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Did Jeff Buckley Foretell His Own Death?
Jeff Buckley’s musical coming out party occurred on April 6, 1991 at the St. Ann Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn. He made his first public musical performance at a tribute for his father, ‘60s folk troubadour Tim Buckley. Buckley’s relationship with his father was estranged. They only met once, when Buckley was eight. A year later in 1975, the elder Buckley died of a heroin overdose at age 28. Jeff played four of his father’s songs at the tribute event including “I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain,” a song Tim wrote about his infant son.
When Buckley was five, he discovered his grandmother’s acoustic guitar in a closet. He took it everywhere as if it were a sibling. His mother Mary Guibert played him his father’s songs. “There was a song ‘Once I Was’ that my mother played when my stepfather was out of the house,” Buckley told Rolling Stone. “I covered this song at the tribute concert. I broke a string at the end and had to finish it a cappella…I didn’t play it very well.”
Comparisons to his father began right away. They looked alike, sang alike and both had a magnetic, poetic aura. During the early ‘90’s, Buckley played small clubs in New York such as the Knitting Factory and Fez Cafe. In 1992, he began a Monday night residency at an Irish cafe called Sin-é. His early sets included covers from his favorite performers like Led Zeppelin, Nina Simone…
