Published
Hallelujah
Jeff Buckley began playing guitar at age 5. Armed with his distinct multi-octave voice, Buckley emerged from New York’s music scene in a big way with his first release, 1994’s Grace. The album made him an eventual sensation with both critics and fans, and his cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” went on to achieve a sublime standing with listeners. Three years later, just short of his 31st birthday and while recording tracks for his second album, Buckley drowned while swimming at night near Memphis, Tennessee.
After Tim died of a drug overdose in 1975, Jeff chose to go by Buckley and his given name, Jeff, which he found on his birth certificate.
On the evening of May 29, 1997, Buckley’s band flew to Memphis to join him in his studio to work on his new material. Later that evening, Buckley spontaneously went swimming fully dressed in the Wolf River Harbor, a slack water channel of the Mississippi River, singing the chorus of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” under the Memphis Suspension Railway.
Buckley’s autopsy showed no signs of drugs or alcohol, and the death was ruled an accidental drowning. The official Jeff Buckley website published a statement saying his death was neither mysterious nor a suicide.