Calif. honors tragic Metallica star

A heavy-metal hero will now be celebrated annually in the San Francisco Bay Area community where he grew up.

Alameda County officials have declared Feb. 10 Cliff Burton Day in memory of the Metallica bassist, who was killed in a bus accident in 1986 and would have turned 56 Saturday.

Burton, who grew up south of Oakland, played on the band’s first three albums. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Metallica in 2009.