which included some of the biggest names in rock n’ roll.. His death was not your typical
rock n’ roll tragedy. There were no drugs, or large amounts of alcohol involved, instead
a strange set of circumstances So what happened? Stay tuned to find out.
Buckley came from a musical family with his mother being a classically trained musician
while his father was the psychedelic folk singer named Tim Buckley who died at the young
age of 28 due to a drug overdose. Jeff was only 8 years old at the time of his father’s
death, but he wouldn’t have a close relationship with him. The younger Buckley was only met
his father once several months before he his death. And Buckley would tell the new york
times in 1993 "I never knew him,. I met him once, when I was 8. We went to visit him,
and he was working in his room, so I didn’t even get to talk to him. And that was it.”
Buckley wouldn’t even be invited to his father’s funeral and his mother would claim
in a 2002 documentary that her son tried to avoid much of the same pitfalls that ended
the life of his biological father.
Known as “Scott Moorhead” for much of his childhood, Jeff borrowed the name from
his step father who he was close to.. It’s likely that Moorhead had a bigger influence
on Jeff’s career path than his biological father. Moorhead gave Buckley one of his first
albums, which was Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti. Buckley would tell an interviewer
in 1994 reflecting on Led Zeppelin “That was the first voice I really fell in love
with. Young Robert Plant back when he sounded like Jeans. He was trying to sound like Howlin'
Wolf, but he didn't. He sounded like some big fing animal.” he’d say.
In addition to Zeppelin Buckley would also be heavily influenced by Queen, Jimi Hendrix,
The Who, Kiss and Pink Floyd.
As a child Buckley lived in many places as his family moved around a lot within California
with the singer referring to his childhood as “rootless trailer trash’. Buckley would
also claim that he never fit in anywhere as a child telling the guardian newspaper in
1994 how his mother was the one pushing for the family to move around saying “We’d
spend a few months in some places, longer in others. But we never hung around for long.
The best places were also the worst because just as I’d make friends with someone we’d
be out of there. I got pretty good at working out who wanted to punch me and who would defend
me. I’m an excellent judge of character now. I guess my mother just always wanted
to know what was around the next corner.”
Throughout his years in high school, Buckley played in a series of cover bands and soon
after graduation he attended the Los Angeles Musicians Institute He would reveal to Rolling
Stone magazine in 1994 that while the institute did teach him a lot about music theory, specifically
harmonies,, overall he felt the experience was a waste of time. Buckley would spend the
next half a decade in LA playing as a session guitarist in a wide variety of bands covering
a range of styles including jazz, reggae, and heavy metal, Lacking any real success
and growing tired of the LA music scene, Buckley in 1990 moved across the country to New York
City where he initially didn’t have a lot of success working as a musician. He would
split time between LA and New York from 1990 to 1991 during which he would record a demo
tape. Buckley would make his solo debut at a tribute
show to his father in 1991 at St. Ann’s Church in Brooklyn. Obituaries for his father
failed to mention him having a son and those closest to him were shocked to learn he had
a child. It would be his father’s former manager who knew about Jeff and invited him
at the last minute to partake in the tribute. Initially Jeff was unsure whether to attend,
but deciding it would help him have closure he chose to do so telling Rolling Stone “It
bothered me that I hadn’t been to his funeral, that I’d never been able to tell him anything,
I used that show to pay my last respects. The younger Buckley would perform a cover
of his father’s song “i never asked to be your mountain’ which was penned by his
Dad as a send off to the family he was abandoning. For Jeff it took on a whole new meaning. and
ex-Captian Beefheart guitarist Gary Lucas performed with Buckley that night on stage
and remembered to NME magazine in in 1998 "Here was this skinny kid with this unearthly
voice, just wailing,” “I was next to him playing guitar but I was really just watching
the audience, who were really turned on by it…It was electric.” Buckley would perform
several more songs that night and that performance would change his life forever. Soon enough
everyone wanted to do business with Jeff Buckley. Following that performance Jeff wasn’t sure
about his new found path to stardom telling The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1994 “In a
way, I sacrificed my anonymity for my father, whereas he sacrificed me for his fame, So
I guess I made a mistake.” he’d say
It was also during this time he joined Gary Lucas band named Gods and Monsters for roughly
a year, but it only served as a springboard to pursue a solo career, which he did. Buckley
would find a musical retreat in an east village cafe called the Shin-E where he would become
a mainstay. When he wasn’t performing at the venue he’d be in the back washing dishes.
And as Buckley put on more shows word soon spread about his incredible talent and record
labels started sniffing around with major label executives coming in from Midtown, all
hoping to sign the future rockstar. One night in particular saw major industry
players in attendance including Clive Davis & Seymour Stein. In late 1992 Buckley would
sign to Sony’s Columbia Records with promises of artistic freedom and also taking pride
in the fact that he shared the same label as greats including Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen
and Bruce Springsteen.. A year later Columbia Records would issue
his first commercial recording, the four-song EP Live at Sin-é. By early 1994 Buckley hit
the road for his first solo tour in small venues to support the live album. That following
summer of that year Jeff looked to release his debut studio album Grace. Buckley was
excited at the prospect of working with a band, revealing in the press kit for Grace
“As soon as the EP came out, I was dying to be with a band,” “I was dying for the
relationship, for the chemistry. People, the warm bodies. Male or female. Bass, drums,
, tuba, anything. Any way that the band would work out.” he’d say
Sessions for Grace began in September of 1993 a month before his EP came out and while the
label had a lot riding on his first studio recording, many of the suits at the Columbia
started to worry as Buckley hadn’t yet assembled a band weeks prior to hitting the studio.
Buckley would tell Juice in 1996. “Rather than have anybody pick my band, I decided
to stall until I found the right people,” So I stalled and I lied. Nothing was really
happening, because I hadn’t found anybody.” he'd reveal.
Eventually Buckley found his band but he hadn’t yet revealed to them he had signed a deal
with Columbia Reords. When his band had finally assembled to rehearse he revealed he had a
record deal and recording would start in a few weeks. Producer Andy Wallace remembered
the anxiety that set in revealing what the first rehearsals were like saying . “[They
would] start a riff that would turn into a jam, eventually abandoning the riff, and it
would go on for ten minutes,” “It was interesting, but my first impression was,
‘Wait a minute, I thought you guys were learning songs. We’ve got studio time booked!’”
As the band entered the studio, the recording sessions for Grace were excruciating to say
the least. Buckley’s perfectionism saw him experiment with endless arrangements for each
song. Buckley even admitted his obsessiveness with making the perfect record while promoting
the album saying “The nature of [recording] is excruciating,”. “It’s obsessive because
you’re dealing with ultimate things. It’s not like a live show where you play it and
it just disappears into the air like smoke. It’s like painting, sound painting. It’s
in a crystalized form, so it’s very nerve-wracking: which brain cell do I put down here forever
and ever?” At one point, sessions for the album came
to a grinding halt after one reviewer who was writing about his 4 song EP compared Buckley
to Michael Bolton who was an artist he detested at the time. The comparison was so shocking,
Buckley took several days off from the recording telling an interviewer for Interview magazine
“that’s really disgusting!”“The thing is, I’m not taking from that tradition.
I don’t want to be black. Michael Bolton desperately wants to be black, black, black.
He also sucks.” he’d say When it came time to rounding out the tracklist
for Grace , Buckley didn’t feel like he had enough strong original compositions for
the record. The album would feature three covers, which dated back to his club days
in New York. Perhaps the most famous cover was his version of leonard cohen’s hallelujah.
Throughout the recording process Buckley seemed to clash with record executives. One song
that was slated for the album was titled ‘Forget Her’ a vitriolic and personal song about
Buckley’s messy break up with his then girlfriend Rebecca Moore. The label execs heard a huge
hit, but at the last minute Buckley pulled the song.The suits at Columbia records were
so desperate for the song they took Buckley out to an italian restaurant to plead their
case but it fell on deaf ears. On top of that folks at columbia records were dumbfounded
by Buckley’s choice for the cover of the album. They thought it made him look like
an 80’s popstar and not helping was the flashy jacket he was wearing which he bought
from a thrift store. Once again label executives pushed him with alternative cover designs
but it again fell on deaf ears.
Grace would explore the themes love, death and pain and he would tell an interviewer
in 1994 words that ring true about our busy lives today saying ” the whole world is
so anti-life, especially a world ruled by men who don't want to sit, listen and understand
what life is all about. There's so many countless details to just being alive that just knowing
what love is or what pain is or what the reason is or all this amazing wonder and really hard,
hard lessons that you've really got to be serious about” he'd say.
It would take a long time for the public to catch onto the album, but Buckley quickly
won over some high profile fans including Bob Dylan who described him as “one of the
great songwriters of this decade” while David Bowie said Grace would be one of his
desert island albums. Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were also huge fans,
with Page claiming it was one of his favorite records of the decade. The album took almost
8 months to make it’s mark when in May of 1995, the single ‘Last Goodbye” got a
lot of attention being put into rotation on both MTV and VH1. The album also entered the
billboard charts the same month charts at No. 174 and would peak at no. 149. It was
also during the same month that people magazine labelled Buckley as one of 100 most beautiful
people, something the singer was horrified about. He also had Hollywood come knocking
on his door including an offer to appear in a barbara streisand movie, which he would
turn down. By 2007 the record sold over 2 million copies just in the US.
By the summer of 1996, Buckley had begun recording demos for his second album, which he intended
to call My Sweetheart the Drunk. The recording sessions were held across New York City and
Memphis, Tennessee, where Buckley had recently relocated. He wanted to get away from the
busyness of New York and retreat somewhere quieter. Then on the night of May 29, 1997,
the band had just arrived from New York to record the final studio tracks, And Buckley
and his friend stopped by the wolf river. Buckley who was clothed decided to go for
a swim. According to a Rolling Stone Magazine article published shortly after his disappearance
, it would claim that Buckley was with a friend and they were sitting on the bank of the river
listening to a radio. The singer went into the river clothed even
though his friend called out to him and warned that it could be dangerous.
Buckley then floated on his back and began to sing
Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love. At that point, a boat came by creating large waves.
Fearing the radio would get wet, the companion got up to move it and when he returned,
Buckley had disappeared, according to police.
After searching for about 10 minutes, the friend called Memphis police who searched
the area by helicopter until darkness interrupted their efforts.
Six days would pass before his body was found by a passing riverboat passenger His body
ended up getting tangled with some tree branches on the shore.The
medical examiner at the University of Tennessee concluded that there were no drugs in Buckley’s
system and that his blood alcohol level was 0.04 milligrams—the equivalent of a glass
of wine. The official cause of death was accidental drowning. He would die at the young age of
30.
His friends would have mixed reactions to his deaths, Some of Buckley’s friends refused
to believe he had drowned. In fact Jeff was known to disappear for days at a time and
some thought he was in hiding to escape the pressures of his follow up record.To some
his death didn't seem like a surprise as Buckley’s girlfriend Joan Wasser remembered “Not too
long after we met, he said, ‘You know, I’m going to die young,’” while Buckley’s
friend Tammy Shouse would tell Mojo magazine "I feel like Memphis walked him down the aisle,
“Because, he was dreaming about his death and he knew that something was up, and he
felt it.” she’d remember. Speaking to NPR’s radio, Buckleys former
manager Dave Lory opened up about the musicians final weeks claiming he was “acting erratic”
revealing “He was trying to buy a house that wasn’t for sale,” “He was trying
to buy a car that wasn’t for sale. He proposed to Joan [Wasser, Buckley’s girlfriend].
He even applied for a job to be a butterfly keeper at Memphis Zoo – a lot of weird stuff
that was uncharacteristic for him. I think it was a yearning to settle down. He wanted
a normal life.” Despite these concerns his bandmates including
Michael Tighe believed that Buckley was excited about his follow up album to Grace saying
“He definitely wanted to make a much grittier album than Grace,” “He often would say
that he wanted to make music that would scare people. And he was into the idea of dividing
his audience. He knew that a lot of his audience wouldn’t like this album and he was energized
and excited by that. The lyrics to his follow up record would also
shine a light on his eventual fate with songs like “Nightmare by the sea”, “Witches
Rave” and “You and I” with lyrics like Stay with me under these waves tonight / Be
free for once in your life tonight while “Nightmare by the Sea” would say… I float just like
a bubble headed for a spike while “Witches’ Rave” would feature the lyrics… Ah, the
calm below that poisoned river wild. And Buckley’s manager would reveal how he
learned of his client’s death saying: “It was 5:58 – I’ll never forget the time
— in the morning,”“I was in Dublin so that meant it must have been almost one AM
in New York and midnight in Memphis. I just froze. I thought I was having a dream. I dropped
the phone and you don’t know what to do. Thank god there was no internet cos it would
have been tweeted off the banks. You just go numb. I was totally numb, no emotion.”
The manager would return to the site of Buckley’s drowning 3 days after the incident took place,
before the body had been found on June 4th. He would recall spending the first 15 minutes
he was there crying and then the next 15 minutes throwing rocks in the water.in anger
Buckley’s manager would also recount a bizarre experience he had with a psychic outside of
london six years after the singer's death with him claiming him that the psychic told
him “A Jeff or a John is trying to get a hold of you, it has something to do with water.”
saying “She told me things only Jeff and I knew,”
explaining that he had given the psychic a bracelet of Buckley’s to hold onto. “Towards
the end, she said, ‘Is this is his bracelet?’ and I said, ‘Yes’. She said, ‘Well,
I don’t know if this makes sense, but he didn’t mean for it to happen, but he didn’t
fight it. It’s not your fault. It’s okay to let go." the psychic would say.
Immediately following Buckley’s death his label Columbia Records called a hastily organized
meeting not to mourn the singer but to talk about posthumous releases which angered his
manager with him remembering “I had absolutely no faith in Sony to do
the right thing by Jeff,”. “I was furious that this meeting about posthumous releases
had been called so soon. I’d had a ton of calls from distressed Sony employees who also
thought it was insensitive. I went around as many desks as I could to support those
who were in bits over Jeff’s death.” In the years that followed his death, Buckley’s
mother worked with Sony to put out unreleased tracks including 1998’s double disc set
Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk (1998) and several others in the subsequent year.
During a 2002 interview with The Guardian, his mother spoke about managing her son's
legacy saying, "I have to compartmentalize myself quite a bit. There's the musician side
of me, and the businesswoman side - and the mother side of me which never turns off. But
the emotions are things I kinda have to set aside. That's why I take good counsel. I've
always involved people from Jeff's band. It makes it a lot easier, especially if there
are any critical blows. But the work we've done so far has been well received." So that
does it for today’s video thanks for watching and be sure to hit the like and subscribe
button. If you guys have suggestions for future topics let me know in the comments section
below. Take care.