The Terrifying Story Of When Metallica Almost on Interstate 80

Growing up, Metallica was always one of my favorite bands. I remember listening to "Kill 'Em All" nonstop in my bedroom. This led me to learn how to play the bass after hearing Cliff Burton play "Anesthesia". If you've never heard that solo, holy cow is it a great composition of music in general. Cliff Burton's untimely death came in a similar fashion to this story.

It's common knowledge that Megadeath's frontman, Dave Mustaine was the original lead guitarist for Metallica in the 80s before Kirk Hammett came along. There is a series on YouTube called "Icons" where they have one-on-ones with several rockers. In Mustaine's story, he goes on to tell a time where he was driving the group from California to Rochester New York, and how the band almost died on Interstate 80.

Burton wrote a letter to his girlfriend at the time about the events. It happened in 1983, Mustaine was driving the band's 24 foot truck on I-80 outside of Laramie, Wyoming. They hit some black ice and slid off the road. As they got out of the cab to look at the damage, minutes later, a Jeep slammed into the truck. Had anyone been in, they would have been seriously injured or worse. As they stood in the snow, waiting for the tour truck, cars kept coming down I-80, sliding off and almost hitting their truck again.

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Finally, after a while of standing in the snow on the side of I-80, the tow truck arrived and towed them to Laramie where they stayed the night in a hotel. The funny part was the end of the letter from Burton. "Snow everywhere. It's nice to look at, but too (expletive) cold". Yeah, we know how that goes.

You can watch the full episode here.

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