American singer songwriter, active from the 2nd half of the 1960s until his death aged 28. Father of Jeff Buckley who also died young. Born: 14 February 1947, Washington, D.C., USA. Died: 29 June 1975. Santa Monica. CA. USA.

Buckley started out as a folk singer but quickly stood out for his extraordinary voice and compositions. He further built his reputation with forays into experimental music and improvisation, which can be heard on the albums Happy Sad, Lorca and Starsailor. Those albums never brought him commercial success, and in the third phase of his career Buckley went for a more commercial sound - again with little success at the time.

Buckley died as the result of a lethal cocktail of celebratory binge-drinking and a heroin overdose at the age of 28, the day after completing the last show of a USA tour in Dallas, Texas.