Photo: Redferns
Metallica fans in Sweden plan to open a museum next month in the town of Ljungby to honor late-bassist Cliff Burton.
Burton tragically died in a bus crash a few miles north of Ljungby on September 27, 1986, while Metallica was on tour in the country supporting Master of Puppets.
Organizers tell Guitar World the mission for the museum is two-fold.
"We primarily want to honor Cliff Burton, who died so tragically in the middle of his career, and talk about who he was as a person and a musician," they said. "Our second main purpose is to create a meeting place for all those who seek the memorial site in the small community of Dörarp. We want to continue the fine work that the fans started when they started raising funds to make Cliff's memorial stone."
In September of 2006, Metallica fans dedicated a memorial stone to Burton at an establishment across the street from where Metallica's tour bus crashed 20 years earlier.
The museum, they say, will provide a more accessible and appropriate destination. It will include Metallica-related media, along with photos and video interviews related to the fatal accident.
Organizers have recreated the stage from Metallica's last performance with Burton, which took place in Stockholm, and secured a poster with his final autograph.
The target date for the Cliff Burton Museum's grand opening is May 14.
Look for more details at the museum's official Instagram account.
Burton was a member of Metallica from 1982 - 1986. His influential bass playing can be heard on the bands first three studio albums.
Despite struggling with their bandmate's death for many years, the surviving members of Metallica remained close with Burton's family, in particular, his father Ray Burton.
Ray, who passed in 2020 at age 94, was a father figure to his son's former bandmates and the caretaker of Cliff's legacy. In 2017, Ray revealed that for more than 30 years he had been donating the proceeds of his son's royalty checks to a music scholarship at Cliff's old high school.