The long-awaited documentary It’s Never Over: Jeff Buckley will be released theatrically in the United States on Aug. 8 and will be available on HBO and HBO Max in the winter under the Music Box series umbrella. The film was directed by Amy Berg, who is best-known for her West Memphis Three documentary West of Memphis and Deliver Us From Evil, which chronicled years of sexual abuse by an Irish Catholic priest in Northern California.
It’s Never Over premiered at Sundance in January after years in the making. Among the subjects interviewed for it are the late Buckley’s mother, Mary Guibert, bandmates Michael Tighe and Parker Kindred, ex-partners Rebecca Moore and Joan Wasser and musicians Aimee Mann and Ben Harper.
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Buckley came close to transcending his status as the son of British folk legend Tim Buckley during his short musical life, which ended tragically when he accidentally drowned in Memphis at the age of 30 in 1997. Most of his acclaim owes to his early solo shows in defunct downtown New York venues such as Sin-é and his lone studio full-length for Columbia Records, Grace, which has been hailed as one of the best debut albums ever made.
In a 1994 interview with SPIN, Buckley traced his passion for solo performing back to his heroes, blues singers Robert Johnson and Son House, and their rowdy “barrel house” shows during the early days of country blues. “It was just the singer, his voice, the guitar and this tiny shack,” he said with a sigh, “and people dipping their cups in a big barrel of whiskey. If you sucked, nobody danced. So I decided to perform in very small, inescapably intimate places — to see if I could make big magic in a really small place.”
“I’ve spent practically my entire career trying to make this film, which takes a very intimate look at one of the greatest singers and songwriters of all time,” says Berg. “I’m so excited Magnolia and HBO have come on board to share this film with the world and give old fans and new audiences a chance to experience Jeff from this unique vantage point. I couldn’t imagine a better team to roll this into the world.”
It’s Never Over is produced by Berg in tandem with Ryan Heller, Christone Connor, Mandy Chang, Matthew Roozen and Jennie Bedusa. Among the executive producers is Brad Pitt, who first approached Guibert years ago about starring in a biopic about her son.
“He sang from such an emotional place that it almost feels holy, you know?,” Tighe recently told SPIN. “And that’s kind of rare. I actually think Billie Eilish and Frank Ocean sing from that same kind of place; they remind me of Jeff in that way. But there are not a lot of people who can access that. He was ultra-romantic.”
To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.