Buckingham is a music producer and guitarist whose work has generated at least 24 gold and 17 platinum record albums and earned him four Grammy Awards.
[1][2][3] Working as a young studio guitarist in 1977 he was given his first chance to produce a recording for an artist—it was called "I Love the Nightlife (Disco 'Round)", by Alicia Bridges.
As his career took off, he produced records by Dionne Warwick, Melissa Manchester, Ricky Van Shelton, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, Shania Twain, Sweethearts of the Rodeo, Garth Brooks, Ricky Skaggs and Linda Ronstadt, and is credited as producer on over 450 albums during his career.
[9] At age 15, while attending Brookland Junior High School, he helped form a band called "Ron Moody and the Centaurs".
[1] Buckingham's musicianship sharpened through Hermitage High School and on to the University of Richmond, where he continued playing in this same band while majoring in sociology and psychology.
[1] After Muscle Shoals, he moved to Atlanta, working as a studio guitarist there as well as Los Angeles, Toronto and other cities.
In Atlanta in 1977, while working for music publisher Bill Lowery at Doraville's Studio One, Buckingham got a chance to produce his first song.
[10][11] Buckingham's successful production of this song got him noticed in the music industry, namely by Clive Davis, chairman of Arista Records.
[12][1] With Columbia, Buckingham also signed and produced Mary Chapin Carpenter, who at the time was working as an office clerk.
In this new role, Buckingham discovered and produced Ricky Van Shelton who won the CMA's "Male Vocalist of the Year" in 1987, with number one songs including "Wild-Eyed Dream", "Life Turned Her That Way" and "Somebody Lied".
After Nelson's death, CBS wanted to release the album but decided to turn it over to Steve Buckingham in Nashville for re-vamping rather than its original supervisor, Larry Rogers.
John Beland, Nelson's guitarist on the original work, said, "I'll tell you right from the outset Rick wouldn't have wanted anybody touching those tapes".
[4] Buckingham produced Jim Henson's Muppets who appeared with the Sesame Street cast in the recording "Follow That Bird (The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)" for RCA that won a Grammy in 1986.
This included Kenny Rogers, Merle Haggard, Neil Young, Kris Kristofferson, Alison Krauss and others.
He cited the many changes in the recording industry in recent years and advised the graduates, whatever their chosen profession, to stay on the cutting edge of developing technology.