In the second episode of Alternative Nation’s new Desperate Times – 90’s Music podcast, host Brando interviewed Jeff Buckley’s manager Dave Lory to discuss his new book Jeff Buckley: From Hallelujah To The Last Goodbye. He discussed dealing with the tragic loss of an artist, and how he related to Kurt Cobain’s manager.
“It’s like a military operation, at first you don’t know what you are going to do, thank God there was no internet back then, so I could get the message out like I wanted. But Danny Goldberg, who I co-managed the Allman Brothers with, and Janet Billig handled Nirvana, and when Kurt killed himself, they called me right away. That meant a lot, because there’s not a book written [about] rock star publicity artist dies. They also said, ‘You’re a part of a club you don’t want to belong to.’ They said I’d get that call one day, and I did when Michael Hutchence hung himself.”
He later discussed Nirvana and Jeff Buckley’s connection through Andy Wallace.
“You have to remember when Grace was released in 1994, that was the height of the Grunge era. We had some backlash from college radio, they didn’t know what to do with the Live at the Shenae EP. I kept telling Jeff, ‘You’re an original. It takes a little longer to rise above that noise crowd, but once you do, there’s only one Jeff Buckley.’ What’s interesting is in the book, Leah Reed his product manager [talked about this], I remember when we signed him to Columbia, there wasn’t anybody to compare him to, most people say they’re the next Beatles or the next Soundgarden, or whatever the case may be. Towards the end of the book, in the last chapter, she says, ‘It’s funny now, because people say he’s like Jeff Buckley, where when we signed him there was no such thing to compare him to.’
It’s interesting, I talked to Andy Wallace the producer of Grace yesterday, who was going to produce the next record. I asked him if he read the book, he said yes, he participated. He told me a story, it’s in the book too, about how he mixed Nevermind by Nirvana. Before Jeff, everybody wanted to work with him because of Nirvana. He said, ‘I don’t get Nirvana, I get Jeff Buckley.’ That’s because it’s a timeless record. You put it on today, you don’t know what decade, or even if it’s a new record, and that’s a pretty special accomplishment on just one record.”
Listen to the full interview below, and watch a video version of the interview as well.
