Roger "Buzz" Osborne (born March 25, 1964),[1] also known as King Buzzo, is an American guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. He is a founding member of the rock band Melvins, as well as Fantômas and Venomous Concept.
Biography
Born in Morton, Washington, Osborne is of English, Italian and Jewish descent.[2] He moved to Montesano, Washington at the age of 12.[3] He first started listening to the music of Aerosmith and Ted Nugent, then became greatly interested in punk rock after a few years.[4] In the early 1980s, Osborne founded the Melvins with Matt Lukin and Mike Dillard who all attended Montesano High School (Wheeler Building) where he graduated in 1982. The Melvins began playing fast hardcore punk after Osborne was introduced to bands such as Black Flag, Flipper, and MDC by a friend. When Dillard left the band in 1984, Dale Crover was recruited, and the band's rehearsals moved to a back room of Crover's parents' house in Aberdeen, Washington. They began to play slower and "heavier" songs.
In 1988, Osborne, with Crover, relocated to San Francisco, California where the band recorded their next album, Ozma, in May 1989. It was released later that year.[5]
Osborne, along with the rest of the Melvins, knew the members of Nirvana. When Dave Grohl's previous band, Scream, disbanded, he approached Osborne for advice. Osborne, in response, introduced Grohl to Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic.
In 1997, Osborne appeared in the promo video for The Offspring's video "All I Want", as a masked pianist. Osborne also appears in the 1994 video for the Beck song "Beercan" which samples the Melvins' song "Hog Leg".
Osborne joined Tool onstage during their tour for Ænima. The Melvins also opened for Tool on the tour. In 1998, Osborne joined a new band known as Fantômas with Faith No More vocalist Mike Patton, a band which he remains involved with to the present day.
In 2014, Osborne announced his first solo acoustic tour along with a 10" EP entitled This Machine Kills Artists and an album to follow in June on Ipecac Recordings.
Osborne makes a cameo appearance in the 2014 video game Sunset Overdrive as himself and performs a song for the soundtrack.[7]
Osborne has remarked, "From a very early age I was interested in underground music. I never appreciated the big stadium shows in the first place—I cut my milk teeth musically on smaller shows. A much more intimate basis. That's the lessons I learned from punk rock that I never forgot. That extends to today." As referred to before, he had a very wide set of musical influences since his childhood, ranging from arena rock to glam rock to punk to power pop and more. Osborne has called himself a lifelong "musical anthropologist" and stated that "since I never grew up around people who gave me any indication of how one was supposed to act, I was equally excited seeing the Kinks as I would be by seeing a punk rock band. Or Cheap Trick." In terms of hip hop music, he has stated that his favorite rap album is Run-D.M.C.'s Raising Hell.[9]
Legacy and praise
[Osborne] has more music in his little finger than we all have in our entire bodies.
From their earlier slow metal style, the Melvins have been attributed with providing the framework for what would become the grunge, sludge metal[11] and drone doom genres.[12] Buzz Osborne's seminal influence on grunge have sometimes led him (and his band) to be dubbed as the "Godfather of Grunge".[13][14][15][16][17]
Emma Ruth Rundle called him "a worthy hero in all regards and a very genuine man."[40]
Reaction to grunge's influence
Although the Melvins had a massive influence on the "Seattle sound", Osborne has constantly expressed negativity toward that scene.[41] He has denounced what he calls the romanticization of it, which he instead describes as a "horrendous nightmare"; Osborne was a childhood friend of Kurt Cobain and remained close to Chris Cornell of Soundgarden until both singers committed suicide following their struggles with drug addiction.[42] At the time, Osborne and his Melvins bandmates also used drugs, including toluene,[43] but by 2014 he had been around twenty years sober.[44] In a 2018 interview, asked if his feelings about that period changed after the deaths of Cobain and Cornell, Osborne replied:
It's totally tainted. Absolutely. I'll never get over that stuff, ever. I think it's hard to people to imagine that [he doesn't agree that] things like that can just happen and you just move on, "it's ok." ... It's a horrible, horrendous nightmare, ending in tragedy and I honestly I wish none of it would have ever happened and [they] would be still alive. That'd be a lot better, a much better ending. ... I'm not much in denial with my own emotions. I pretty much say whatever I think, ... And if people want to look at that with some kind of nostalgia, good old days type of thing, I just don't see how suicide and heroin addiction are romantic in any way. ...[42]
Personal life and beliefs
Osborne performing in 2006
Osborne has been married to graphic designer Mackie Osborne since 1993.[45] They are dog owners, having kept several rescued dogs.[46] The couple decided not to have children.[47] Osborne does not believe rock musicians should make political statements and that people "should look for higher sources than entertainers for their political beliefs".[48]
He is an avid golf fan and player.[49]
In a 2011 interview with the music magazine L.A. Record, Osborne stated when asked about American politics that "I hate conservatives, but I really hate liberals. Here's the thing. I have my own opinions about everything, and it's basically classic liberalism."[9] In 2008, he told the magazine Alarm that he opposes what he sees as both modern socialist and fascist thought, stating that he's "into true liberalism, which means you mind your own goddamn business; you take care of yourself."[11] In a 2014 interview with Tonedeaf, Osborne expressed that American economist Thomas Sowell has been a major influence on his career. "I consider Sowell the greatest philosopher of all time." Osborne explained. "He is a PhD economist and he's written more than 30 books about everything you can imagine, from social commentary to how economics works."[51]
In a 2008 interview with City Newspaper of Rochester, when asked about his collaboration with Jello Biafra on two albums, Osborne stated that "I don't relate at all to his politics. I believe in personal freedom, personal responsibility. And nobody tells you what to do more than the left wing. They're a bunch of fascists."[52]
In terms of issues covering copyright and illegal file-sharing of songs, Osborne's remarked, "The internet downloading—people need to get over it". He's also added, "Is it stealing? Sure, yeah—but it doesn't matter. It's over. Things have changed. We have to move on."[11] In an earlier interview, he argued, "For me musically, I wish I woulda had something like YouTube when I was a kid so I could go, 'Oh, what's this Captain Beefheart?'"[9]
Musical equipment
Osborne primarily uses Gibson Les Paul guitars from the 1960s and 1970s, played through Bosseffect pedals, and an assortment of vintage amplifiers.[53]
^Arnold, Gina (January–February 1992). "Better Dead Than Cool". Option. Kurt Cobain: [The Melvins] started playing punk rock and had a free concert right behind Thriftways supermarket where Buzz worked, and they plugged into the city power supply and played punk rock music for about 50 redneck kids. When I saw them play, it just blew me away. I was instantly a punk rocker. I abandoned all my friends, 'cause they didn't like any of the music. Then I asked Buzz to make me that compilation tape of punk rock songs and got a spike haircut. I got an electric guitar and was really into it, ...
^Crotty, James (October 30, 1992). "Go for the Grunge". Monk Magazine. Seattle, Washington. Archived from the original on October 24, 2004. Retrieved February 23, 2021. Question: Do you have a rock dream team? Grohl: Wow. Well, I guess it would pretty much just be The Melvins. ... To me there's no better drummer. And there's no cooler guitar player. This band seriously changed my understanding of music.
^Monti, François (April 2003). "Subsonics transcending times". Musiquemachine.com. Belgium (published May 11, 2003). Archived from the original on April 28, 2007. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
^Reali, Carlos (September 12, 2012). "Melvins Lite: Interview & Live Footage 9/12/12"(video). Superskum.com. Denver, Colorado (published September 25, 2012). Event occurs at 6:43. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
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