Author Archives: Alex

Cliff Burton’s dad thanks his son’s fans

Ray Burton, the guy responsible for one of metal’s best bass players, wishes to thank Metallica fans for their support and wishes.

Nothing else to add, just watch the video…

Hetfield says Big Four shows have ‘run their course’

I’ve never wanted to punch a host in the face as much as when I saw this video. Someone get that dude off coffee and on some ADHD medicine.

Anyway, the interview itself has some pretty interesting quotes from Jaymz, so might as well post them here in case you’re too lazy to either watch the full thing, or go read it on Blabbermouth (cause that’s where I stole this from):

On more Big Four shows:

“Never say never, but I think it’s kind of run its course as far as Europe, for sure, and the two on the coasts here. I think it’s done what it needs to do for now, and then we’ll go our separate ways, do our albums, do our things. […] Who knows what happens in the future? It could be the ‘Big Ten’ and then we include… Who knows?! No limitations, man. But this has been a blast. And I think this might be the last one for at least a little while.“

On the Lou Reed album:

“Lou came with the lyrics; the lyrics were all finished. The lyrics are intense, and every time that I listen to this thing, there’s a line that I pull out and I just gnaw on that potent little thing all day. It’s like, ‘Man…’ It’s deep, and without getting too artsy-fartsy, you can take it to another level. It’s not party rock, that’s for sure. It’s deep, dark and intense.“

On their 30th anniversary gigs:

“We’ll have contests, we’ll have…. Who knows what goes on?! It’ll be Metallica insanity. And we’re trying to invite as many of the people who have jammed with us on albums or on stages, whatever, or songs we’ve done from them, we’re trying to get them up on stage […] Hopefully Lemmy, and Ozzy, and Tony, the Diamond Head guys, and who knows?! Whoever we’ve toured with as well. C’mon up — let’s have some fun and celebrate.“

 

Here are my thoughts, cause you fuckers know I have an opinion on everything:

• I’m willing to bet they’ll do more Big Four shows once each band finishes releasing/promoting albums. The demand is there, money is to be made, mark my words — it will happen again, and again, and again.
• Lou Reed wrote those pretentious lyrics? Wow, surprise of the fucking century. I realize this is a passion project for ‘Tallica, but jeez, they’ll have a new St. Anger on their hands, if only through the fans’ perspectives.
• I have to admit, having a show with Metallica, Lemmy, Ozzy, Tony and others would be fucking epic. I really want to go.  <whore> If anyone from Metallica’s camp is reading this, care to fly a metal e-journalist there? </whore>

Van Halen II: The discussion

To say about Van Halen II that the title says it all, would be an understatement. But let’s break it down, anyway, in case a juggalo is reading this.

The ‘Van Halen’ in ‘Van Halen II’ means it’s an album by the band Van Halen. ‘II’ stands for ‘second,’ because it’s their sophomore effort. Mr. Wikipedia, at your service.

Leaving bad jokes and sarcasm aside, there’s a podcast out there called “Mars Attacks,” and they got a bunch of musicians together to talk about this album. What musicians? Well, people like Charlie Benante, Glen Drover and Gene Hoglan, and others…

You can listen to the podcast right here: [audio:http://marsattacksradio.com/Interviews/Mars_Attacks_Podcast_046_-_VHII.mp3]

Download here.

Source: MarsAttacksRadio.com

Lulu, in a nutshell

Could this be the new ‘Bargains‘?

Anyway, no idea who made it, so unfortunately I can’t give credit to the author, but I did get it from MetallicaHD’s Facebook page.

Ian, Burton, Hammett – The Three Musketeers

Scott Ian posted a cool story of his friendship with the late Cliff Burton on his blog, and it’s a pretty awesome read. I just couldn’t help myself and had to do that photo above. Why? Read below…

Love how fat Kirk looks in that photo, by the way.

Anyway, here is the (somewhat) short version of the story. Make sure to read the full thing when you have the chance:

“I knew Cliff for three years and in those three years became good friends with him and Kirk, bonds that have lasted and stood the test of time. We were the three musketeers when we were together and we got to spend a lot of time together back in those days.

I was in London in March of 1984 doing promo for our first album Fistful Of Metal. Metallica was also in London because they were supposed to do a tour with The Rods and Exciter in the UK but the tour was cancelled. […] One day Cliff and I were going to a store so Cliff could buy a Walkman. We were in the tube station and two policemen approached us and asked us if we had drugs. We said no, big surprise. Truth is, we didn’t. They kept telling us that we should just tell them what we have and things would be easier for us. We kept telling them that we didn’t have anything. I guess they didn’t believe us being the long haired freaks that we were because they arrested us and took us to the police station. […]

At some point I heard Cliff’s voice and I started banging on the door screaming at them to tell me what was going on. A cop opened the window in the door and told me “they were taking my mate back to the flat so they could search it.” Apparently they had found Cliff’s cold medicine pills in his coat and they assumed it was illegal drugs. […]

So now they were taking him back to the apartment and I got really nervous because I knew he had weed back there. If they found the weed we were fucked. All I could think of was that movie Midnight Express where the guy gets busted in Turkey for smuggling and sent to Turkish prison and nobody ever sees him for years […]

It’s easy to get irrational when you’ve never been arrested for anything and you’re sitting in a cold concrete cell in a foreign country in your underwear for five hours with no clue as to what is going on. Another two hours or so passed and the cell door opened and a cop was handing me my clothes and telling me I was to go to the Captain’s office. […] To my surprise, Cliff was already there lounging in a chair with a huge Cheshire cat grin. I figured we were OK but I still had no idea what happened and how they didn’t find the weed back at the flat. The Captain started to apologize to us and tell us how “sorry he was for the mistake and us being falsely accused and that the cold medicine really was cold medicine etc etc.” I freaked. […]

As soon as we were outside I asked Cliff what the hell happened back at the flat. He told me that they (Cliff and six cops) walked into the flat and Kirk was in the living room playing guitar. The cops proceeded to search the flat for an hour to no avail. They couldn’t find anything. I asked Cliff where the weed was hidden, like he had some super secret hidey hole to stash his shit. He started laughing and asked me where would be the first place I would look if I was a cop searching a flat looking for drugs. I told him I would look under the mattress of his bed.

Exactly.

The weed was under his mattress and the cops never looked there!! I couldn’t believe it. The Metal Gods were looking down on Cliff and I that day.“

Read full story here.

Wait, is he saying what I think he’s saying? Did these guys commit a felony?

Holy shit, someone should call the cops! I have a feeling the inmates will REALLY love Kirk.

Make the jump for a photo of Scott and Cliff from that period.