On the evening of May 29, 1997, Buckley's band arrived by plane with the intent to join him in his Memphis studio to work on the newly written material. That same evening, Buckley went swimming in
Wolf River Harbor,
[92] a
tributary of the
Mississippi River, while wearing boots, all of his clothing, and singing the chorus of the song "
Whole Lotta Love" by
Led Zeppelin.
[93] A roadie of Buckley's band, Keith Foti, remained ashore. After moving the radio and a guitar out of reach of the
wake from a passing
tugboat, Foti looked up to see that Buckley was gone. Despite a determined rescue effort that night, Buckley remained missing. On June 4, his body was spotted by a tourist on a riverboat and was brought ashore.
[93]
The night before his disappearance, Buckley excitedly told his girlfriend
Joan Wasser that he believed he had found the cause of his dramatic moods, namely
bipolar disorder. The autopsy to clarify the cause of Buckley's death confirmed that Buckley had taken no
illegal drugs before his swim, and a drug overdose was ruled out as the cause of death. Soon afterward, a memorial service was held at St. Ann's Church; the same place where Buckley paid tribute to his father five years earlier. His body was cremated and his ashes interred at his estate. He was thirty years old.
In order to clarify the situation of his death, this statement was released from the Buckley estate:
Jeff Buckley's death was not "mysterious," related to drugs, alcohol, or suicide. We have a police report, a medical examiner's report, and an eye witness to prove that it was an accidental drowning, and that Mr. Buckley was in a good frame of mind prior to the accident.
[
