... in Words: Tributes "Jeff Buckley's Body Identified In Memphis" This interview was originally published by New Musical Express, 7 June 1997. Jeff Buckley's body was discovered on Wednesday, June 4 floating in the Mississippi River. A passenger on a tourist riverboat, The American Queen, spotted the body at approximately 4.30 P.M. near the southern tip of Mud Island near where Buckley disappeared on May 29. Crew members from the boat rode a dinghy out to the body and pulled it ashore at the foot of Beale Street - the area where a number of blues clubs flourished in the '30s and '40s. Memphis Police Lieutenant Willie Lemons said that no papers were found on the body but that Buckley was initially identified by his pierced naval and the description given to police of the clothes he was wearing when he waded into the river on May 29. Buckley was wearing black jeans and a white T-shirt with black sleeves. The front of the T-shirt was emblazoned with a pair of rifles and the word 'Altamont'. His tour manager of the last three years, Gene Bowen, travelled to the Shelby County Medical Examiners Office that night and positively identified the body. The official cause of death is pending an autopsy. However, Lt. Lemons said there were no indications of anything other than accidental drowning. As reported in last week's NME, Buckley disappeared on May 29 while swimming near the Mud Island Marina, part of the Mississippi River. Buckley had swum in the river on a number of occasions in the past. On his final evening he had eaten a meal at a local restaurant with a musician friend Keith Foti before travelling to the marina where the pair sang and played songs on an acoustic guitar on the quay. Since March 31, Buckley had been playing a regular solo Monday night residency at Barrister's, a nightclub in the city. He played his last gig there on May 26. Last week, Jeff's mother Mary Guibert asked fans to celebrate the singer's life rather than dwell on the sadness of his passing. In a statement issued before his body was found, Guibert, wrote: "It has become apparent to me that my son will not be walking out of the river. It is now time to make plans to celebrate a life that was golden. I ask people who cared about Jeff to please be honourable and faithful to his memory, to send their best wishes to Jeff and to all of us who are mourning his passing." Buckley's managers, Dave Lory and George Stein, are urging everyone not to speculate on the causes of Buckley's death or believe any rumours that are circulating. They said, "Additional information will be released as it becomes available." Meanwhile, it's emerged that four songs from the sessions Buckley recorded earlier this year with producer Tom Verlaine were, despite earlier reports, tentatively scheduled to appear on Buckley's long-awaited second album (working title "My Sweetheart The Drunk") which was due for release in February '98. Buckley had been due to restart recordings with Grace producer Andy Wallace in Memphis this week. Jeffrey Scott Buckley was born in Orange County, California on November 17, 1966, the offspring of a brief liaison between singer/songwriter Tim Buckley and the Panama-born Guibert. He was just six months old when his father left Guibert. At the age of five he began fooling around on his grandmother's guitar and by the time he was into his teens was proficient enough to write a number of love songs to school girlfriends. On graduation, he moved to Los Angeles where he studied at the city's Musician's Institute. In 1990, he moved to New York's Lower East Side and formed Gods And Monsters with Pere Ubu bassist Tony Maimone and former Captain Beefheart guitarist Gary Lucas. Although they never released any official recordings, tapes of the band sent out by Lucas are now prized possessions amongst music journalists. Two years later, Buckley and Lucas went their separate ways and Buckley began playing solo gigs in intimate Greenwich Village clubs. Buckley called upon Lucas to help arrange and play on some of the songs on his 1994 debut album Grace. In the years since he contributed performances to Patti Smith's Gone Again, recorded with ex-Nymphs singer Inger Lorre and read on a spoken word album of Jack Kerouac stories, Kicks Joy Darkness. ©1997 by New Musical Express. All rights reserved
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