his best to fit in for those
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: five years since. Despite relentless hazing from his bandmates, including
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: being erased from a record, but more on that later.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Jason had talent, Jason had dedication. But just like the
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: music wasn't the problem, Jason wasn't the problem either, was
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: that he'd stepped into shoes that were never meant to
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: be felled. December nineteen eighty four, Finland. The very real
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: hammer in Cliff Burton's hand was familiar to anyone with
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: a copy of Metallica's debut album Kill Them All. But
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: unlike that record's cover art, Cliff's hammer was not next
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: to a pool of blood. Blood wasn't on Cliff's mind
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: right now. Peace was restoring it, keeping it. He stepped
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: off the tiny stage and into the unruly crowd. He
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: lifted the hammer above his head and began to swirl
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: it dramatically in the air, and the kids moved aside.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: The mass fighting that had been raging just seconds before
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: came to a stop. Cliff pushed through six foot something,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: his frame accented by this hammer of the gods in
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: his hand. Because that's who Cliff Burton was, That's who
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Metallica were, at least to these kids in this place.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: There were gods among men. In that place was a
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: high school gymnasium by day, but at night, at least
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: on this night, it was where the end of semester
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: party was being held. Edny, disaffected youth worth assault back
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: in the day knew that a circle pit at a
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Metallica show is the best place to ditch all those
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: feelings you were too young to process. Metallica pits were
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: the best because Metallica had realness, not some airbrushed metal fantasy,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: not Iron Maidens Eddie and I'm not trying to dump
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: on Iron Maiden. I love Iron Maiden. Eddie's cool still
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: is cool. But Metallica back then were cooler because they
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: were more real. Cliff James Hetfield, drummer Lars Alrich and
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: lead guitarist Kirk Hammett inspired a nightly tornado of long
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: hair mashing into oblivion. But tonight it was different. Tonight
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: started with some bullshit Metallica's lighting guy pissing off one
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: of the locals, a teenage girl who clocked him in
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: the face. The lighting guy responded like he was getting
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: a reflex test in the doctor's office, and he hit
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: her back. That was fucking stupid and also led to
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: this two opposing factions now out in the audience, one
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: siding with the girl and the other siding with the band,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: and all that chaos soundtrack by Metallica's intense brand of thrash,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: the kind defined by that incredible first record I mentioned before,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Kill Them All, and then refined by their sophomore album Ride,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: the lightning metal music that was as sophisticated as the
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: guys in Metallica were goofy, which is to say, very
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: metal music that had what few of their contemporaries had groove,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: groove that Metallica possessed, because Metallica possessed Cliff Burton. At
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: twenty two years old, Cliff Burton was the oldest member
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: of the band, and though we liked the kinds of
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: stuff that the rest of the guys liked, Motorhead, Budgy Ufo,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: he was also in a rush rim zz top. He
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: ran his Rickenbacker bass through a wall wall pedal and
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: went balls to the wall like he was not a
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: bass player at all, but a lead guitarist. His replacement,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Jason Newstead, later called him the Jimmy Hendricks of bass.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: But right now, in nineteen eighty four, Cliff Burton didn't
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: need any comparison. He was the Cliff Burton of Metallica,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: down to earth, real as could be, with a melodic
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: sensibility and a groove that helped propel Metallica's music straight
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: into your head, straight into your soul, Metal up your
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: ass as it were, that being the original title for
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Metallica's first album, a title rejected by their record label,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: a rejection to which Cliff responded, fuck those fuckers, Let's
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: kill them all, and thus the album title kill them All.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: And Metallica did kill them all, not literally, of course,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: but with their music, music that was a far cry
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: from what the rest of America was listening to at
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: the time, which was Brian Adams, Bruce Springsteen, the Footnoose soundtrack.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Metallica music was metal that put posers on hylert, posers
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: like those Sons sets, strip clowns with their makeup and
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: their spandex. Motley Crue wasn't real. Metallica was real. Cliff
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: Burton just wanted to play music, and maybe he earned
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: enough money to put a deposit on a house with
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: a yard big enough for him to shoot off his
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: homemade gun, the one that didn't shoot bullets but shot knives.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: How metal is that Cliff's attitude was pretty metal as well.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: He did not care what you thought about him. He
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: didn't care what you thought about his Canadian tuxedo, his
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: bell bottom jeans, his sleeveless flannel, the peach fuzz mustache
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: above his upper lip. What he did care about was
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: squashing whatever beef was currently taking place out there in
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: the crowd. So he kept toirling that hammer over his head,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: the one he brought with him everywhere on tour from
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: San Francisco to Europe, the one even customs agents wouldn't confiscate,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: since this is forty years ago, when apparently stashing a
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: hammer in your luggage failed to raise any red flags.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Right now, the kids in that school gymnasium in Finland
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: were heating that hammer's nonverbal warning in the capable hands
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: of the godlike bass player, golden stash and floating locks,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: denim on denim, but the chainmail of an ancient warrior.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: And when the fighting was over, there was one clear winner,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Cliff Burton Metallica. They finished their show like the conquering
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: heroes that they were. Just look at James Hetfield gleaming
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: over a mic stand that was set low, requiring him
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: to drop his head to sing into it, his long
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: hair hanging down, creating the impression that he was bigger
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: than he actually was, just like those three layered guitars
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: on the record, Fast tight metal, real movement. From day one,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: That's what it was all about. James Headfield moving away
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: from his screwed up family in Downey, California, Christian scientists
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: who refused medical treatment or medical education, meaning teenage James
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: sit alone in the hallway while the other kids sat
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: through health class. That made him a real misfit real quick.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: His father up and leaving the family just pissed him
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: off more. For James, there was no brave face to
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: put on. There was only his trademarks stay the fuck
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: away from me face. Then there was Lars Alrech, moving
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: out of his native Denmark to attend tennis school in
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Florida and then to California, trading a bohemian lifestyle a
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: competitive sport for the down and dirty subculture of the
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: new wave of British heavy metal. Lars was small, but
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: he was persistent, sneaking into green room after green room,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: repping the US chap or the Motorhead fan Club as
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: their unofficial president, meeting Lemmy and then meeting the guys
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: in Diamond Head that thick maiden patch on his jacket,
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: getting attention from the right people, people who wanted to know, Amen,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: you're an angel witch, and then Metallica as a whole,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: literally picking up and moving from Los Angeles to San Francisco,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: the Bay area where Cliff Burton made his home. That's
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: how good Cliff was. They went to him. Cliff, like
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: many others in the California metal scene, was a Metallica fan.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: He was also a prodigious player, six hours a day
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: on base, at least driven in part by tragedy the
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: death of his older brother at just sixteen from a
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: brain aneurism. Cliff played to honor his brother's memory. Cliff
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: had integrity, a quality he passed on to the band
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: when they ditched LA along with their original bass player
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Ron mcgoverney. Ron had been in the trenches with Metallica
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: since their first show. Trenches he shared with James and
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: and with the band's original lead guitarist, Dave Mustain. Dave
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: didn't have James's stay of the fuck away from Me face,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: He didn't quite have Lars's ego either though he was close.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: But what he did have was a sister who was
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: a witch, or so he said. Dave fucked around with
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: some occult shit spells. Chance he went after a big dude,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: a real tormentor type, not with his fists or even
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: the knife he carried with him as protection on account
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: of the fact that he slung dope on the side.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Dave hit this dude with some prints of darkness incantation
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: and guess what, the guy broke his leg. He never
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: walked the same again. That made Dave Mustaine feel pretty good,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: feel powerful. And if you're James Headfield or Lars Alre,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: you didn't want to mess with that kind of power,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: just like you didn't want to mess with Dave's dogs
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: two pitbulls again drug dealer, And that is unless Dave
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: pissed you off enough and you just had to. One
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: of those dogs jumped on Ron the bass player's car,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: and James Hepfield pushed the dog off before it's nails
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: did a number on Ron's paint job. Dave then lost
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: his shit. He squared up and punched that Field right
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: in the mouth. Ron then jumped on Dave's back, throwing
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: his arms around Dave's neck. Dave was stronger and he
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: easily threw Ron to the ground, where he writhed around
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: in pain, while James's irritation with his lead guitarist was
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: equaled only by the irritation on his face when Mustaine
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: had just punched him. And that was the first time
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Dave Mustaine was fired from Metallica. The second time was
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: for good after he got drunk and told the guitarist
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: in another band that he sucked and that no one
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: gave him a flying shit about him. That kind of
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: bad attitude in the scene, that kind of bad mojo
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: is just bad for business. The next morning, James, Lars
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: and Cliff woke Dave up from a deep sleep, put
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: a bus ticket in his hand, and told him to
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: have a nice life. That is after he enjoyed a
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: four day ride on the Greyhound from New York back
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: to California. And yes, Dave Mustaine did go on to
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: form Mega Death, which failed to shatter the glass ceiling
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: like his former band. Eventually wrote a fact which probably
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: has played a part in his forty year plus ability
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: to get over getting fired. But I digress movement it
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: continued for Metallica first with the inspired hiring lead guitarist
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Kirk Hammett, then just twenty years old and under the
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: tutelage of Joe Satriani. Next with their albums, each bigger
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: and better than the last, Kill Them All, Ride the Lightning,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: and then in nineteen eighty six, Master of Puppets, a
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: masterpiece which brought thrash metal to popular culture, giving Metallica
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: their first gold record, but it also gave them their
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: first real taste of backlash from the metal community. Backlash
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: they claimed Metallica were getting soft while other metal bands
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: like Slayer were getting harder. But James Lars Kirk and
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: especially Cliff, they didn't care if their commitment to metal
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: music was being questioned, or that legions of once hardcore
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: fans were now calling them Alcoholica on account of how
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: many bottles of beer and vodka they crushed on the regular.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: They greeted all these things with Cliff's trademark declaration, I
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: don't get a fuck. That is, until their tour bus
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: pulled into Texas. Eighteen year old Troy Cunkle's head was
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: spinning the acid, the alcohol, the combination of the two.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: He was loopy, as were his girlfriend and his other
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: friends here in the car with him, barreling down a
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: Texas highway on their way to a party in Corpus Christie.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: One of those friends, Russell Stanley, pulled the twenty two,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: stuck it out of the window of the moving vehicle,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: and fired, yeah, I want to make some Monday tonight,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: Come on, Russell. Someone else was saying acid and guns
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: don't mix. Russell put the gun away, but the idea
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: of our armed robbery was in everyone's heads now. It
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: bounced around and Troy cuncle's fucked up brain. And when
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: they got the Corpus Christi, Troy told the driver to
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: pull up alongside a man probably about ten years their senior,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: walking along the road. They asked if he wanted to ride.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: The man didn't know these kids, but appreciated the offer,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: so he got in the car up front, next to
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: Troy's girlfriend. Russell Stanley pulled out to twenty two again
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: from the back seat. He pressed it into the man's head,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: give me your wallet. Troy's eyes lit up as he
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: watched his friend threaten a complete stranger. He told Russell
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: to do it, pulled the trigger, Russell chickened out, Troy
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: got impatient, He grabbed the gun from Russell and put
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: it back against the man's head and said, we're going
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: to take you back here and blow your brains out.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: Back here was a skating rink. The driver pulled the
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: car around, pulled it out of sight, and Troy kept
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: the gun where it was, the butt of it digging
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: into the man's skin. And then he made good on
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: his threat. Blood splattered all over the car and the
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: people inside of it. The gunshot rang out in everyone's ears,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: a smoke poured from the hot barrel. They pushed the
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: man's body out of the car and onto the ground,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: and Troy's girlfriend fished around and the man's pants for
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: wallet thirteen dollars. Troy looked at the dead man laying there,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: his ears still ringing with that gunshot, ringing with the acid,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: ringing with the booze. But was something else too, a song.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Troy looked at what they'd just done, what he'd just done,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: and said, another day, another death, another sorrow, another breath.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: The words Troy Uncle spoke after he shot and killed
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: twenty nine year old Stephen Horton were not his own words.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: He was quoting the song No Remorse from side to
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: of Metallica's Kill Them All album. This fact came out
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: during his trial, at which Troy Uncle was found guilty
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: of capital murder and sentenced to death by lethal injection
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: to ride the Lightning, as they say, a fact that
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: everyone was reminded of when Kuncle's legal team appealed his
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: conviction and his sentence, an appeal that was happening right
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: as Metallica's torbus rolled into Corpus Christy for a show
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: on their Damage Incorporating tour. James Lars Kirk and Cliff
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: were greeted in Texas not by fans, but by news
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: cameras and TV crews. The timing could not have been worse.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: Metallica found themselves vilified, culpable, complicit, just like Ozzy Osbourne
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: and Iron Maiden a year prior. Satanic Panic felt real
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: to the people pushing that paranoid agenda, even if Cliff
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: and the others knew it was bullshit. Metallica did write
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: about dark stuff, sure, but they weren't promoting violence. They
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: certainly weren't promoting murder and not suicide. Their music, just
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: like their ambition, relied on moving forward, pushing through the
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: bad in order to get to the good positive momentum movement,
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: which is what they were doing some three months later,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: when literally all movement came to a sudden, tragic halt
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: in the early hours of a cold September morning. We'll
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: be right back after this. We're We're where, September twenty seventh,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six, Stockholm, Sweden. Just after midnight, Cliff and
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Kirk were bonding, not over comic books and horror movies,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: are tripping on mushrooms. As was typical of the two friends. Tonight,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: they were drawing cards from a full deck. Whoever drew
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: the highest card get to pick their bunk of the
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: tour bus for the nearly eight hour drive to their
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: next show in Copenhagen. Cliff drew the Ace of Spades,
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: which of course was not only the highest and most
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: valued card, but also the name of one of their
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: beloved Motorheads greatest songs, So Metal. I'll want your bunk,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: Cliff set There was one with a window, even though
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: the windows were currently covered with pieces of cardboard to
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: keep the near freezing temperatures outside at Bay Fine, Kirk
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: will five. I'll sleep better upfront anyway, Cliff, Kirk, James
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: and Lars piled into the bus, along with their tour
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: manager and the back line crew, and behind them a
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: second bus carried the rest of the crew, and behind
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: that a third bus with the band's equipment. Everyone was sweaty,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: wreaking a bo and totally wipe from that night's show,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Eager to sleep it off and wake up in the
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: morning to do it all over again. James pounded sivodka,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: Cliff smoked a joint. They climbed onto the thin wooden
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: bunks bolted into the bus's walls, and they watched a
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: video flicker on a tiny TV screen and listened to
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: the rumble of the engine as their entourage pulled out
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: onto the highway. By two am, most everyone was passed out.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: The bus that the band was riding on was an
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: English model, and this is important. In England, the driver
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: sits on the right hand side and drives in the
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: left hand lane. But in Sweden, where they were and
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: also in Denmark where they were going, drivers sit on
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: the left hand side of the vehicle and drive on
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: the right hand side of the road like we do
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: in America. So from the jump, anyone piloting a right
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: hand drive bus in the right hand lane has a
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: major handicap, but it didn't seem that way to anyone
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: on this night. It was late and the road was clear,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: and the weather was chilly, but unremarkable. The driver behind
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: the wheel did this for a living. There was nothing
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: to worry about, so went to thinking. The guys snored
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: away and their small wooden bunks while the bus made
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: its way down European Route E four for hours and hours.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Six thirty am James woke up. First he felt something
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: hot and wet raining down on his body, and then
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: he heard the sound of screeching tires and the coffee
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: pot above him had tipped over as the rear of
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: the bus went careening off the edge of the road
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: and to gravel and dirt. The driver tried to compensate
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: for the slight bend of ahead by frantically spinning the wheel,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: and for a moment worked correcting their path and pulling
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: the bus back to the main dragon. But the back
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: end wouldn't stop skidding, and the rear wheels went all
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: over the place like they were elastic, And then the
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: bus jerked over to the edge of the road again
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: and this time off the road back onto gravel and dirt,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: and then a huge crushing sound as the bus tipped
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: over onto its right side, rolling now over and over,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: the sound of crunching metal, broken glass, steel on asphalt,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: and ears splitting noise to clawed at your brain while
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: the whole world kept spinning, kept rolling. Jesus Christ, the
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: rolling would it ever stopped? Kirk was thrown from his bunk.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: He hit his head, and then everything simply faded to black.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: Kirk came two moments later with his eye blackened and bruised.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: The bus had come to a full stop, but this
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: was far from over. There were screams, James, Lars, their
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: tour manager crew. Everybody was making noise, all except Cliff.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Cliff's voice was oddly absent. A hard lump formed in
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: the pit of Kirk's stomach. Something didn't feel right. He
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: had to get out now. James was way ahead of him,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: making his way out the emergency exit at the back
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: of the bus while the band's guitar attack. At six
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: foot seven, a giant of a man pulled himself into
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: the frigid early morning air through the roof hatch. Kirk
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: followed James up the back and watched his metallic as
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: lead singer ran down the open highways, screaming, wearing nothing
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: but his underwear and socks. Lars was ignoring the pain
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: in his toe, which, unbeknownst to him, was broken, as
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: he flew out of the bus, scared to death that
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: the whole thing was about to explode. They're all out
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: here now, James, Lar's Kirk, the tour manager, the crew members, wait,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: where was Cliff? That's when they saw it, legs protruding
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: from under the side of the bus that lay smoldering
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: on the ground, Cliff's legs. James ran to where his
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: friend and man mate lay trapped and tried to pull
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: him free, but it was no use. Besides, it wouldn't matter.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Cliff's body wasn't moving and there was no sound, no
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: sign of life. What did you do? Kirk was screaming
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: at the bus driver, now standing around outside with the
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: rest of them in a daze. What did you do?
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: The driver tried to explain It was black ice. The
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: band was stunned. Black ice, black ice. Look at the pavement,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: it was bone dry. Where was this black ice? James
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: wanted to know. He took off in a sprint to
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: find it, retracing their tracks, running down an empty highway
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: and Sweden, looking for evidence to validate the bus driver's story,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: but he found nothing. There had been no rain that evening,
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: no snow. James felt rage bubble up from his gut.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: This fucking guy, this bus driver, what a lying piece
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: of shit. There was no black ice. He must have
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: fallen asleep at the wheel. And now Cliff was dead.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: James wanted to kill him right here, right now, and
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: this fucker's sorry excuse for life. But he didn't because
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: deep down he didn't know what really happened. No one did.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: But here's what we do. No Swedish authorities arrived at
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: the scene of the crash and immediately arrested the driver,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: as was protocol. Local newspapers reported that, much to James
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: Headfield's suspicion, the driver was suspected of having fallen asleep
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: at the wheel. James further claimed that he smelled alcohol
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: in the guy's breath the morning of the accident. That
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: particular accusation was never proven, and no official charges were
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: ever brought against the driver. Before long, he was a
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: free man. According to one biography of Metallica, no one
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: on the bus that night can even remember the driver name.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: It's rumored that he changed his name after the accident
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: and continued to drive tour buses for bands across Europe.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: What happened to Cliff was much more black and white.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: During the crash, he was thrown against the window near
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: his bunk, which shattered his body. Was halfway inside the
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: bus and halfway out, but when the bus flipped over
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: and landed on him. The official autopsy report was that
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: he died from compression of his chest cavity with correlating
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: damage to his lungs. Translation, he was crushed to death.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: Cliff Burton was twenty four that day, September twenty seventh,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six, the day of the accident. Metallica show
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: in Copenhagen was canceled, as were all their upcoming shows.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: They spent the night at a hotel near the crash site,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: but not before James Headfield was loaded up with pain
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: meds at a local hospital. Then those meds may have
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: made the physical pain go away, but the real pain,
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: the pain of losing Cliff, that was untreatable. James went
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: back to his hotel room and destroyed everything in sight,
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: and then he stumbled out onto the streets, no direction,
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: yelling at the top of his lungs, just like he'd
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: yelled earlier that day, inside and outside the tour bus.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: Only now his screams were in a reaction to chaos.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: There were a homing beacon in the wilderness, a cry
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: that echoed throughout the quiet streets of a small Swedish town,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: a cry that the locals listened to for hours on end.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: This crazy American out of his mind, repeating over and
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: over again, Cliff Cliff, where are you for? Jason Newstead.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: It was a dream come true to join Metallica as
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: their new bass player, despite the tragic circumstances. They'd buried
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: Cliff Burton just three weeks prior. But even in the
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: face of tragedy, it was all about movement, always had
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: been and always would be. Jason could do movement. He
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: already knew all the songs. He was a Metallica super fan,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: just like Cliff was once a fan. But a fandom
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: was cool back then, back in Cliff's time. It was
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: not cool now, James lars Kirk, they hated fanboy Jason.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: They wanted to beat it out of him, make him
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: just as hard and cynical as they all were now
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: a brotherhood bound by unresolved grief, sadness, and anger. Because
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: when it came to emotions, real emotions, you didn't talk
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: about that stuff, not if you were Metallica, not in
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six, talking therapy, that kind of monster that
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: came later. Instead, they channeled their emotions into how they
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: treated their newest member. They banged on Jason's hotel room
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: at four in the morning, called him a pussy, and
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: when he let them in, they threw him on his
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: bed and piled shit on top of them, the television,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: the chairs, even the desk. They threw his clothes, his shoes,
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: his cassette tapes out the window, and they stuck him
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: with expensive bar taps. The worst defense, however, would be
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: when Metallica recorded and Justice for All, their first album
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: with Jason and first without Cliff. James and Lars brought
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: Jason's base so far down in the mix that you
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: couldn't even hear it. They erased him from the record.
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: I'm serious, go listen to it. It's tight, it's badass,
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: it's awesome, but it's pretty much got no fucking base
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: on it whatsoever. Jason put up with it all because well,
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: he was in Metallica. If being a Metallica mean getting
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: haze like a frat pledged, then so be it. And
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: like all things good and bad, it passed. They moved on.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: What else was there to do? Metallica could never be
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: who they were when Cliff was alive. That era was gone,
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: but Cliff's realness was not. Metallica had that with them
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: for the long haul, and in the spirit of Cliff
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: that had to look around and ask themselves what was
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: real now in the current situation They found themselves in.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: Real was their latest songs, Sad but True, the Unforgiven,
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: Wherever I May Roam. Real was making a record with
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: that dude, Bob Rock, a producer more polished and far
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: more focused on hits than anyone they'd worked with before.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: Real was the same work ethic they'd always possessed, but
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: now working even harder and trying to simplify to streamline,
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: aiming to be as big as led Zeppelin, but becoming
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: even bigger. That drive, that ambition, you got to respect
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: the movement. Yes, the Black Album earned them renewed backlash
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: from the metal community, but it was nothing they hadn't
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: seen before. So You could go ahead and listen to
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: the Black album and say Metallica sucks and Metallica sold out,
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: But the reality is, when Metallica made that record, that
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: was the exact record they wanted to make, Metallica was
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: incapable of selling out because every record, every decision, every
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: change has been real with real integrity behind it, integrity
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: taught to them by the late great Cliff Burton, who
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: always reminded James, Lars and Kirk that it didn't matter
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: what the haters or the posers of the ass Suck
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: Fairweather fans said about you. You know what you say
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: to those people, I don't give a fuck. That's metal,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: That's Metallica. Anything else is a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: and this his disgrace.
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: Land Hey, thanks for listening to this episode, which dealt
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: with the loss of the incredible musician.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: Cliff Burton and has inspired this week's Question of the
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: Week discos. I want to know which musician speaks to
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: you so much, impacts you so immensely, connects with you
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: so deeply that you cannot live without them? Who is it?
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: Is it? Lady Gaga? Is it? Dave Grohl? Is it
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: Taylor Swift, is it someone else? Hit me up with
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: your answers at Disgrace Slam Pod on Instagram, x, Facebook,
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: and TikTok, or leave me a voicemail or semi a
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: text at six one seven nine oh six sixty six
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: three eight. Your answers will be played and read on
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: the next after party bonus episode coming out next in
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: your feeds now. If you want to support the show,
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. I pick
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: a couple lucky reviewers every week and hooked them up
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: with free merch. Winners are also announced in this week's
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: after party bonus episode, so you're not gonna want to
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: miss that all right. Until then, let's get into some credits.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: found on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com.
• 35:10
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• 35:13
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• 35:16
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• 35:18
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• 35:23
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• 35:27
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• 35:36
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• 35:47
  Speaker 1: com slash at disgracelampod, Rock Arolla. He then