Interview – Jeff Buckley’s former manager Dave Lory on the singer’s final days, his new biography and Q&A tour

It’s often hard to separate fact from myth-making when it comes to Jeff Buckley. The incredible singer-songwriter died 21 years ago after drowning in the Mississippi River at just 30-years-old, leaving behind one brilliant full length LP (1994’s Grace), a smattering of other recordings, and many unanswered questions.

Now Dave Lory, Buckley’s former manager, has decided to break his silence with his new book, Jeff Buckley: From Hallelujah to the Last Goodbye (Post Hill Press). Written with veteran rock journalist Jim Irvin, the book details the pair’s working relationship during the final whirlwind years of Buckley’s life, including insight from fellow musicians and record label staff who worked closely with him in those fateful few years.

Lory is currently on an interactive Q&A book tour, which lands at Montreal’s L’Astral on Monday June 18th at 7:00 pm. Advance tickets are $24 plus fees, available here.

We caught up with Lory by phone from New York to discuss the new book and tour, Buckley’s final days, and how his beloved cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” came to pass. Jeff Buckley: From Hallelujah to the Last Goodbye is available now. 

Bad Feeling Mag: Did Jeff have a good idea of what he was looking to do when you met? Or was it still evolving back then?

Dave Lory: It was definitely evolving. He didn’t know what type of record he was going to put out because he could do everything from Big Band to — he wanted to do a Pakistani album — to heavy metal, scary music, he was all over the place. He was that talented.

I love that you both bonded over metal — what do you think it was about your experience with metal bands that he latched onto?

Well, it was that and the fact that we had similar childhoods too. When we went on the tour we found out that we had both moved around a lot and really didn’t have any roots, and we bonded through that mostly.

What was the process of putting this book together like for you? Why did now feel like the right time to put this out?

It was just kind of a coincidence. I was called by Rob Light at CAA, and I said I was thinking about writing this. Somebody had approached me to do the movie, and that didn’t work out. And I said, “Well, I might as well write the book.” And then Rob Light said, “I want to read that book, it’s time for you to talk.” And then I started calling the seven or eight people that are involved in the book, who never really spoke out before. We kind of had a close-knit group, and we just turned down everything for 21 years.

And the timing just felt right, even from my literary agent, who knew Jeff before he came to New York, because Jeff liked his roommate. And [From Hallelujah to the Last Goodbye contributor] Jim Irvin was with me in Dublin when I got the call that Jeff disappeared. He was at NME then, and later MOJO. It’s like the stars all lined up. It’s kind of hard when you go and ask somebody, “Hey, your parents were killed in a horrific car accident, do you want to relive it?” It was kind of tough.

Was it important for you to have those other voices included in the book? 

Absolutely, because I wasn’t there during [1993’s Live at Sin-é EP] days and even the beginning of the recording of Grace, so with the people involved it gave a complete picture of Jeff. And Jeff only wanted you to see certain sides of what he wanted you to see, so when you put all these people together, you get a more complex and complete picture.

What do you think the biggest misconception about Jeff is?

Well, none of the books that have been written had any attachment to Jeff. Nor did they interview people that — I mean they knew Jeff, but Jeff was on the road for practically three years, or longer, while also living in New York. And the writers didn’t know what questions to ask.

I really wanted to put a stamp on his legacy. And show the complete Jeff Buckley — the good, the bad, and the ugly.

What do you think has made his music relevant for so long? There was really nothing that sounded like Grace when it came out, it must have stuck out like a sore thumb back then. 

It was slow to get going. College radio didn’t actually embrace it right away because like you said, it was the punk and grunge era. But if you listen to Grace now, it sounds like it could come out today. [Producer] Andy Wallace said it best, he did Nirvana’s Nevermind. And he said he used to get calls to produce artists because of Nirvana, and he said that’s no longer the case, they come to him because of Jeff Buckley, because the record is so timeless.

How did that cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” come to be? Do you think Jeff had any kind of inkling of the long life that cover would have?

Somebody played him the song, I do know this story. And he learned it that day and performed it that night at Sin-é. It was Andy Wallace and Steve Berkowitz at Columbia who wanted to put it on the record and Jeff said fine. And it wasn’t until probably the fourth solo date we did, starting on the West Coast, that he started adding it at the end of the set, and that’s when we knew it was a show-stopper. You could hear a feather drop. And he never played it the same way twice.

Did putting this book together provide any kind of closure for you? 

Well, it started out pretty rough, because when I first started writing it, the book publishers wanted two chapters, and obviously they wanted the death chapter. And my wife worked for [Jeff Buckley] as well, she was a Promotion Manager and that’s how we met. So every day when I look at my wife and my kids I think of Jeff. But I started writing the death chapter and I literally cried on my back porch for three days while writing it. I realized I never grieved. During that time I was keeping my wife up, I was keeping the employees up, I was keeping my artists up, my staff. I didn’t grieve myself, I had to be numb in order to deal with everything that was flying around me.

So my first big interview was World Cafe, and the girl really knew — you can hear it on the website, there’s like 5-6 seconds of dead air because she asked me about when I got the call and I started talking, and I looked up and she had tears coming down her face. And I was thinking to myself, ‘”Don’t do this to me!” But I still get choked up during the Q&As, some nights are better than others. It is getting some closure. It’s still as raw, it’s like an open wound.

In the weeks before Jeff’s death, there was a flurry of activity and things were in flux with him — what do you think he had planned for his career and life at that point? 

I really think he wanted to put roots down. He couldn’t walk around New York anymore and go to his favourite places because people knew him. He just wanted to be normal. Even when I said [in the book] that he applied for a job as a butterfly keeper at the zoo [laughs]. He wanted to buy the car, he wanted to buy the house. He proposed to his girlfriend, and I think he wanted a life of normalcy.

He was still so young to settle down at that point, do you think he lived fast in that amount of time that he had?

Well, we used to have this saying, it’s in the book. We’d make jokes about jumping off a cliff together, because he was the only artist I ever trusted 100%. And I’d say, “Do you have a parachute?” and he’s say, “I think so.” Well, this time he didn’t. And [Columbia Records Product Manager] Leah Reid says it best, she says, “It probably seemed like a good idea when he went into the river. Until it wasn’t.”

Dave Lory’s Q&A takes place at L’Astral (305 Saint-Catherine West), Monday June 18th at 7:00 pm. Advance tickets are $24 plus fees, available here. Jeff Buckley: From Hallelujah to the Last Goodbye is available now.