After a decade as a session guitarist in Los Angeles, Buckley amassed a moderate following in the early 1990s performing at venues in East Village, Manhattan such as Sin-é.

After rebuffing interest from record labels[2] and Herb Cohen—the manager of his father, singer Tim Buckley[3]—he signed with Columbia, recruited a band, and released his only studio album, Grace, in 1994.

Posthumous releases include a collection of four-track demos and studio recordings for My Sweetheart the Drunk, as well as reissues of Grace and the Live at Sin-é EP.

[14] Buckley was brought up around music; his mother was a classically trained pianist and cellist,[15] and his stepfather introduced him to Led Zeppelin, Queen, Jimi Hendrix, the Who, and Pink Floyd at an early age.

[28] Buckley later said the school was "the biggest waste of time",[17] but said in another interview that he had appreciated studying music theory: "I was attracted to really interesting harmonies, stuff that I would hear in Ravel, Ellington, Bartók.

[30] He toured with the dancehall reggae artist Shinehead[31] and played occasional funk and R&B studio sessions, collaborating with the fledgling producer Michael J. Clouse to form X-Factor Productions.

[32] From 1988 to 1989, Buckley played in a band, the Wild Blue Yonder, that included John Humphrey and future Tool member Danny Carey.

[16] Buckley moved back to Los Angeles in September when his father's former manager, Herb Cohen, offered to help him record his first demo of original songs.

Buckley completed Babylon Dungeon Sessions, a four-song cassette that included the songs "Eternal Life", "Last Goodbye", "Strawberry Street" and punk screamer "Radio".

[42] He returned to play "Sefronia – The King's Chain", "Phantasmagoria in Two", and concluded with "Once I Was" performed acoustically with an impromptu a cappella ending, due to a snapped guitar string.

[46] After being offered a development deal as a member of Gods and Monsters at Imago Records, Buckley moved to the Lower East Side, Manhattan, at the end of 1991.

[52] Buckley performed an eclectic selection of covers by artist including Led Zeppelin's ("Night Flight"), Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's ("Ye Jo Halka Halka Suroor Hae"), Bob Dylan's ("Mama, You've Been On My Mind"), Édith Piaf's ("Je ne Connais Pas La Fin"), the Smiths' ("I Know It's Over"), Bad Brains' ("I Against I"),[38][51][52] and Siouxsie Sioux's ("Killing Time").

[11] Over the next few months, Buckley attracted admiring crowds and attention from record label executives,[56] including industry maven Clive Davis dropping by to see him.

[65] After returning, Buckley invited guitarist Michael Tighe to join the band and a collaboration between the two resulted in "So Real", a song recorded with producer/engineer Clif Norrell as a late addition to the album.

[80] Grace won appreciation from a number of revered musicians and artists, including members of Buckley's biggest influence, Led Zeppelin.

[88][failed verification] In late January, the band did their first tour of Japan, playing concerts and appearing for promotion of the album and newly released Japanese single "Last Goodbye".

[88][failed verification] After the break, the band spent the majority of February on the Hard Luck Tour in Australia and New Zealand, but tensions had risen between the group and drummer Matt Johnson.

[69] Buckley returned to playing live concerts when he went on his "phantom solo tour" of cafés in the northeast U.S. in December 1996, appearing under a series of aliases: the Crackrobats, Possessed by Elves, Father Demo, Smackrobiotic, the Halfspeeds, Crit-Club, Topless America, Martha & the Nicotines, and A Puppet Show Named Julio.

While working with Patti Smith on her 1996 album Gone Again, he met collaborator Tom Verlaine, lead singer of the seminal punk-new wave band Television.

[98] Eric Eidel played the drums through these sessions as a stop-gap after Matt Johnson's departure, before Parker Kindred joined as full-time drummer.

[103] On February 4, 1997, Buckley played a short set at the Knitting Factory's tenth anniversary concert featuring a selection of his new songs: "Jewel Box", "Morning Theft", "Everybody Here Wants You", "The Sky is a Landfill" and "Yard of Blonde Girls".

[105] Later that month, Buckley recorded a spoken word reading of the Edgar Allan Poe poem "Ulalume" for the album Closed on Account of Rabies.

He played there numerous times in order to work through the new material in a live atmosphere, at first with the band, then solo as part of a Monday night residency.

[115][116] Buckley mainly played a blonde 1983 Fender Telecaster, which he had re-fretted and modded with a Seymour Duncan Hot Lead Stack in the bridge and a mirror pick guard.

[136][137] In spring 2009, it was revealed that Ryan Jaffe, best known for scripting the movie The Rocker, had replaced Brian Jun as screenwriter for the upcoming film Mystery White Boy.

[citation needed] At a tribute concert honoring the deceased Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins in 2021, Foo Fighters lead singer David Grohl's daughter Violet performed "Last Goodbye" and "Grace", with Dave Grohl, Alain Johannes, Greg Kurstin, Chris Chaney, and Jason Falkner.

[149] In 2002, Buckley's cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" was used in the "Posse Comitatus" episode of The West Wing, for which the audio team received an Emmy Award.

On March 7, 2008, Buckley's version of "Hallelujah" was number one on the iTunes chart, selling 178,000 downloads for the week, after being performed by Jason Castro on the seventh season of American Idol.

[156] The singer and guitarist Matt Bellamy of Muse said he did not believe his singing would be suitable for rock music until he heard Grace, which made him confident that "a high-pitched, softer voice can work very well".

[158] Other musicians influenced by Buckley include Adele, Bat For Lashes, Lana Del Rey, Anna Calvi, Kiesza, Ben Folds, Jonny Lang, Eddie Vedder, Fran Healy, Chris Cornell, and Nelly Furtado.