Cliff Burton is my biggest inspiration. I started playing bass guitar last year, but I’ve been a huge Metallica fan since I was a kid. The song “For Whom The Bell Tolls” has one of the best bass lines in metal history. I will always cite Burton as my No. 1 inspiration of why I started playing music in the first place.

Cliff Burton died  31 years ago today.

Born in Castro Valley, California, Burton was the second bassist and songwriter for the thrash metal band Metallica.

According to thefamouspeople.com, he was introduced to classical music by his father and his first instrument he learned to play was piano.

He started playing the bass guitar at 13 years old after the death of his older brother, and over the next couple of years, Burton got into Rock, Classical and Heavy Metal music.

He practiced up to six hours a day and cited Geddy Lee, Geezer Butler, Stanley Clarke, Lemmy Kilmister and Phil Lynott as major influences on his style of bass playing. He joined his first band, EZ-Street, while still in high school. The band split before they went to college.

His parents later quoted him for saying, “I’m gonna be the best bassist, for my brother.”

His second band he started with the guitarist from EZ-Street, Jim Martin. The second band, Agents of Misfortune, entered the Hayward Area Recreation Department’s Battle of the Bands contest in 1981, where Burton played bass lines that would be a part of the Metallica song “For Whom the Bell Tolls.”

In 1982, Burton joined the band Trauma, and played a gig in LA where James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich according to AllMusic.com

After joining Metallica in 1982, the band recorded their debut album Kill ‘Em All and would go on to record Ride The Lightning, and Master of Puppets.

His final live performance was in Stockholm, Sweden in 1986.

In an interview with the band, after deciding bunks for their tour bus on the night of Sept. 26, 1986, by drawing cards. Burton pulled the Ace of Spades.

He told guitarist Kirk Hammett, “I want your bunk!”

Burton went to bed before 7 a.m. on Sept. 27 and shortly after, the bus skidded off the road and flipped on its side

Burton was thrown from the window beside his bunk and was crushed by the tour bus when it flipped over on top of him.

Burton was voted the ninth best bass guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.