Jeff Buckley’s former manager discusses tragic connection to Kurt Cobain

Dave Lory was the manager of the Californian singer-songwriter at the time of his death

Jeff Buckley‘s former manager has discussed the star’s connection to Kurt Cobain in a new interview.

Dave Lory managed Buckley from 1994 until the singer-songwriter’s death in 1997. He died after drowning in the Mississippi River on May 29, 1997.

Appearing on Alternative Nation’s Desperate Times – 90’s Music podcast, Lory discussed his new book, Jeff Buckley: From Hallelujah To The Last Goodbye. During the conversation, he broached the topic of dealing with the loss of an artist. “It’s like a military operation – at first you don’t know what you are going to do,” he said.

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“Thank god there was no internet back then so I could get the message out like I wanted,” he continued. But Danny Goldberg, who I co-managed the Allman Brothers with, and Janet Billing handled Nirvana when Kurt killed himself. They called me right away. That meant a lot because there’s not a book written [about] rock star publicity [when an] 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 [again] when Michael Hutchence hung himself.” The INXS singer died on November 22, 1997.

Later in the interview, Lory also talked about the two musicians’ connection through producer Andy Wallace. Wallace produced Buckley’s ‘Grace’ and mixed Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’. “It’s interesting, I talked to Andy Wallace yesterday, who was going to produce [Buckley’s] next record,” Lory said.

“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 [it’s from] or even if it’s a new record, and that’s a pretty special accomplishment on just one record.”

Lory previously discussed the moment he heard about Buckley’s disappearance and subsequent death in another interview. “It was 5:58 – I’ll never forget that time – in the morning,” he said of the phone call he received with the news. “I dropped the phone and you don’t know what to do. Thank god there was no internet cos it would have been tweeted off the banks. You just go numb. I was totally numb, no emotion.”

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