Primus guitarist Larry LaLonde recently recalled a candid memory of late Metallica bassist Cliff Burton. He shared the story in an interview published on Ultimate Guitar.
LaLonde previously served as guitarist for death metal band Possessed. When asked about his memories of Burton, he shared a blunt but memorable first encounter in which Burton made no secret of his feelings about the band.
“Yeah, we hung a little bit. The funny thing with Cliff, he told me straight to my face, ‘I hate your band. You guys are like a Slayer rip-off,'” LaLonde said.
Despite the sharp words, LaLonde emphasized that Burton’s honesty was something he respected rather than resented.
“But he wasn’t being mean, he was just being honest, and I totally didn’t take it personal. I was like, ‘Yeah, that checks out. That makes sense,'” he said.
LaLonde also reflected on Burton’s broader significance to metal, noting his pioneering role in bringing the bass guitar to the forefront of the genre.
“That’s my first memory of him, but he was very cool, no phoniness to him at all. He was also kind of pioneering… There was really no bass at the forefront in metal that much. Other than, like, Iron Maiden, maybe, at the time,” LaLonde continued.
Cliff Burton passed away in 1986. His influence on heavy metal bass playing continues to be widely recognized by musicians across generations.
The exchange between Burton and LaLonde offers a window into the tight-knit yet fiercely opinionated world of mid-1980s metal. Genre boundaries were being drawn in real time, and musicians weren’t shy about where they stood.
LaLonde joined Possessed as a teenager, contributing to the band’s early death metal work. He later transitioned to Primus, where he became a core member in the late 1980s. His path from the raw aggression of Possessed to the experimental funk-metal of Primus was one of the more striking career pivots of his era.
Possessed’s debut album Seven Churches, released in 1985, is widely regarded as a landmark record in the formation of death metal as a distinct genre. The band’s sound drew heavily from thrash metal, and comparisons to Slayer were not uncommon at the time. Burton’s blunt assessment, while harsh, reflected a genuine critical conversation happening within the scene.
Burton was Metallica’s bassist from 1982 until his death. He was instrumental in elevating the bass guitar from a background role to a lead voice in heavy metal. His classical influences and unconventional technique set him apart from virtually every other bassist working in the genre at the time.
Burton was just 24 years old when he died on September 27, 1986, during a tour bus accident in Sweden. Metallica was on the road supporting Master of Puppets when the bus skidded off the road in the early morning hours. Burton was killed after being thrown from the vehicle. His death sent shockwaves through the metal world and cut short what many considered one of the most promising careers in the genre’s history.
