Buck Dharma – Interview by Rob Smittix – Xperience History

Shooting the Breeze with Buck Dharma

By: Rob Smittix. Original Publication August 2019.

Growing up I heard stories from my Dad about the days when Donald Roeser (Buck Dharma) and my uncle Edward “Skip” O’Donnell would jam. The fact that such a legendary guitarist has musical-roots in this area but also ties to my family had intrigued me since I was a kid. It has been on my bucket-list for a very long time to just meet the guy and have a conversation. On June 27^th when Blue Öyster Cult came to play at Albany’s newest music venue The Skyloft, I finally had the chance. Was it an interview? Kind-of but really more of chat that I just always wanted to have and I am glad I get to share it with you.

After listening to the band warm-up I was summoned through the back-stage area and into the green room where the band was enjoying a meal. Buck Dharma emerged from the rest of the band and crew, he extended his hand and asked, “Are you Skippy’s cousin?” I answered “nephew.”  From here we took our talk into a more secluded area for noise reduction.

Buck: It’s really nice to talk to you. I was really fond of your uncle you know? I haven’t talked to Skip in a while. He’s got to be retired by now.

RRX: He is retired. Unfortunately, he is battling Parkinson’s.

Buck: He had just beaten esophagus cancer last time I saw him. Next time you talk to him, give my love. I always hold those days in my heart. We had a good crew in those days. We met at Clarkson, of course back in 65’. In Travesty, the band we were all in together, we had a fine time. In fact we did some club work in Albany too.  He was the obvious choice for singer because he didn’t need a PA.

RRX: Wow, he must have really projected, I couldn’t even imagine that. He must’ve had some pipes.

Buck: I knew Skip’s Dad too.

RRX: Do you remember when you painted “Love” on the roof of his house?

Buck: I did something like that.

RRX: I imagine it was for the planes to see.

Buck: Yeah, we were in the flight-path.

RRX: Now this was my grandparent’s house, and I don’t know about then but from what I know they were always pretty old-school and strict.

Buck: When we went to school in the dawn of the hippie era, they were pretty square. (Laughs) Skip told a story, “The Mothers of Invention” Frank Zappa record that he played in his room and the song “Brown Shoes Don’t Make It” came on. That was too much for your Grandpa, he took the record off and broke it on his knees.

RRX: That’s funny.

Buck: Yeah it was.

RRX: So in your time in Upstate New York there’s got to be some kind of vivid memory that pops out.

Buck: Well, I’m in and out of the Capital District but… I met my wife in college, Potsdam. She’s from Rome, so I’ve gone back there all of these years. I’ve lived in Ithaca in the mid 80’s through the early 90’s. My daughter and her husband are just buying a house in Ithaca right now, so I’ll be going back there to visit them.

RRX: Yeah, Upstate New York is not so bad. You know, everyone complains about the taxes.

Buck: I live in Maryland now, they have high taxes there. I came from Florida before that. Getting killed over there so… I moved out of Florida because I’m a Grandpa, I wanna see my grandkids grow up. Got to be near them. I’m a Northeasterner at heart.

RRX: So rumor has it there’s a new music coming?

Buck: Yeah, we just committed to making another record. This band has never been recorded with these members, so I’m excited about that.

RRX: After all these years, do you feel like you have to do it? Is it more for the fans or yourself?

Buck: I don’t think we dream of big stardom again but the fans wanna hear it. And we’re doing it for posterity, ya know?

RRX: Makes sense.

Buck: It took a while for me to get the cobwebs out, for a while I haven’t really written much. Maybe five songs in the last decade. So I felt like the King of Rohan, Lord of the Rings, get the cobwebs off of ya!

RRX: And it’s coming from the place that gave you so many hits.

Buck: Whelp, we’re into it now.

RRX: For all the accomplishments you’ve already had, was this just something that had to be done?

Buck: I feel very lucky of the success we’ve had, the recognition and the culture too.

RRX: How’s it feel to have been at this for fifty plus years?

Buck: I never expected it of course, the entire arc of my life has sort of been unplanned. But for me it’s one thing to another… I thought I’d do it for a few years and get a real job. I wouldn’t even know where to begin to succeed in today’s music business.

RRX: It’s a whole new world out there, it’s like the internet helps and it hurts at the same time.

Buck: Right, you have to ride the horse in the direction it’s going. Although I think the streaming services are where it’s at. I don’t need the physical kind of thing, I used to really love getting LP’s and all that.

RRX: The whole DIY process is kind of the way to go now, wasn’t always the case but…

Buck: Well it’s hard to be an engineer and an artist at the same time. Your creative stuff gets derailed because this routing is wrong or… Especially with computers compared to the old analog days.

Door opens a crack and a voice says, “Donald your food is ready.” Next thing you know some dinner is served and it looks mighty delicious.

RRX: What ya got there?

Buck: Cajun shrimp, rice and broccoli of some sort. Broccolini or something. (Laughs) It’s fancy broccoli.

RRX: So at this point it doesn’t look like BOC is stopping anytime soon.

Buck: I think the light’s on at the end of the tunnel but we still sound really good. The demand is there, seems silly to not to honor it so… If I ever can’t play I’ll stop. At some point I’ll stop anyway because I don’t have the energy I did when I was a young man. You know the traveling is the worst of it, it’s not playing; playing is fun.

RRX: Absolutely. So anything else on your mind? Like me, I have been trying to grasp the concept of the number One Trillion. Did you know that it would take over Thirty-One Thousand years to count to a trillion?

Buck: Like if you start at one and just go up?

RRX: Yeah, you just keep going; obviously impossible to achieve.

Buck: And you’d lose your place too.

RRX: Also that in-space telescope that we recently lost contact with, was said to have possibly spotted a trillion stars, which doesn’t even take into account planets. It makes me wonder where we are in the scheme of things.

Buck: I’m just starting to grasp how vast the is, is. I mean you can’t call it the universe because there’s a lot of universes. And you would assume there’s more Earths with people on them or somebody on them, there has to be. We just haven’t found it yet. But you know UFO’s are in the news all the time. These pilots see stuff that do maneuvers that just don’t make sense in a regular aircraft as we know it.

RRX: It boggles my mind.

Buck: I don’t doubt they’re up there. I hope they’re not malevolent. There are probably whole plains of existence that are nothing like us. But we can’t worry about it.

The current BOC line-up is as follows:

Eric Bloom (Lead Vocals, Stun Guitar, Keyboards/Synthesizers)
Donald Roeser-Buck Dharma (Lead Guitar/Vocals)
Richie Castellano (Keyboards/Rhythm Guitar)
Danny Miranda (Bass/Backing Vocals)
Jules Radino (Drums/Percussion)

For more on Blue Öyster Cult visit www.blueoystercult.com

More from Rob Smittix.