In a recent interview with Brutal Planet Magazine, Dan Lilker shared a funny story about Cliff Burton and a chocolate milk ‘heist.’
“The one funny story I remember is when those guys were kind of like dead broke, we were walking around a supermarket and he walked past one of those displays where they have a bunch of drinks up on a shelf in the refrigerated area,” the bassist recalled.
He continued, “He picked up a chocolate milk, walked down the aisle, drank it, and then put the empty bottle on another end cap. I said, ‘What the f*ck’ and he went, ‘Yeap.’ Yeah, there’s your story. I can’t call it really shoplifting but it’s like he kind of carjacks at chocolate milk. I don’t know.”
During a 2014 conversation with Greg Prato of Songfacts, Lilker was asked if he ever considered trying out for Metallica after Burton’s death in 1986. He responded, “Yeah, it did. And it crossed other people’s minds, too, because that’s around the time when I was going into a lot of CBGBs hardcore matinees, and people came up to me, saying with a wink, ‘So, Dan, you joining Metallica?’ But I never got a call about it.”
The musician went on to say, “Who knows if I would have lasted? But that’s a band where two dudes make all the money and everybody else gets on the salary and they pretty much dictate exactly what they want to do. And that first Metallica album, ‘…And Justice For All’, that came out after Cliff died that had Jason [Newsted] on it, there’s no bass on it at all.”
“Dude, I don’t know. I don’t know if I would have been happy creatively. I mean, most of the bands I’ve been in, I’m one of the main songwriters and direct the nature of the music. But no, I never got the opportunity to figure out what would have happened with that,” Lilker added.
Lilker also mentioned that he was friends with the Metallica members when they visited Queens, New York in 1983, a few years before Cliff’s death.
