“Lars and I saw him headbanging at the Whiskey. ‘Let’s get that guitar player… oh, he’s playing bass!’ This skinny dude with bell bottoms, playing a wah solo. ‘Wow, we need him!’”: James Hetfield on the life and death of Metallica legend Cliff Burton

Cliff Burton and James Hetfield.

James Hetfield will always remember the first time he saw Cliff Burton on stage. It was in 1982, and Burton was bassist for the band Trauma. In the audience at the famous Los Angeles club the Whisky A Go Go, Hetfield watched with his Metallica bandmate Lars Ulrich.

Speaking to MOJO magazine in 2008, Hetfield recalled snapshots of Burton's performance that night in '82: