’80s Metallica Producer Flemming Rasmussen on Cliff Burton, “They leaned on him”

Metallica’s classic ’80s producer Flemming Rasmussen has revealed just how much the band relied on bassist Cliff Burton during their rise to metal dominance. Speaking to Metal Hammer, Rasmussen, who produced 1984’s Ride the Lightning, 1986’s Master of Puppets and 1988’s …And Justice for All, says the usual story about James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich running the show does not really line up with how things worked when Cliff was alive. “The thing about Lars and James being the leaders of the band didn’t emerge until later,” he says. “At that point it was a four-piece unit. Lars and James were the ones out there promoting the band, but Cliff was the oldest, and the one with a musical education, so they leaned on him to get shit done.”

Rasmussen remembers Burton as the quiet power at the center of the group’s decision making. He adds that the bassist “was important to the structure of the band. He took part in all of the decisive processes. Nothing really happened in Metallica unless Cliff nodded ‘yes’.”

That authority contrasted sharply with how little money was around in the Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets era, when Metallica were still living hand to mouth. “They’d been staying with friends when we did Ride the Lightning, and I’d seen how they lived and ate, and it was shit,” Rasmussen recalls. “I called their management and said, ‘If we’re going to work as hard, they need proper meals. Why don’t you send me a chunk of money, and I’ll have my wife cook dinner for these guys.’ And they said, ‘Yeah, sure.’”

“So every day started with them showing up at six in the evening at my house and we’d have dinner,” he continues. “The first day my wife made meatballs with remoulade sauce, which was the perfect Danish thing. Their favorite was rice porridge, which is something Danes say that the elves eat. They loved that.”

Burton had joined Metallica in 1982, replacing Ron McGovney and quickly becoming a key creative force, co-writing future cornerstones like Master Of Puppets, Creeping Death, Fade To Black and Damage, Inc., and helping define the band’s early sound on tracks such as For Whom The Bell Tolls, Orion and his bass solo Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth) from Kill ’Em All. His life and tenure were cut tragically short in September 1986, when Metallica’s tour bus overturned in Sweden, killing the 24-year-old six months after the release of Master Of Puppets. The band continued with Jason Newsted, paying tribute to Burton on …And Justice for All’s To Live is to Die, which incorporates a spoken-word poem he wrote.

The full conversation with Flemming Rasmussen appears in the latest issue of Metal Hammer, which dropped on April 2nd.