RóiseMcGagh chats to country music star Jimmy Buckley about his career and his strong sense of faith
Jimmy Buckley is a well-known name in many households. As one of the biggest stars in Irish country music for many years he has a long standing career in his industry. This didn’t come without a winding road with ups and downs and he accredits his strong sense of faith to keeping him going.
The singer is best recognised for his bestselling hits Your Wedding Day, My Mother, The Kingdom I Call Home, Noreen Bawn and Blue Ridge Mountain Girl.
After Your Wedding Day, written by Henry McMahon was released, Jimmy established himself as a country singer Ireland and the UK and has been busy on the road since then. As well as his solo work he forms one third of The Three Amigos music and comedy show, alongside country stars Robert Mizzell and Patrick Feeney.
Every January he is booked out for 22 days of The Three Amigos shows and on the average month he could have 16 shows around the country, at the minute, like many he’s on an unplanned break.
While it might seem to a lot of people as if he made it big when he appeared on Bob Brolly’s Big Charity Show in in the Symphony Hall Birmingham in June 2003, it was the beginning of a long road in a difficult industry to crack into.
“It’s been very tough at times, sometimes in the early days I felt like giving up, it was so hard to make it.
“I suppose it was genuinely my faith kept me going,” said Jimmy in an interview with The Irish Catholic.
He was brought up in a typical Irish household in Doon, Co. Limerick. “I suppose like all Catholic upbringings in Ireland you’re brought up with a sense of faith because of Mass going every Sunday, prayers and a little bit of religion at school.”
He says he hasn’t been a regular church attendee over the years, but he has a strong sense of Faith and an affinity for Our Lady. He said he prays to her often, and Padre Pio too.
“I would pray myself on a regular basis and I have done before most of my life. I would certainly feel that it would have shaped an awful a lot of what I’ve done – in the way of keeping me on the right track and keeping me safe keeping me away from evil if you like.”
Jimmy who now lives in Co Galway, but didn’t always, used to often call into Knock Shrine on his way home from gigs, “I’d call in at maybe three or four o’clock in the morning on my way home and I would say my just do little prayers or talk to God.”
He is not ashamed to talk about his faith and he thinks that people can find comfort in prayer, especially at the minute, no matter what that prayer looks like.
“I’m praying a lot more lately since this happened. I dip in and out of prayer and sometimes, like everybody else, maybe I pray a bit more when I want something more. But I apologise to God when I’ve done that, I haven’t if clocked in in a while,” he said.
“Everybody has different faith, there’s nothing wrong with anybody’s way as long as they have faith, in whatever they have faith in. And certainly, you have to believe in something.
“I just think that if people pray on their own way that it’s amazing the comfort that it can give.”
Jimmy’s talent is music, mainly singing as he said “I only kind of trick around with the guitar, I wouldn’t be in any way accomplished guitarist. But singing was really my instrument it was my voice and singing different range of songs and styles and that kind of thing and I got my own style from that”. He said he feels that it is important that he uses that gift in a positive way.
“I believe that everyone is given their own gift by God and it’s their duty to do as much with it as you possibly can.”
He recalls many times over the years where would be asked to sing a song for someone to help them in some way. “You might just have to sing for somebody’s birthday, or you might have to just ring somebody. They know you from the music and they might be feeling down and you might be asked to ring them send them a message or a video message.”
“Music moves people, it’s a great gift to be given and I really believe it’s a gift. Everyone gets their own gift and my one happened to be music.
“I think you have to do as much with it as you can, I’m not saying that play by the rules all the time, but I try to keep it in the forefront of my mind.”
While making music is how he makes his living and that is always something that he has to consider, at the same time he would be more than happy to sing a song for someone if he thought it would cheer them up. He says it’s a tough career to make a living in: “There’s an awful lot of ups and downs and I certainly do believe that the more you make of your gift the better God will be pleased with you.”
Jimmy says that he sometimes feels humbled that so many people enjoy his music and want to meet him or take pictures with him when he is just using the gift he was given, and music just happens to lift people up and make them feel good.
“I’m always amazed by the way my music can mean so much to so many people,” Jimmy said, talking about the many special moments he has gad with audiences over the years. “The fact that you would do a foreign trip and have hundreds of people that come on the trip because it’s your trip. People that will come to The Three Amigos concerts or our own concert and they want their photograph afterwards and they want to talk to you.”
There are stand out moments every week, said Jimmy. “I try and make them (his fans) happy with the music and I happen to make my living from it as well and don’t get me wrong it can be tough going as anyone will tell you, but still at the same time it very rewarding from a self-satisfaction point of view.”
“It’s a nice thing I’m passing on to my daughter now as well. She has more or less the same kind of scenario is me; she’s gifted at music and she wants to carry it on.”
Claudia Buckley, the eldest of his three children is following in her father’s footsteps and pursuing a career in country music. She recorded a song with Jimmy when she was just 15 and now in her 20s, she regularly joins him on show nights as a special guest.
“I’m excited for her I’m proud of her but I’m also like any parent would be. I’m afraid for her in certain ways,” he said, knowing the lows and the highs of the business he would have the same fears he had for himself when he started out, “It can be the best place in the world and it can be the most lonely place in the world doing what we do. You’re going out there and you’re in front of the public who can form any kind of an opinion on you because that’s their right to do.”
Claudia recently released a new single Blame It On Your Heart and on Thursday last week she posted a video of her and Jimmy wishing everyone well and signing a song on Facebook which gained over 1,000 likes in just a few hours.
Jimmy was born in November 1971 bringing him to the end of his 40s now. He met Claudia’s mother on a Ryanair flight many years ago. “I persuaded her to meet up with me and we went on a date or two and then we’ve been going on dates ever since.” He has been entertaining people for over 25 years now. In his younger years he always wanted to be where he is today.
“When I was going to school, I’d always be playing the guitar and singing songs and I liked early rock and roll, and I liked some country music stuff.”
In his teens he grew to like country music even more and then started up his own one man show. “Then I went on the Gerry Ryan Secrets show at the time and it was like a competition on national TV and I got on that. I got a call back to the final and I won it and that kind of shaped to my life from then on.”
Not long after that, he managed to get a band together, “This was before I social media and all that, so I just built up my name over all the years, there were many pitfalls and some good things as well.” Jimmy said it doesn’t feel strange to be recognised by people now because it built up his fame so slowly over a long time.
“When I started after a couple of years, when it was getting very difficult to try and make a living at the music, I worked as a sales rep and I did that for a while. I still kept up the music.
“It’s very tough business to establish yourself in so you have to be very optimistic,” he said, which his faith helped him with. He also been a lot of motivation from a young age.
Jimmy’s uncle, Chris Buckley, was also a country musician. “My late uncle Chris was a wonderful country singer, a great exponent of Merle Haggard and all the country stuff he was really talented and died young man.
“I suppose I would say I would have taken it from him or it’s kind of in the genes that way,”
Jimmy said he would have taken a lot of inspiration from him, but he also had a lot of motivation of his own from an early age.
“It’s all ever wanted to do, I remember when I was in school when I was 16. I worked in one of those big cash and carry stories and I would be constantly singing while I was doing my job, stacking shelves up and I’d be singing.
“I remember I used to travel to work on a motorbike in the morning. And the thing was when you had the helmet on it was like you had your own little in ear monitors or your own little headphones, I’d be singing,”
“I was always daydreaming about being on stage or entertaining people and I always
would take every opportunity to pick up the guitar and sing for people or to entertain.”
To this day that is what he’s doing. In 2007 Jimmy released his “Live In Concert” DVD. It won “DVD of the year” in the Irish World awards and shown on TV in the US. He also visited Nashville that year and was inspired by his visit to the home of his idol, Elvis, in the Gracelands.
The next year, in February 2008 Jimmy worked on a Caribbean cruise and then in the spring he toured with Charley Pride.
His second live in concert “The Grand Tour – Live” was released then in November 2008. He is constantly working on new music. Every year he has a tour in Scotland and one in Spain – “Craic on the Costa”.
“Obviously everything at the moment because of the crisis is totally on hold, it’s the same for everybody so I suppose we just have to see what happens when we get through all of this,” said Jimmy.
“It’s unprecedented what’s been going on in the world at the moment, basically I’m at home every day.” In his spare time, he breed greyhounds, so at the minute he is tending to them “I go down to my pups every day and go for walks in the country which kind of clears my head”
Despite the unexpected brake he is staying positive. “It’s a welcome break in one sense but under the circumstances I would rather if it wasn’t brought about by such circumstances as the Covid-19 crisis I’d rather be off just taking time and the normal run of things. It’s surreal what’s going on everywhere and it’s very difficult for an awful lot of people, so I can’t be seen to be complaining.”