Perry 'Buddy' Buie | Songwriter, producer, 74
Perry "Buddy" Buie, 74, a songwriter and producer who helped form the Atlanta Rhythm Section and fuel its success with the lyrics he wrote for the band, died Saturday, said Chip Chapman, owner of Chapman Funeral Home in Eufaula, Ala., which is handling arrangements.
Perry "Buddy" Buie, 74, a songwriter and producer who helped form the Atlanta Rhythm Section and fuel its success with the lyrics he wrote for the band, died Saturday, said Chip Chapman, owner of Chapman Funeral Home in Eufaula, Ala., which is handling arrangements.
Singer Rodney Justo, one of the band's original members, remembers how Mr. Buie brought him and other musicians together to form the Atlanta Rhythm Section in the early 1970s.
"He calls me one day, and he says 'I have an idea Rodney, and I'd like you to be a part of it,' " Justo recalled Sunday. "He said 'I want to get all the top musicians in the South, put them together, and build a super group.' "
"Atlanta Rhythm Section was Buddy's dream," Justo added. "He wanted a band that he could produce, manage, write songs for, and to be a vehicle for his songs."
The band had wide influence, and "helped define the Southern Rock genre with other bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd," according to Mr. Buie's biography in the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.
- AP