As Metal Injection has best put it: In the 80s, you couldn’t simply tweet Cliff Burton. If you were extremely lucky, you could try and find him backstage somewhere. And lucky is exactly what John 5 was hoping to get. 

John 5 told Revolver Magazine about the unorthodox way in which he was able to simply stroll backstage and get some moments with Cliff:

I went to go see Metallica twice when they were opening up for Ozzy on the Ultimate Sin tour — once at Joe Louis Arena and then at Pine Knob. And I remember I bought a pass off somebody. And I just walked backstage! I don’t tell many people this, and I don’t know why because it’s a pretty cool story, but I remember being backstage and talking to Cliff [Burton]. And I remember he was drying his hair with a blow dryer. He was brushing his hair and drying it after the show. And he was wearing bellbottoms. And I hadn’t really see that before. And I was like, “Man, I really love your band and I think you guys are the greatest.” I was just talking to him! It was really weird. It was something else for me. That’s for sure.