Jeff Buckley

Born in Anaheim, California, Buckley was the only son of Mary ( Guibert) and the singer-songwriter Tim Buckley. His mother is a Zonian of Greek, English, French and Panamanian descent, while his father was the son of an Irish American father and an Italian American mother. Buckley was raised by his mother and stepfather, Ron Moorhead, in Southern California, and had a half-brother, Corey Moorhead. Buckley moved many times in and around Orange County while growing up, an upbringing he called "rootless trailer trash". As a child, Buckley was known as Scott "Scottie" Moorhead, based on his middle name and his stepfather's surname. Buckley's biological father, Tim Buckley, released a series of folk and jazz albums in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Jeff said they met only once, when he was eight. After Tim died of a drug overdose in 1975, Jeff chose to go by Buckley and his given name, Jeff, which he found on his birth certificate. To members of his family he remained "Scottie". Buckley was brought up around music; his mother was a classically trained pianist and cellist, and his stepfather introduced him to Led Zeppelin, Queen, Jimi Hendrix, the Who, and Pink Floyd at an early age. Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti was the first album he owned, and said the hard rock band Kiss was an early favorite. He grew up singing around the house and in harmony with his mother, and said all his family sang. He began playing guitar at the age of five after discovering an acoustic guitar in his grandmother's closet. At age 12, he decided to become a musician and played in the school jazz band; during this time, he developed an affinity for progressive rock bands Rush, Genesis, and Yes, and the jazz fusion guitarist Al Di Meola. He was a fan of Joni Mitchell, the Smiths and Siouxsie and the Banshees. After graduating from high school, Buckley moved to Hollywood to attend the Musicians Institute, completing a one-year course at age 19. Buckley later said the school was "the biggest waste of time", ==Career==

In Los Angeles, Buckley spent six years working in a hotel and playing guitar in various bands, playing in styles from jazz, reggae, and roots rock to heavy metal. He toured with the dancehall reggae artist Shinehead and played occasional funk and R&B studio sessions, collaborating with the fledgling producer Michael J. Clouse to form X-Factor Productions. From 1988 to 1989, Buckley played in a band, the Wild Blue Yonder, that included John Humphrey and future Tool member Danny Carey. Buckley limited his singing to backing vocals. Buckley moved to New York City in February 1990 but found few opportunities to work as a musician. He was introduced to Qawwali, the Sufi devotional music of Pakistan, and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, one of its best-known singers. Buckley was an impassioned fan of Khan, and during what he called his "café days", he often covered Khan's songs. In January 1996, he interviewed Khan for Interview and wrote liner notes for Khan's Supreme Collection, Vol. 1 compilation. He also became interested in the blues musician Robert Johnson and the hardcore punk band Bad Brains during this time. Accompanied by the experimental rock guitarist Gary Lucas, Buckley performed "I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain", a song Tim Buckley wrote about the infant Jeff and his mother. He returned to play "Sefronia – The King's Chain", "Phantasmagoria in Two", and concluded with "Once I Was" performed acoustically with an impromptu a cappella ending, due to a snapped guitar string. Willner, the show's organizer, recalled that Buckley made a strong impression. Buckley's performance was counter to his desire to distance himself musically from his father; he later said: "It wasn't my work, it wasn't my life. But 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." After being offered a development deal as a member of Gods and Monsters at Imago Records, Buckley moved to the Lower East Side, Manhattan, at the end of 1991. The day after Gods and Monsters officially debuted in March 1992, he decided to leave the band. Buckley began performing at several clubs and cafés around Lower Manhattan, and Sin-é became his main venue. Original songs from the Babylon Dungeon Sessions and the songs he had written with Lucas were also included in his set lists. He performed solo, accompanying himself on a Fender Telecaster he borrowed from his friend Janine Nichols. Buckley said he learned how to perform onstage by playing to small audiences. In September, the trio headed to Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, New York, to spend six weeks recording basic tracks. Buckley invited ex-bandmate Lucas to play guitar on the songs "Grace" and "Mojo Pin", and the Woodstock-based jazz musician Karl Berger wrote and conducted string arrangements with Buckley assisting at times. Buckley returned home for overdubbing at studios in Manhattan and New Jersey, where he performed take after take to capture the perfect vocals and experimented with ideas for additional instruments and added textures to the songs. In January 1994, Buckley departed on his first solo North American tour in support of Live at Sin-é, followed by a 10-day European tour in March. Buckley played clubs and coffeehouses and made in-store appearances. After returning, Buckley invited guitarist Michael Tighe to join the band and a collaboration between the two resulted in "So Real", a song recorded with producer/engineer Clif Norrell as a late addition to the album. In June, Buckley began his first full band tour, called the "Peyote Radio Theatre Tour", which lasted into August. The Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde, Soundgarden's Chris Cornell, and the Edge from U2 were among the attendees of these early shows. Grace was released on August 23, 1994. In addition to seven original songs, the album included three covers: "Lilac Wine", based on the version by Nina Simone and made famous by Elkie Brooks; "Corpus Christi Carol", from Benjamin Britten's A Boy was Born, Op.3, a composition that Buckley was introduced to in high school, based on a 15th-century hymn; and "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen, based on John Cale's recording from the Cohen tribute album ''I'm Your Fan''. His rendition of "Hallelujah" has been called "Buckley's best" and "one of the great songs" by Time, and is included on Happy Mag's list of "The 10 Best Covers Of All Time", and Rolling Stones list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Sales of Grace were slow, and it garnered little radio airplay despite critical acclaim. The Sydney Morning Herald proclaimed it "a romantic masterpiece" and a "pivotal, defining work". Despite slow initial sales, the album went gold in France and Australia over the next two years, and sold over six times platinum in Australia in 2006. Grace won appreciation from a number of revered musicians and artists, including members of Buckley's biggest influence, Led Zeppelin. Jimmy Page considered Grace close to being his "favorite album of the decade". Robert Plant was also complimentary, as was Brad Pitt, saying of Buckley's work, "There's an undercurrent to his music, there's something you can't pinpoint. Like the best of films, or the best of art, there's something going on underneath, and there's a truth there. And I find his stuff absolutely haunting. It just ... it's under my skin." Others who had influenced Buckley's music lauded him: Bob Dylan named Buckley "one of the great songwriters of this decade", In 2010, the Smiths singer Morrissey, one of Buckley's influences, named Grace one of his favorite albums. Concert tours Buckley spent much of the next year and a half touring internationally to promote Grace. Following Buckley's Peyote Radio Theater tour, the band began a European tour on August 23, 1994, starting with performances in the UK and Ireland. The tour continued in Scandinavia and, throughout September, numerous concerts in Germany were played. The tour ended on September 22 with a concert in Paris. A gig on September 24 in New York dovetailed with the end of the European tour and Buckley and band spent the next month relaxing and rehearsing. A tour of Canada and the U.S. began on October 19, 1994, at CBGB, New York City. The tour was far reaching with concerts held on both East and West Coasts of the U.S. and a number of performances in central and southern states. The tour ended two months later on December 18 at Maxwell's in Hoboken, New Jersey. The short tour largely consisted of promotional work in London and Paris. at the invitation of Elvis Costello). During the tour, Buckley played two concerts at the Paris Olympia, a venue made famous by the French vocalist Édith Piaf. Although he had failed to fill out smaller American venues at that point of his career, both nights at the large Paris Olympia venue were sold out. Shortly after this Buckley attended the Festival de la Musique Sacrée (Festival of Sacred Music), also held in France, and performed "What Will You Say" as a duet with Alim Qasimov, an Azerbaijani mugham singer. Sony BMG has since released a live album, 2001's Live à L'Olympia, which has a selection of songs from both Olympia performances and the collaboration with Qasimov. Buckley's Mystery White Boy tour, playing concerts in both Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, lasted between August 28 and September 6 and recordings of these performances were compiled and released on the live album Mystery White Boy. Buckley was so well received during these concerts that his album Grace went gold in Australia, selling over 35,000 copies, and taking this into account he decided a longer tour was needed and returned for a tour of New Zealand and Australia in February the following year. Following Johnson's departure, the band, now without a drummer, was put on hold and did not perform live again until February 12, 1997. Due to the pressure from extensive touring, Buckley spent the majority of the year away from the stage. However, from May 2 to 5, he played a short stint as bass guitarist with Mind Science of the Mind, with friend Nathan Larson, then guitarist of Shudder to Think. In mid-1996, Buckley and his band began recording sessions in Manhattan with Verlaine, recording "Sky Is a Landfill", "Vancouver", "Morning Theft", and "You and I". Eric Eidel played the drums through these sessions as a stop-gap after Matt Johnson's departure, before Parker Kindred joined as full-time drummer. Around this time, Buckley met Inger Lorre of the Nymphs in an East Village bar and struck up a fast and close friendship. Together, they contributed a track to Kerouac: Kicks Joy Darkness, a Jack Kerouac tribute album. On February 4, 1997, Buckley played a short set at the Knitting Factory's tenth anniversary concert featuring a selection of his new songs: "Jewel Box", "Morning Theft", "Everybody Here Wants You", "The Sky is a Landfill" and "Yard of Blonde Girls". Lou Reed was in attendance and expressed interest in working with Buckley. Later that month, Buckley recorded a spoken word reading of the Edgar Allan Poe poem "Ulalume" for the album Closed on Account of Rabies. It was his last recording in New York; shortly after, he moved to Memphis, Tennessee. In early February, Buckley and the band did a third recording session with Verlaine in Memphis, where they recorded "Everybody Here Wants You", "Nightmares by the Sea", "Witches' Rave" and "Opened Once", but Buckley expressed his dissatisfaction with the sessions and contacted Grace producer Andy Wallace to step in as Verlaine's replacement. ==Musical style==

Buckley possessed a tenor vocal range. He cited singers including Joni Mitchell, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Patti Smith and Siouxsie Sioux as influences. He said: "Siouxsie, I have much of her influence in my voice". Buckley made full use of this range in his performances, particularly in the songs from Grace, and reached peaks of high G in the tenor range at the culmination of "Grace". "Corpus Christi Carol" was sung nearly entirely in a high falsetto. The pitch and volume of his singing was also highly variable, showcased in songs "Mojo Pin" and "Dream Brother", which began with mid-range quieter vocals, before reaching louder, higher peaks near the ending of the songs. Buckley played guitar in a variety of styles, ranging from the distorted rock of "Sky Is a Landfill", the jazz of "Strange Fruit", the country styling of "Lost Highway", and the guitar fingerpicking style in "Hallelujah". He occasionally used a slide guitar in live performances as a solo act, as well as for the introduction of "Last Goodbye", when playing with a full band. His songs were written in various guitar tunings which, apart from the EADGBE standard tuning, included drop D tuning and an open G tuning. His guitar playing style varied from highly melodic songs, such as "The Twelfth of Never", to more percussive ones, such as "New Year's Prayer". Equipment Buckley mainly played a blonde 1983 Fender Telecaster, which he had re-fretted and modded with a Seymour Duncan Hot Lead Stack in the bridge and a mirror pick guard. In 2020, Matt Bellamy of Muse purchased the Telecaster and said it "has a sound like nothing I've ever heard".'''' Buckley also played a Rickenbacker 360/12 along with several other guitars, including a black Gibson Les Paul Custom and a 1967 Guild F-50 acoustic. When on tour with his band, he used Fender amplifiers for a clean sound and Mesa Boogie amps for overdriven tones. While he was primarily a singer and guitarist, he also played other instruments on various studio recordings and sessions, including bass, dobro, mandolin, harmonium (heard on the intro to "Lover, You Should've Come Over"), organ, dulcimer ("Dream Brother" intro), tabla, esraj, and harmonica. ==Personal life==

Buckley was roommates with actress Brooke Smith from 1990 to 1991. During a tribute concert to his father, Tim Buckley, in April 1991, Buckley met artist Rebecca Moore, and provoked his permanent move to New York. From 1994 to 1995, Buckley had an intense relationship with Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins. They wrote and recorded a duet together, "All Flowers in Time Bend Towards the Sun", which has never been released commercially. In 1994, Buckley began a relationship with musician Joan Wasser, known professionally as Joan as Police Woman. He reportedly proposed marriage to her shortly before his death. == Death ==

, with Memphis, Tennessee, in background On the evening of May 29, 1997, Buckley's band flew to Memphis to join him in his studio to work on his new material. Later that evening, Buckley spontaneously went swimming fully dressed in the Wolf River Harbor, a slack water channel of the Mississippi River, singing the chorus of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" under the Memphis Suspension Railway. Keith Foti, a roadie in Buckley's band, remained on shore. After moving a radio and guitar out of reach from the wake from a passing tugboat, Foti looked up to see Buckley had vanished; the wake of the tugboat had swept him away from shore and under water. A rescue effort that night and the next morning by scuba teams and police was unsuccessful. On June 4, passengers on the American Queen riverboat spotted Buckley's body in the Wolf River, caught in branches. Buckley's autopsy showed no signs of drugs or alcohol, and the death was ruled an accidental drowning. His official website published a statement saying his death was neither mysterious nor a suicide. == Legacy ==

After Buckley's death, a collection of demo recordings and a full-length album he had been reworking for his second album were released as a compilation album, Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk. It was overseen by his mother, Mary Guibert, band members and his friend Michael J. Clouse, as well as Chris Cornell. It was certified gold in Australia in 1998. Three other albums composed of live recordings have also been released, along with a live DVD of a performance in Chicago. A previously unreleased 1992 recording of "I Shall Be Released", sung by Buckley over the phone on live radio, was released on the album For New Orleans. Since his death, Buckley has been the subject of numerous documentaries: Fall in Light, a 1999 production for French TV; Goodbye and Hello, a program about Buckley and his father produced for Netherlands TV in 2000; and Everybody Here Wants You, a documentary made in 2002 by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). An hour-long documentary about Buckley called Amazing Grace: Jeff Buckley has been shown at various film festivals to critical acclaim. The film was released worldwide in 2009 by Sony BMG Legacy as part of the Grace Around The World Deluxe Edition. In spring 2009, it was revealed that Ryan Jaffe, best known for scripting the movie The Rocker, had replaced Brian Jun as screenwriter for the upcoming film Mystery White Boy. Orion Williams is also set to co-produce the film with Michelle Sy. A separate project involving the book Dream Brother was allegedly cancelled. In May and June 2007, Buckley's life and music were celebrated globally with tributes in Australia, Canada, UK, France, Iceland, Israel, Ireland, Macedonia, Portugal, and the U.S. Many of Buckley's family members attended various tribute concerts across the globe, some of which they helped organize. There are three annual Jeff Buckley tribute events: the Chicago-based Uncommon Ground, featuring a three-day concert schedule (Uncommon Ground hosted their 25th anniversary tribute in November 2022); An Evening With Jeff Buckley, an annual New York City tribute; and the Australia-based Fall In Light. The latter event is run by the Fall In Light Foundation, which in addition to the concerts, runs a "Guitars for Schools" program; the name of the foundation is taken from lyrics of Buckley's "New Year's Prayer". On April 2, 2013, it was announced that Buckley's version of "Hallelujah" would be inducted into the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry. In 2015, tapes of a 1993 recording session for Columbia Records were discovered by Sony executives doing research for the 20th anniversary of Grace. The recordings were released on the album You and I in March 2016, featuring mostly covers of songs. In 2012, Greetings from Tim Buckley premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival; the film explores Jeff Buckley's relationship with his father. At a tribute concert honoring the deceased Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins in 2022, Foo Fighters lead singer Dave Grohl and his daughter Violet performed "Last Goodbye" and "Grace", with Alain Johannes, Greg Kurstin, Chris Chaney, and Jason Falkner. Resurgence In 2002, Buckley's cover of "Hallelujah" was used in the "Posse Comitatus" episode of The West Wing, for which the audio team received an Emmy Award. On March 7, 2008, Buckley's version of "Hallelujah" was number one on the iTunes chart, selling 178,000 downloads for the week, after being performed by Jason Castro on the seventh season of American Idol. The song also debuted at number one on Billboards Hot Digital Songs chart, giving Buckley his first number one hit on any Billboard chart. The 2008 UK X Factor winner Alexandra Burke released a cover of "Hallelujah", with the intent to top the UK Singles Chart as the Christmas number one single. Buckley fans countered this, launching a campaign with the aim of propelling Buckley's version to the number one spot; despite this, Burke's version eventually reached the Christmas number one position on the UK charts in December 2008. Buckley's version of the song entered the UK charts at number 49 on November 30, and by December 21, it had reached number 2, even though it had not been rereleased in a physical format. Influence Radiohead recorded their 1995 song "Fake Plastic Trees" after being inspired by Buckley's performance at the Garage, London. The bassist, Colin Greenwood, said, "He just had a Telecaster and a pint of Guinness. And it was just fucking amazing, really inspirational." The singer, Thom Yorke, said Buckley gave him the confidence to sing in falsetto. The singer and guitarist Matt Bellamy of Muse said he did not believe his singing would be suitable for rock music until he heard Grace, which made him confident that "a high-pitched, softer voice can work very well". The Coldplay singer Chris Martin described the 2000 Coldplay single "Shiver" as a Buckley "ripoff". Other musicians influenced by Buckley include Adele, Bat For Lashes, Lana Del Rey, Anna Calvi, Kiesza, Ben Folds, Jonny Lang, Eddie Vedder, Fran Healy, Chris Cornell, and Nelly Furtado. Biographical films According to Variety, a biographical film, Everybody Here Wants You, starring Reeve Carney as Buckley, was set to begin filming in late 2021. It was to be Orian Williams's directorial debut and released by Culmination Productions. It was to be co-produced by Buckley's mother, Mary Guibert, and access to his music was approved by Alison Raykovich, manager of Buckley's estate. Buckley's mother said "this will be the only official dramatisation of Jeff's story". ''It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley'' is a 2025 American documentary film, directed and produced by Amy Berg. It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2025, and was released on August 8, 2025, by Magnolia Pictures. HBO added it on their roster in December. == Awards and nominations ==

• The Académie Charles Cros awarded Buckley the "Grand Prix International Du Disque" on April 13, 1995, in honor of his debut album Grace. • Rolling Stone magazine nomination for Best New Artist, 1995 • Triple J Hottest 100 awarded number 14 best song for that year in the world's largest voting competition for "Last Goodbye", 1995 • Grammy Award nomination for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for "Everybody Here Wants You", 1998 • Buckley's cover of "Hallelujah" was ranked number 259 of the 500 Greatest Songs by Rolling Stone in 2004. • Rolling Stone ranked Buckley number 39 in its 2008 list, The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. • On the Triple J Hottest 100 of All Time, 2009, Buckley's version of "Hallelujah" was voted third place; "Last Goodbye" was seventh, "Lover, You Should've Come Over" was 56th, and "Grace" 69th. == Discography ==