Ray Burton Joins Metal Allegiance Onstage To Pay Tribute to Metallica’s Cliff Burton
Metal Allegiance‘s star-studded ‘Tribute to Fallen Heroes’ show at City National Grove in Anaheim, Calif., on Jan. 20 was an awe-inspiring endeavor as the group reined in more of rock and metal’s best to honor the rockers we’ve lost throughout the decades. Late Metallica bassist Cliff Burton was saluted as his father, Ray, was introduced and sat onstage to watch the band rip through the Master of Puppets song "Disposable Heroes."
Prior to the band performing the Metallica classic 'Disposable Heroes,' Metal Allegiance core member Mark Menghi gave an impassioned speech about Cliff Burton's influence on him as a young metalhead. He then proceeded to introduce Ray Burton, who later took the mic and talked about how Cliff got started playing the bass. Then, Chris Jericho had the audience sing "Happy Birthday" to Ray as Alex Skolnick played along on guitar. The icing on the cake came when Ray offered up Cliff's bass to Menghi for the performance.
Ray Burton remained onstage and tapped his foot and clapped his hands throughout as Metal Allegiance launched into Metallica's "Disposable Heroes" with Death Angel frontman Mark Osegueda on vocals.
Burton's name is etched in heavy metal history for his pioneering influence as well as being a victim of the horrendous tragedy that took his life in 1986. While on tour in Europe, Metallica's tour bus skidded off the road, ejecting the bassist through the window before falling on him in the aftermath.
Loudwire streamed the entire performance live and you can the incredible moment when Mark Menghi introduced Ray Burton in the video above. The performance of 'Disposable Heroes' can be seen below.
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