Biography
Jeff Buckley was born November 17, 1966, and was the son of the folk singer Tim Buckley, though the two barely knew each other. Buckley met his father only once, spending about a week with him at age eight, less than a year before Tim Buckley died of a heroin overdose at twenty-eight[4]. He was raised primarily by his mother, Mary Guibert, a classically trained musician, and grew close to his stepfather, Ron Moorhead, who gave him his first Led Zeppelin record, an early and lasting influence on his guitar playing[4].
Buckley began building a following in New York’s early-1990s club scene, most notably through a residency at the small East Village café Siné, which led to his first commercial release, the live EP Live at Siné, issued on Columbia Records in December 1993. It was through that scene that he met Rebecca Moore, an actress and musician who became his partner and a significant creative presence behind his sole studio album, Grace, released in 1994[4][6].
On May 29, 1997, while in Memphis working on material for what would have been his second album, Buckley went for an evening swim, fully clothed and wearing boots, in a channel off the Mississippi River known as Wolf River Harbor, singing along to a song playing on a radio a roadie had left on the bank. He was pulled under by the wake of a passing boat and did not resurface; his body was recovered several days later. He was thirty years old[4].
References
- Jeff Buckley - Wikipedia — Biographical details, including Buckley's upbringing, relationship with his father, career, and 1997 death by drowning in Memphis.
- After nearly three decades, Jeff Buckley's ex Rebecca Moore opens up about his final days — Context on Buckley's relationship with Rebecca Moore, who inspired much of Grace.