Today marks the anniversary of the passing of Cliff Burton. Cliff was Metallica's bassist on the first three Metallica albums and a huge influence on the band's work. He was killed in a bus accident in Sweden on September 27, 1986 at the age of 24. He would have turned 47 earlier this year.

"Cliff was so completely honest to himself and the people around him. He hated all this being-put-on-a-pedestal bullshit." - Lars

"He loved music. He was really intellectual but very to the point. He taught me a lot about attitude." - James

ESP Guitars has announced that James' Truckster guitar will be available in black this fall. Hopefully, they'll be a little more affordably priced then the last couple of ESP Signature series from James and Kirk (James' Iron Cross and Kirk's latest Ouija's went for almost $10,000 each).

...and catching up...

Tickets went on sale yesterday, July 1st for the Mill Valley Film Festival at the Smith Rafael Film Center where Lars will present a special screening and discussion of "The Five Obstructions." It happens on Wednesday, September 2.

The previously mentioned DVD's of Metallica's upcoming Paris gig and already shot Mexico City show have fans scratching their heads. The Parsian show has a release date of October 19 in France (and Metallica.com)... it was already known that this DVD would be a French-only item. The Mexican show has yet to have any release date... however, Metallica.com states: "For our friends in Latin America, stay tuned for more details about the release of the Mexico City shows on DVD." Which seems to imply that this will be a Latin America release only... it was thought that this show would have a wider release (unlike the French show).

The show in Ottawa has been pushed back a couple days to make way for "very cool event coming up around that time." Speculation is that Metallica will appear at the Voodoo Festival in New Orleans.

Lamb of God will be the opening act for the fall leg of the North American tour.

An editted version of All Nightmare Long has been heard on the airways in the US. Have you heard it?

Metallica will be making an appearance on Time Warp, The Discovery Channel program takes events and slows them down using high speed cameras, it is hosted MIT scientist and teacher Jeff Lieberman along with digital-imaging expert Matt Kearney filmed the band at HQ. The program airs on Wednesday, April 29 at 8:00 pm.

James' 1953 Buick Skylark, dubbed Skyscraper will make an appearance at this years 'Rock Stars' Cars & Guitar 2' at the Henry Ford Museum in Metro Detroit. Last year, the exhibit featured James' 'I Disappear Camaro' and one of Kirk's Skully guitars.

Tonight Metallica joins the Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame. Who will be there? Apparently a lot of the band's friends dating back to the begining. Jason Newsted returns for a couple songs along with Rob on bass guitar, and it's said that Ray Burton, Cliff's father will join the band onstage to represent his son. Who else is there? Folks spotted in Cleveland include Anthrax, Flea, Harald Oimoen, Brian Slagel...

Fuse TV will broadcast on cable television on on their website.

Live Design Online has an interview with Metallica lighting and production designer John Broderick. While it's fulled with the sort of info that might mean little to us laypersons, it is still wonderfully insightful and full of details - both large and small - it definitely helps one appreciate the work and workers that are behind the scenes at every Metallica show.

Aside from that, it contains one tidbit that might concern all Metallica fans: And it seems Broderick isn’t tired of the gig after 21 years. He’ll be back out with Metallica in the South of France in July for a DVD shoot of the tour.