Peter Lawrence Buck (born December 6, 1956) is an American

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

and songwriter. He was a co-founder and the lead guitarist of the

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band R.E.M.; he played the banjo and mandolin on several R.E.M. songs. Throughout his career with R.E.M. (1980–2011), as well as during his subsequent solo career, Buck has been at various times a member of numerous side project groups. These groups included Arthur Buck (with Joseph Arthur), Hindu Love Gods, The Minus 5,

Tuatara The tuatara (''Sphenodon punctatus'') is a species of reptile endemic to New Zealand. Despite its close resemblance to lizards, it is actually the only extant member of a distinct lineage, the previously highly diverse order Rhynchocephal ...

, The Baseball Project, Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3, Tired Pony, The No-Ones, and Filthy Friends, each of which have released at least one full-length studio album. Additionally, the experimental combo Slow Music have released an official live concert CD. Another side project group called Full Time Men released an EP while Buck was a member. As well, ad hoc "supergroups" Bingo Hand Job (

Billy Bragg Stephen William Bragg (born 20 December 1957) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, author and political activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, with lyrics that mostly span political or romantic th ...

and R.E.M.), Musical Kings (Michelle Malone, Peter Buck, John Keane) and Nigel & The Crosses (Robyn Hitchcock, Peter Buck, Glenn Tilbrook and others) have each commercially released one track. Richard M. Nixon, a band Buck founded in 2012 to support the release of his solo album with live gigs, has never issued an official recording. Richard M. Nixon consisted of Buck, Scott McCaughey and Bill Rieflin, the same three musicians who comprise The Venus 3. Buck has a career as a record producer including releases by Uncle Tupelo, Vigilantes of Love, Dreams So Real, The Fleshtones, The Feelies, and The Jayhawks, as well as a

session musician A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a reco ...

( The Replacements,

, Decemberists and Eels).

Early life

Peter Lawrence Buck was born on December 6, 1956, in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

, to Peter and Violet Buck. After spending time in Los Angeles and San Francisco, the Buck family moved, via Roswell, Georgia, to

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. After graduating with honors from Crestwood High School in 1975, Buck attended

Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...

and joined Delta Tau Delta fraternity. He eventually dropped out of Emory. Buck moved to

Athens, Georgia Athens is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. Downtown Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta. The University of Georgia, the state's flagship public university and an Research I university, ...

, and attended the

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

as well. While in Athens, Buck worked at the Wuxtry Records store, where he met future bandmate Michael Stipe as well as R.E.M.'s future manager, Bertis Downs.

Music

Buck's style of guitar playing is simple and yet distinctive. He makes wide use of open strings while chording to create chiming and memorable pop melodies. His sound, especially on mid-period R.E.M. albums that saw the band break through to international popularity, has been associated with Rickenbacker guitars, particularly a Jetglo (black) model 360. He has also used a wide variety of other instruments as the group continued to experiment and develop. On some more recent R.E.M. releases prior to '' Accelerate'' (2008), his guitar parts have been less prominent. "When Peter plays guitar, there's a strong sense of ''fuck off'' that comes from his side of the stage. And you feel that he wants to be in a band because he likes what they do... but that's all," explained U2's lead singer

Bono Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by the nickname Bono ( ), is an Irish singer-songwriter and activist. He is a founding member, the lead vocalist, and primary lyricist of the rock band U2. Bono is known for his impassioned voca ...

in 2003. "And it's almost like performing and having to deal with all of that is a bit of a compromise for him, so just fuck off. And I like that energy a little bit, and that gives them their aggression." Buck has produced many bands, including Uncle Tupelo, Dreams So Real, Drivin N Cryin, The Fleshtones, Charlie Pickett, and The Feelies. Buck also has made contributions on many other musicians' albums, including The Replacements,

The Decemberists The Decemberists are an American indie rock band from Portland, Oregon, formed in 2000. The band consists of Colin Meloy (lead vocals, guitar), Chris Funk (guitar, multi-instrumentalist), Jenny Conlee (piano, keyboards, accordion, backing vocals ...

Robyn Hitchcock Robyn Rowan Hitchcock (born 3 March 1953) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. While primarily a vocalist and guitarist, he also plays harmonica, piano, and bass guitar. After leading the Soft Boys in the late 1970s and releasing the ...

, and several Eels albums. Peter, Mike Mills, Bill Berry and Warren Zevon recorded an album under the band name Hindu Love Gods, while the R.E.M. bandmates and Zevon were recording tracks for Zevon's 1987 album '' Sentimental Hygiene''. Hindu Love Gods is one of many names the members of R.E.M. have used performing around the Athens area. Buck also continued to play live locally with the Normaltown Flyers, performing country and rock standards in local bars. The three instrumentalists from R.E.M. all performed on Nikki Sudden's 1991 album ''The Jewel Thief'', including the single " I Belong to You". Buck also coproduced the 1992 Vigilantes of Love album, ''Killing Floor'', with songwriter Mark Heard. He co-wrote, produced, and performed on Mark Eitzel's 1997 album '' West''. He recorded an EP with Keith Streng of The Fleshtones as Full Time Men in 1985, and along with R.E.M. sideman Scott McCaughey has been a partner in The Minus 5 and a member of the instrumental band

. Additionally, In October 2005, he joined R.E.M. studio drummer Bill Rieflin,

King Crimson King Crimson were an English progressive rock band formed in London in 1968 by Robert Fripp, Michael Giles, Greg Lake, Ian McDonald (musician), Ian McDonald and Peter Sinfield. Guitarist Fripp remained the only constant member throughout the ...

guitarist

Robert Fripp Robert Fripp (born 16 May 1946) is an English musician, composer, record producer, and author, best known as the guitarist, founder and longest-lasting member of the progressive rock band King Crimson. He has worked extensively as a session mu ...

and three others in forming an improvisational performance band called Slow Music. His voice can be heard on one R.E.M. song: "I Walked with a Zombie" from the Roky Erickson tribute album '' Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye''. In 2006, Buck toured with

, McCaughey, and Rieflin as lead guitarist for Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 in the wake of the band's first release, '' Olé! Tarantula''. In 2008, after McCaughey and Steve Wynn decided to work together, the duo asked Buck to be the bass player in their new band, The Baseball Project, along with drummer Linda Pitmon. Buck has contributed liner notes to compilations, reissues, and special editions, both of R.E.M.'s own material (the best-of compilations ''

Eponymous An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

'' and '' In Time'', the rarities, B-sides and out-takes collection '' Dead Letter Office'', and the special edition of '' New Adventures in Hi-Fi'') and of other artists' work (such as

The Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their f ...

' '' Love You''). On September 9, 2008, immediately following the band's concert in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

, Buck's signature Rickenbacker guitar, used live and in the studio since '' Chronic Town'' in 1982, was stolen from the stage. It was returned on September 18, 2008, by an anonymous source. In March 2012, six months after R.E.M.'s September 2011 dissolution, Buck, now signed to Mississippi Records, announced intentions of working on a solo album, backed by singer-songwriter Joseph Arthur. The first track from the self-titled solo album, "10 Million BC," was released via

SoundCloud SoundCloud is a German audio streaming service owned and operated by SoundCloud Global Limited & Co. KG. The service enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is ...

on June 21, 2012. His eponymous first album was released later that same year. In the final days of 2013, Buck announced he would be releasing his second solo album soon. The new project, titled '' I Am Back to Blow Your Mind Once Again'', was released on February 18, 2014, again on vinyl only. In 2015, Buck released his third solo album, ''Warzone Earth'', under Little Axe Records. In April 2017, Buck released the first single "Any Kind of Crowd" from his latest collaborative project with Filthy Friends, a super group with long time associates Scott McCaughey, Bill Rieflin, Kurt Bloch and Corin Tucker of Sleater-Kinney. The same month also saw another new release with Buck and McCaughey teaming up with Frode Strømstad and Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen of Norwegian band I Was A King to form the group The No Ones. The first song from their Sun Station EP was released, with the EP set to follow later in the year. Arthur Buck, a side project with singer-songwriter Joseph Arthur in which Buck and Arthur share songwriting duties, released their eponymous debut album in June 2018. The following year, the Luke Haines collaboration '' Beat Poetry for Survivalists'' was released.

Personal life

Buck has been married three times and is twice divorced. He was first married to Barrie Greene, the owner of Athens' 40 Watt Club. He and Greene married in 1987 and divorced in 1994. He has twin daughters, born in May 1994, with Stephanie Dorgan, the owner of Seattle's Crocodile Cafe music club. Buck and Dorgan married in January 1995 while in Perth, Australia, during R.E.M.'s Monster World Tour. The couple separated in 2006, and Dorgan sued Buck for divorce in 2007. During his marriage to Dorgan, Buck became a partner in Crocodile Cafe and often played there with his other band, The Minus 5. Buck married his third wife, Chloe Johnson, on June 1, 2013, in Portland, Oregon. The three other original bandmates of R.E.M. were all in attendance and performed at the ceremony. He is known for his encyclopedic knowledge of music, as well as his extensive personal record collection. Buck estimated his record collection to be around 25,000 in the late 1990s (he estimated he had 10,000 vinyl singles, 6,000 LPs and 4,000 CDs). Buck is an atheist. In the 1990s, Buck relocated to the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

and divided time between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington. He has also lived in Todos Santos, Baja California Sur,

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Airline incident

On April 21, 2001, Buck was aboard a transatlantic flight (British Airways #48) from Seattle to London to play a concert at

Trafalgar Square Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster in Central London. It was established in the early-19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. Its name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, the Royal Navy, ...

. Witnesses alleged that Buck exhibited various bizarre behaviors on the flight, including shoving a compact disc into a drinks trolley thinking it was a CD player, tearing up the "yellow card" warning notice handed to him by the flight crew, claiming "I am R.E.M." and being involved in a struggle over a yogurt cup with two flight attendants, which resulted in the cup exploding. Buck's actions led to two charges of common assault on the flight attendants, one charge of being drunk on a plane and one charge of damaging

British Airways British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main Airline hub, hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and pass ...

cutlery and crockery. At the ensuing trial in London, Buck's defense claimed that the moderate amount of wine he had drunk had reacted adversely with the brand of sleeping pill he was taking and rendered him unable to control his actions. The prosecution argued that he was simply intoxicated from supposedly consuming 15 glasses of wine. After the trial, which included testimony from

, the lead singer of the Irish rock band U2, Buck was cleared on the grounds of non-insane automatism.

Discography

With R.E.M. *'' Chronic Town'' EP ( I.R.S.) 1982 *'' Murmur'' (I.R.S.) 1983 *'' Reckoning'' (I.R.S.) 1984 *''

Fables of the Reconstruction ''Fables of the Reconstruction'' (or ''Reconstruction of the Fables'') is the third studio album by American alternative rock band R.E.M. It was released on June 10, 1985, through I.R.S. Records. It was the band's first album recorded outside ...

'' (I.R.S.) 1985 *'' Lifes Rich Pageant'' (I.R.S.) 1986 *''

Document A document is a writing, written, drawing, drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation of nonfiction, non-fictional, as well as fictional, content. The word originates from the Latin ', which denotes ...

'' (I.R.S.) 1987 *''

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

'' ( Warner Bros.) 1988 *'' Out of Time'' (Warner Bros.) 1991 *'' Automatic for the People'' (Warner Bros.) 1992 *'' Monster'' (Warner Bros.) 1994 *'' New Adventures in Hi-Fi'' (Warner Bros.) 1996 *'' Up'' (Warner Bros.) 1998 *'' Reveal'' (Warner Bros.) 2001 *'' Around the Sun'' (Warner Bros.) 2004 *'' Accelerate'' (Warner Bros.) 2008 *'' Collapse into Now'' (Warner Bros.) 2011 Solo *'' Peter Buck'' (

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

) 2012 *'' I Am Back to Blow Your Mind Once Again'' (Mississippi) 2014 *''Opium Drivel'' (Mississippi) 2014 *''Warzone Earth'' (Mississippi) 2015 *''Dear December'' ( Yep Rock) 2017 *'' Beat Poetry for Survivalists'' ( Omnivore) 2020 *''All the Kids are Super Bummed Out'' ( Cherry Red, with Luke Haines) 2022 Produced *Eyelids: ''The Accidental Falls'' (Jealous Butcher Records) 2020 * Dreams So Real: ''Father's House'' (Coyote) 1986 * Alejandro Escovedo: ''Burn Something Beautiful'' (

Fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

) 2016 * The Feelies: '' The Good Earth'' ( Twin/Tone) 1986 * The Fleshtones: ''Beautiful Light'' (Naked Language) 1993 * John Wesly Harding: ''Greatest Other People's Hits'' ( Omnivore) 2018 * The Jayhawks: '' Paging Mr. Proust'' ( Thirty Tigers/Sham) 2016 * Kevn Kinney: '' MacDougal Blues'' (

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...

) 1990 *Run Westy Run: ''Green Cat Island'' (Twin/Tone) 1990 *Hector Tellez Jr.: ''The Great Unknown'' 2023 * Uncle Tupelo: ''March 6–20, 1992'' (Rockville) 1992 * Vigilantes of Love: ''Killing Floor'' (Fingerprint/Sky) 1992 Recorded with Arthur Buck *''Arthur Buck'' (

New West New West Records is a record label based in Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville and Athens, Georgia. It previously had offices in Burbank, California and Beverly Hills, California. From 2013 to 2018, New West's records in the U.S. were distributed b ...

) 2018 The Baseball Project *'' Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails'' (Yep Rock) 2008 *'' Volume 2: High and Inside'' (Yep Rock) 2011 *'' 3rd'' (Yep Rock) 2014 *'' Grand Salami Time!'' (Yep Rock) 2023 Mark Eitzel *''West'' (Warner Bros.) 1997 Filthy Friends *'' Invitation'' ( Kill Rock Stars) 2017 *'' Emerald Valley'' (Kill Rock Stars) 2019 Hindu Love Gods * ''Hindu Love Gods'' (

Reprise In music, a reprise ( , ; from the verb 'to resume') is the repetition or reiteration of the opening material later in a composition as occurs in the recapitulation of sonata form, though—originally in the 18th century—was simply any re ...

) 1990 The Minus 5 *'' Old Liquidator'' (

Glitterhouse Records Glitterhouse Records is a German independent record label and mail order company based in Beverungen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It was founded in the mid-1980s. From the late 1980s until the mid-1990s it was the European branch of the American la ...

) 1995 *'' The Lonesome Death of Buck McCoy'' ( Hollywood/Malt) 1997 *'' Let the War Against Music Begin'' (

Mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus.'' They lived from the late Miocene epoch (from around 6.2 million years ago) into the Holocene until about 4,000 years ago, with mammoth species at various times inhabi ...

/Malt) 2001 *'' I Don't Know Who I Am (Let the War Against Music Begin, Vol. 2)'' (Return to Sender) 2003 *'' Down with Wilco'' (Yep Rock) 2003 *'' In Rock (The Minus 5 album)'' (Yep Rock) 2004 *''Gun Album'' (Yep Rock) 2006 *'' The Minus 5'' (Yep Rock) 2006 *'' Killingsworth'' (Yep Rock) 2009 *''Of Monkees and Men'' (Yep Rock) 2010 *''Dear December'' (Yep Rock) 2017 *''Stroke Manor'' (Yep Rock) 2019

*'' Breaking the Ethers'' ( Epic) 1997 *'' Trading with the Enemy'' (Fast Horse) 1998 *'' Cinemathique'' (Fast Horse) 2002 *'' The Loading Program'' (Fast Horse) 2003 *'' East of the Sun'' (Fast Horse) 2007 *'' West of the Moon'' (Fast Horse) 2007 *''The Here and the Gone'' (Fast Horse) 2008 *''Underworld'' (Sunyata) 2014 *''Shamanic Nights'' (Sunyata) 2016 Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus Three *'' Olé! Tarantula'' (Yep Rock) 2006 *'' Goodnight Oslo'' (Yep Rock) 2009 *'' Propellor Time'' (Yep Rock) 2010 Tired Pony *'' The Place We Ran From'' (

Fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...

/ Polydor) 2010 *'' The Ghost of the Mountain'' (Fiction Records, Fiction/Polydor) 2013 Nando Reis *'' Uma Estrela Misteriosa Revelará o Segredo'' (Relicário) 2024 The No Ones *''The Great Lost No Ones Album'' (Yep Rock) 2020 *''My Best Evil Friend'' (Yep Rock) 2023 Slow Music Project *''Live at the Croc 19 Oct 2005'' (Slow Music) 2005 Full Time Men *''Full Time Men'' EP (Coyote) 1985

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Buck, Peter 1956 births Living people American atheists American mandolinists American rock bass guitarists American male bass guitarists American rock guitarists American male guitarists American rock songwriters American male songwriters Appalachian dulcimer players Eels (band) members American lead guitarists Musicians from Athens, Georgia Musicians from Portland, Oregon R.E.M. members The Baseball Project members The Minus 5 members Tired Pony members Tuatara (band) members University of Georgia people Musicians from Seattle American alternative rock musicians American alternative rock guitarists Hindu Love Gods (band) members American expatriate musicians American expatriates in Mexico Grammy Award winners Guitarists from Georgia (U.S. state) Guitarists from Oregon Guitarists from California Guitarists from Washington (state) Record producers from Georgia (U.S. state) Record producers from California Record producers from Washington (state) Record producers from Oregon 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists Filthy Friends members Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 members Mississippi Records artists