In addition to teaching, he wrote and edited a number of works, including a widely used textbook on American popular music.

Budds served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War and began teaching at the University of Missouri in 1982.

In 2019, he donated 4 million dollars to establish the Budds Center for American Music Studies in memory of his family, of which he was the only remaining member.

[13] Budds was inducted into the Missouri Music Hall of Fame in 2009; he was the first musicologist to be honored so.

Budds was an honorary member of the music fraternity Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.