Clifford Lee Burton was born on the 10th February 1962, in Castro Valley, California USA, and was a musician as well as a songwriter who, as Cliff Burton, was widely recognized for being the bass guitarist of the internationally famous heavy metal band Metallica in the first half of the 1980s. Cliff was killed on the 27th September 1986 near Dörarp, Ljungby Municipality, Sweden, in a traffic accident while on Metallica’s Damage Inc. tour.
Have you ever wondered how much wealth this early-deceased rock star accumulated for life? How rich would Cliff Burton be today? According to sources, it is estimated that the total of Cliff Burton’s net worth, as of mid-2017, would revolve around the sum of $1 million, acquired through his prosperous but short music career.
Cliff Burton Net Worth $1 million
Cliff was the third and youngest child of Jan and Ray Burton. His interest in music dated back to his very early years when he was introduced to classical music by his father. This later led him to taking piano lessons and deeply embracing the music. At the age of 13, shaken by his brother’s death, young Cliff began playing bass guitar. Practicing sometimes even over six hours daily, Cliff mastered his guitar playing skills, heavily influenced by not only classical music, but jazz, rock and heavy metal also. Cliff attended Castro Valley High School where he also founded his first band, named EZ-Street. His band mates were Mike Bordin and Jim Martin who later made their own names within the Ozzy Osbourne and Faith No More bands respectively.
Cliff enrolled at Chabot College in Hayward, California, where alongside Jim Martin, he founded another band – Agents of Misfortune, which soon after took part in the 1981 Hayward Area Recreation Department’s Battle of the Bands. Later that year, Burton made some more serious efforts towards his music career, and joined his first genuine band – Trauma. In 1982, Cliff with Trauma went to West Hollywood to perform in the Whisky a Go Go nightclub. While performing what later became his signature bass solo “Anesthesia – Pulling Teeth”, Cliff caught the attention of Metallica founders Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield, and the rest is history! Becoming a member of Metallica was certainly a great decision, as this venture later brought Cliff Burton worldwide fame and a respectable amount of money.
Metallica’s debut studio album – entitled “Kill ‘Em All” – was released in 1983, featuring several of Cliff’s notable solo sections. The album was a real commercial success, selling over three million copies and earning 3x Platinum ratings. The following album, “Ride the Lightning” released in 1984, and containing eight songs of which six were written by Cliff, overtook the success of the first one, earning 6x Platinum ratings. The band’s third album “Master of Puppets” from 1986, which is still considered to be “the landmark of heavy metal”, also featured several of Burton’s songs as well as guitar solos, reprising the commercial success of its predecessor, earning 6x Platinum ratings too. It is certain that these accomplishments made a huge impact on Cliff Burton’s net worth at that time.
During the Damage Inc. tour, supporting the release of “Master of Puppets” album, Cliff Burton was killed at the age of only 24, in the dawn of 27th September 1986 after the band’s bus slipped of the road and flipped near Ljungby Municipality, Sweden.
In 2009, Cliff Burton was posthumously honored with induction into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, while in 2011, he was named the 9th on the Rolling Stone Magazine’s greatest bassists of all time list.
