In January 1985 Metallica return to the U.S., co-headlining with W.A.S.P., with Armored Saint supporting. During their few days off, the bands conducts bouts of "raging," in which alcohol flows freely, hotels are terrorized, and pranks are pulled fast and furiously.

"We were throwing empty beer bottles out the window, then James tossed my leather jacket out the window. We went down to retrieve it, and when we were coming back up the hotel elevator, we decided to pull out its emergency stop button. This set off an alarm. The elevator was stuck between two floors, security was screaming at us to get out of the elevator, alarms were going off and James was going nuts.

"Then we crawled out of the elevator and James picked up a fire extinguisher from off the wall and aimed it at me. He started fuckin' squirting it, there was fog all over, and the sensors picked up that someone had shot off an extinguisher, so the fire alarms started going off all over. I snuck back to my room, and out the window, police cars and fire trucks were pulling into hotel parking lot, and people were being evacuated outside in their pajamas and underwear. James ended up having to pay a fine."

— Joey Vera (Armored Saint), describes the "Jacket-elevator-fire-extinguisher" incident that made him and James infamous to hotel managers across the country, Metallica Unbound

"I always remember that Cliff Burton was absolutely terrified before that gig [March 10, 1985, at Hollywood Palladium], because for a wind-up they [Metallica] got me to tell him that I'd phoned Geezer Butler and he was in the audience watching him. He was really worried!"

— Ross Halfin, photographer, Justice For All: The Truth About Metallica

On March 6, a promising young bassist named Jason Newsted attends Metallica concert in Phoenix, Arizona.

"Front row. Right in front of Cliff Burton, worshiping. Drooling. Banging madly. Fourteen bucks for a shirt, which was all the money in the world at that time. We only went to see Metallica. As soon as Metallica was done, we walked out. They just crushed it, and we knew everything they did by heart."

— Jason, Playboy Magazine, 2001

New York, January 1985

Metallica play Monsters of Rock Festival with Bon Jovi and Ratt at Castle Donington in England in front of over 70,000 fans.

"If you came here to see spandex, eye makeup, and the words 'Oh baby' in every fuckin' song, this ain't the fuckin' band."

— James talking to the crowd at Donington

Donington is infamous for the number of things thrown onstage.

"There's mostly demo tapes, flowers, flyers, underwear, bras, and other crap that fly up there. At one of the Donington shows, we had pieces of pig flying up. Someone had slaughtered a pig and threw it up there."

— James, Metallica Unbound

Monsters of Rock at Donington, 1985

Metallica continue their major festival circuit, playing at Day on the Green in Oakland, Calif. to over 60,000 fans.

"The crowd was fuckin' real good—real big. I was fuckin' real drunk. I guess we did okay. Fuckin' it's hard to tell when you're onstage, you know. You don't really know what's going on, you just do it and fuckin' find out what happens later."

— Cliff, on his memories of Day on the Green, Metallica Unbound

"Me and some of my rowdier friends were so fucked up that we were throwing fruit around. We'd throw the fruit, and they'd explode on this grating, a vent that would go into the next trailer, so the juice would spray all over whoever happened to be in there. So we were throwing all these things, and it got down to avocados, which were all that was left of the fruit tray. Somehow, the avocados wouldn't go through (laughter). So we took baseball bats and kinda smashed the vent apart. Then we went off on the furniture. The whole trailer got demolished, basically."

— James's backstage memories from Day on the Green, Metallica Unbound

Day on the Green:

1. Lars and Yngwie Malmsteen

The band records Master Of Puppets at Sweet Silence Studios, Copenhagen, Denmark.

"One other benefit of Denmark in the late fall and early winter is the dispensing of what the Danish call 'Christmas beer.' Lars and James were frequent imbibers of Christmas beer while outside the soundproof sanctum of Sweet Silence. Lars once told Creem about the effect of too many Christmas beers on one of his bandmates: 'James would start trying to talk in Danish—completely pissed out of his face.... Good fun."

— Frayed Ends of Metal

Master Of Puppets is released. The album has a 72-week run on the album charts, and becomes the band's first gold record.

"With this album it was the first time that we've been recording in the studio where there hasn't been a big red cross on the calendar saying 'The album has to be released on this date!', because of the financial restrictions."

— Lars, Metallica: In Their Own Words, 1986

"The only track you probably won't want to play is 'Damage, Inc.' due to multiple use of the infamous "F" word. Otherwise, there aren't any 'shits,' 'fucks,' 'pisses,' 'cunts,' 'motherfuckers,' or 'cocksuckers' anywhere on this record."

— written on the stop-sign-shaped warning label affixed to Master Of Puppets

1. Master Of Puppets
2. The warning sticker

Metallica start Damaged Inc. tour in the US, supporting Ozzy Osbourne. It's their last tour as a supporting act.

"What happened in '86 on the Puppets album was it was the first time we got out to middle America. The big reason it did get out there was Ozzy Osbourne. Metallica and Ozzy in arenas all across America and especially middle America. It was the first time that Metallica penetrated into those layers, the first time we showed up on the radar screens."

— Lars, mtv.com, 2003

"I guess we know that this band is starting to get genuine success because not only have we got two bottles of vodka per night on our dressing room 'rider,' but this isn't the cheap stuff we've been used to—rather, it's Absolut!"

— Lars, on the 1986 tour, Metallica: In Their Own Words

"I remember Metallica opening a tour for me a good many years ago. I would walk past their bus before shows and hear them playing old Sabbath songs, and I thought they were making fun of me. And they wouldn't talk to me and always kept their distance, and I thought it was really weird. I asked their tour manager about it and said, 'Is this their idea of a joke?' And he said, 'No, they think you're ... gods.'"

— Ozzy Osbourne

"Ozzy was said to have had a mean temper when loaded, and one night Lars got a hint of it. Drinking with Ozzy, Lars asked if for some reason Ozzy washed his hair after the show. Somehow, Ozzy was insulted by this. Briefly, Las thought the bizarre incident might have them kicked off the tour."

— Frayed Ends of Metal

Damaged Inc. tour in support of the Master Of Puppets album

James breaks his wrist skateboarding down a hill in Evansville, Indiana, before a gig, but continues the tour singing. The band's guitar tech, John Marshall, fills in. (Marshall later becomes a member of Metal Church).

James: "We told the management, 'Hey, look we're thinking about taking boards out on tour'...I thought he was going to go, 'Oh shit, no way, you can't.' He just said, 'Well, you break something, you still play.'"

Kirk: "Yeah, he said, 'You break a leg on your skateboard, you play on stage with a broken leg.'"

— Thrasher Magazine, 1986

"John Marshall has been our savior quite a few times. It pays if you're a roadie to learn the bands songs, you could end up on stage."

—James, VH1 Behind the Music

"James would run around the stage, just singing, with guitar parts mysteriously coming from nowhere. So after the first two songs, James would announce: 'Obviously, I'm not playing; we've got this guy down here who's playing guitar.' I'd walk out and wave, then go back to my little hidden corner. [One night] Cliff would look over at me and go, 'Get the fuck out here! Come out and play!' Four gigs into the tour I was basically on the stage."

—John Marshall, Metallica Unbound

"The hard part was trying to match the vibe and intensity of James's guitar playing. I knew how to play the riffs and song arrangements OK, but getting the feel right was difficult. It was also hard because the rest of the band follows his voice and guitar onstage. I think I was more worried about what the rest of the band thought, than what the audience thought."

— John Marshall, Justice For All. The Truth About Metallica

James with a broken wrist

Damage Inc. tour, European part starts. On September 21, supported by Anthrax, they play the famous show at London's Hammersmith Odeon.

"We really felt that we were part of something; the crowds were crazy and we really felt as if there was something happening. The energy was palpable.

— Scott Ian (Anthrax), Justice For All. The Truth About Metallica

Damage Inc. tour, Europe 1986.

1-3. James at The Playhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland, Sept 12
4. Lars at The Playhouse, Sept 12
5. James at Hammersmith Odeon, London, England, Sept 21

At the show in Stockholm on September 26, James plays the guitar for the first time since his accident.

"They just slayed. It was the first gig in which James played guitar in three months, they were really up for it. They just fuckin' slaughtered."

— John Marshall, Metallica: Unbound

This will turn out to be Cliff's last show. Traveling from Stockholm to Copenhagen the band draws cards to figure out who will sleep in which bunk. Cliff draws the ace of spades and chooses to sleep in Kirk's bunk. Sometime around dawn, the bus driver loses control of the bus, which skids out of control and rolls over several times. James, Kirk and Lars survive with no serious injuries, but Cliff Burton is pinned under the bus and dies.

"I saw the bus lying right on him. I saw his legs sticking out. I freaked. The bus driver, I recall, was trying to yank the blanket out from under him to use for other people. I just went, 'Don't fucking do that!' I already wanted to kill the guy. I don't know if he was drunk or if he hit some ice. All I knew was, he was driving and Cliff wasn't alive anymore."

— James

"When our tour manager said, 'Okay. Let's get the band together and take them back to the hotel.' And I'm thinking, 'The band? There ain't no band anymore. It's just three guys.'"

— James, Metallica Unbound

Cliff's funeral takes place on October 7, 1986, and his ashes are scattered on the Maxwell Ranch.

1. Metallica's last gig with Cliff, at the Solnahallen in Stockholm, September 26, 1986
2. Backstage at the Solnahallen, September 26, 1996
3. Cliff backstage at the Solnahallen
4. The scene of the bus accident, September 27, 1986
5. Lars, James, Kirk, and their tour manager get a ride from the hospital to a hotel in Ljungby, September 27, 1986
6. Cliff's memorial

In music press, friends and fans pay tribute to Cliff Burton:

"The Ultimate Musician, The Ultimate Headbanger, The Ultimate Loss,
A Friend Forever."

—a double-page black spread in Kerrang! from John and Marsha Zazula

"Bell-Bottoms Rule! Laugh it up, We Miss You."

—from Anthrax, Kerrang!

"Cliff Burton 1962-1986"

—from Music For Nations, Kerrang!