Artist Interviews
Explore captivating interviews with renowned artists, featuring insights and stories from their journeys.
Jeff Buckley
1966-1997
Birth name:
Jeffrey Scott Buckley
Also known as Scott "Scottie" Moorhead
Born:
November 17, 1966
Anaheim, California, U.S.A.
Origin:
East Village, Manhattan, New York
Died: May 29, 1997 (aged 30)
Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Instruments:
Vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards, dulcimer, percussion
It's like... people who talk poetically or act and express are totally devalued. Just like women are devalued, and their femininity. Everything that brings the flow... the understanding, the intuition. Not like you know, knowing facts, but just understanding things, just somehow. That's very, very...extremely devalued. It's the seat of all art, it's the seat of all artistic expression. And I say that, that is the cabin slave of the world.
– Jeff Buckley, 1994
Jana: Did you always know that it would be music for you?
Jeff: I never gave it a second thought, it’s been very natural. I just sort of got into it.
I love Jazz, and I got a lot of love of improv from people like Duke Ellington and Miles in arrangement and pacing. Basically all that music comes from moving people in a live setting… Live meaning not on television, live meaning not on the radio. Live meaning you are there, there are some people in a performance space and they are movin’ the hell out of you. It creates a certain kind of experience. It creates a certain kind of writing.
—
For a long time death and rock n’ roll to some people have been somehow synonymous.
Yeah, ‘cause most of the good people are dead.
But there’s so much about music that is life-affirming.
Yeah, sure. Just its identity alone is totally life-affirming. Completely.
That’s complex to me. There’s something interesting to me about that.
Well, that’s because we live in a culture that kills artists. Wants them to die. They’ve killed them.
Wants them to make the sacrifice?
Yeah, you know. It’s like… people who talk poetically or act and express are totally devalued. Just like women are devalued, and their femininity. Everything that brings the flow… the understanding, the intuition. Not like you know, knowing facts, but just understanding things, just somehow. That’s very, very, extremely devalued. It’s the seat of all art, it’s the seat of all artistic expression. And I say that, that is the cabin slave of the world.
But I’m not sure about that. Even when (Jeff: I am.) you say that… Well, okay. You say that perhaps it kills artists and artists are devalued, and people who have the courage to bare their souls and to be poetic in public and to say 'I care’ about something, 'I’m passionate’ about something… They also get eulogized. They also get followed down the street, or people swarming you…
Sure, but either adored or damned, but never really understood. Because people, sometimes, throw a light… they let these artists carry a light that they refuse to carry for themselves, sometimes. And I’ve done it. I will do it. You meet someone and you admire them, and you’re like 'I can’t do that…’ – I’ll still do it, it’s a human thing. But I mean, it’s why they killed Jesus. I mean, why do you stick a man on a stick? Why? Why? Why, because he’s… supposedly the Messiah. Why do you inflict such cruelty, what is it that you’re getting away from, what is it that you’re denying, what is it that you’re trying to kill?
Well in his case, he was not a special case. That was just the torture of the day.
I know, but he’s the only one that we remember. And for some reason he’s remembered as being on the cross. He’s not seen as like, this beautiful young man with a lot of understanding. He’s always martyred, he will always be bleeding. For all eternity.
Yeah but we could talk about that for 2 hours because…
That’s the same, it’s the same thing with artists. Same thing. Same exact thing. It’s the same exact thing. I mean, I feel it, and I wish I could explain it better.
And I’ll tell you this, everybody knows what it’s like to create an artistic moment. So-called artistic moment, 'cause it’s really just heightened humanism. It’s just a heightened human language. If you’ve spent a night making love, you know exactly what it means to… strip your ego down, where you are there expressing yourself, wordlessly, collaborating on a moment that has an energy about it that is… replenishing, or even completely inspirational in a way you could never imagine. That’s the way art really is. Or if you’ve raised a child. That is an artistic venture baby! You solve problems. You express yourself to the kid, you feed your soul to the kid. Or else he or she doesn’t… you know. They get you. And that’s art. That’s an artistic moment. Everybody has done it, everybody will do it. It’s not just musicians. It’s like, those abusive parents that adore the oldest child but also give them the worst of their behaviour. That’s sort of like what artists get. And I’m prepared to get it. I’m just saying that you don’t have to feel left out… you know what it’s like. It just culminates in music to me.
—
I think people are divine and eternal. I think that people live on many, many different levels. You know, you see things, understand things. In a way, yes, we’re totally mortal. I don’t even know what this is, I don’t even know what that is. This flesh thing. (pointing to his fingers) Or this Earth thing. I don’t know. But I’m just finding out all the time.
It’s packaging.
I guess so. Sometimes I think it’s just a dream that your soul had in order to reach out to people… and to kiss, or dance, or something… you know. I’m not so sure that some guy in the sky with a beard baked you in an oven and put his finger in your belly button and that’s how you came about. I think this… I don’t know, it’s all arbitrary. But I don’t go for gurus. I don’t relish the idea of people kissing the foot of a Yogi somewhere in an ashram in order to achieve enlightenment. I mean, learning is great. I learn from people who know more than me. That’s fine, but, I just come from a long… I come from a culture that sort of is prone to giving itself up to some sort (of) desperate trend… you know. And I just, I don’t believe in it. But I believe in people. And I believe in their divinity. I believe in the divinity of nature. Totally! And the order of things, and the many, many, many systems that make up chaos and all that stuff. And I love it. I observe… I sort of gather the nectar from all religion. But I really don’t wholly trust in man’s organization of God.
—
My love of experience does sort (of) take into all kinds of misadventure. And now that I’m older, that stuff hardly happens at all. But people assume a lot of things about you. Especially if you’re signed. Especially if people assume you’re famous… that’s a big miss. (laughs) And the people who’re… I’m not even famous. You know, I’m more famous than I’ve ever been in my life, that’s really shocking. But it’s…
How do you feel about that…? How are you taking to fame?
It will go away. It’ll settle down. And uh, I don’t mind being known for something, because you know, I’ve gone to a lot of places. I don’t mind being known. 'Cause you know, it’s a public… it’s a mass art, what I’m doing. Making something that goes into tons of people’s homes. It’s like when you make movies, it’s a mass art, lots of people come. Or you know, live plays…
Television.
Yeah, television! Totally mass. So that’s just part of the palate. And I don’t mind. It’s just the nature of the beast. But… being famous without content, that really irks me. And I would never want it to happen to me. And you know, it’s very media-heavy time. There are a lot of successes that go down simply because things are known, and on the television and shoved down your throat. Like… Cobain used to write a good song and they’d just… run it into the ground. And you didn’t wanna hear it anymore. You couldn’t hear it anymore! From pure, heavy rotation. Now that, that hurts. It’s like, something beautiful comes and after a while because it’s being force-fed to you all the time for lack of any better procedure on the TV, and you don’t wanna hear it anymore. That’s a little death. It’s crappy.
–
What does grace mean to you?
Everything that the word carries. Grace is what matters in anything. Especially life, especially growth, tragedy, pain… love, death. About people. That’s what matters. That’s a quality I admire very greatly. It keeps you from reaching for the gun too quickly… it keeps you from destroying things too foolishly. And sort of keeps you alive. And it keeps you open for more understanding. You know, people say grace for dinner, 'God is great, God is good…’ eh, you know. But I see an invocation when I hear that word. And also, it’s like the sound of…
So saying the word grace, invokes a state of grace?
It could, yeah.
Say it now. Let’s see if we can… (laughs)
Hey, don’t make me say it. Don’t make me invoke a state of grace here on this room…
(laughs)
But also, the song* itself is just a eulogy to no one. About… I always describe it as not fearing anything, anyone, any man, any woman, any war, any gun, any sling or arrow aimed at your heart by other people because there is somebody finally who loves you, for real. And that you can achieve a real state of grace, through somebody else’s love in you, you know. And you’re totally out of fuel, and totally out of understanding… so I said it. It’s a song about my death, but not fearing it.
–
the song*
Here, Jeff is referring to the song 'Grace'. Click on the link below to watch the live performance of the song for MTV, live in New York (January 10th, 1995)
Jeff Buckley: November 1994 interview with MuchMusic
Interviewer: Jana Lynne White for MuchMusic
Sources:
Interview transcript: https://jamesdali.tumblr.com/post/52280734477/jeff-buckley-november-1994-interview-with-much
Video excerpt from the interview on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcbazyJzXoc
Full audio of the interview on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxG3z7EYFDw&t=0s
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