Cliff Burton’s Father Donates Royalties To Music Scholarships

Ray Burton

Cliff Burton’s playing has inspired generations of players, and now we know that his royalty checks have been helping, too. In a new interview with the Metallica podcast Alphabetallica, the bass legend’s 92-year-old father Ray revealed that he’s been donating the fallen bassist’s royalties to fund local music scholarships.

“One of the things from the royalties that I get,” he told them, “[is] I give a scholarship to the high school he went to, Castro Valley High School, for music. The kids who won it, they invariably write and thank me… And I think Cliff probably would have done that with his money because he was not against education by any means. He liked it very much.”

Burton played on three Metallica albums – Kill ’Em All, Ride the Lighting, and Master of Puppets – before tragically dying in a bus accident while on tour. While he became famous with the band, Burton’s father says that the money didn’t affect his personality. “He was quite a humble person,” he said. “He just didn’t like the strutting types that so much of the rock ‘n’ roll musicians get to be when they get popular. He just liked to do his wild playing of heavy metal music. He never changed.”

Hear the whole interview here:

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