Blue Oyster Cult: Interview with Buck Dharma

“We certainly were never evil. We were a bunch of middle class suburban guys.” Interview with Buck Dharma of Blue Öyster Cult

Blue Öyster Cult is possibly the greatest band name in rock ‘n’ roll history. It’s mysterious and definitely mystical. It suggests what’s next while leaving room for the unexpected.

Since it’s inception in 1972, Blue Öyster Cult has been at the bedrock of hard rock. At the center of the group is the core duo of guitarist and vocalist Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser and vocalist, guitarist, and keyboard / synthesizer player Eric Bloom. Multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Richie Castellano, bassist Danny Miranda, and Jules Radino on drums complete the line up.

Blue Öyster Cult dropped its fifteenth studio album (“The Symbol Remains”) on October 9, 2020 available on the Frontiers Music label and all digital platforms. Even after almost five decades, Blue Öyster Cult still means business. Years of touring, rooting for the underdog and that famous cowbell skit have now cast Blue Öyster Cult as America’s band.

Your correspondent reached out to Buck Dharma via telephone at his home in Maryland to ask a few questions. Buck was kind in spirit and matter of fact with his responses.  An edited transcript of that conversation follows. 

WG: I’m located in Rochester, New York and we’re doing this interview for a website based in England. Do you have any recollections of Rochester, New York? 

Buck Dharma: When we were starting out one of the earliest things we did was record a live version of “Buck’s Boogie” and that was done in a club in Rochester. This was actually before the first Blue Öyster Cult record came out. We used to play a circuit as a bar band before becoming Blue Öyster Cult and that circuit included Rochester.

Speaking of the early days of the group, my co-worker’s son’s guitar instructor (John Weisenthal) is an early former member of the band. I was told he said that when the group first got together everyone was thinking that rock ‘n’ roll could end the war in Vietnam. Do you have any comments about that?

I think we thought so in an ironic or wishful manner. I don’t think we took ourselves seriously. Of course, during the Summer of Love, at that time, it seemed the world was wide open.

Do you have any major plans to tour next year?

The primary thing would be catching up with shows that we couldn’t do this year. All the dates we had have been re-scheduled for 2021 and some of those are getting re-scheduled again. We’ll see what happens.

Considering the longevity of the band, the fact that Blue Öyster Cult is still touring, and your Internet presence with things such as your web series (“The Dharmas”) how does all that relate to your personal work ethic?

I’ll probably never retire, I’m just going to fall over one day I think. As long as I can sing and play, I’ll do it. I think probably the rest of the boys feel that way as well.

Being on the road, how do you maintain your health and how have you protected your hearing?

 I have some hearing loss that just about everyone has when they age. Fortunately, I’m not stone deaf. As far as general health, luckily there’s not really too much defective in my body.

This is a question about the image of Blue Öyster Cult in the 1970’s. Given the direction of the band what kind of backlash did you experience at that time?

I think there was a general reaction to rock ‘n’ roll. It was an easy target for fundamentalist religious people and people like that. I don’t think we ever got any crap from the state except for the time we had lasers. OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) followed us around for about six months and then they made regulations that basically outlawed a laser show. As far as the image of the band, we certainly were never evil. We were a bunch of middle class suburban guys basically. Whatever you thought of the image of Blue Öyster Cult, that was the reality.

What is the most mystical thing the band has ever done?

 I don’t know. We were never really into conjuring or circles or spirits. We were fans of science fiction and fantasy literature certainly and movies.

Name a Blue Öyster Cult song that you think was overlooked and should have been a hit.

 As far as hits, BÖC was never a singles band like a lot of bands are. The songs that did do well individually were sort of unusual for the band. There was one song called “Dancin’ In The Ruins” that we didn’t write but we recorded for the “Club Ninja” record. I thought that was going to be a hit but that was right at the time of the last payola scandal. CBS corporate basically pulled support from all their independent promotion people because they didn’t want to get any guff from the government about payola. In retaliation, the radio stations pulled all the CBS songs right when things were starting to happen.

I love “Dancin’ In The Ruins.” At first I thought you wrote it, you sing it and that song is right up the alley of Blue Öyster Cult. 

That’s sort of why we recorded it because it did seem like it’s very plausibly a Blue Öyster Cult song.

Tell us about the new album. 

It’s a couple of decades in the making. It was around the 2010’s that we realized that we should make another record. The band as it is today has been together for many years and it’s a great band and it just would be a shame not to record it. That’s when we started really getting down to the nuts and bolts of trying to get a record deal and getting enough budget to be able to do it and make it worthwhile. It took us a while and we spent about a year doing it and we finished it during the lockdown. Fortunately with the Internet and home studios it was mainly finished in my studio and Richie Castellano’s studio in Staten Island. We did it over Zoom and Richie recorded Eric Bloom who was stranded in Florida at his winter home. He did all his vocals there and Richie recorded them from Staten Island because he could do now. Luckily five years ago you wouldn’t have been able to do it. It worked out.

What is the inspiration behind “Train True (Lennie’s Song).”  

“Train True (Lennie’s Song)” was written largely by my son, Zeke Roeser. He had the germ of the idea. When he was a college student in New Jersey, they used to ride the train. He was going to Rutgers University. It sort of was bouncing around in his head and when we were doing this record, I asked him if he had anything he wanted to contribute. So he and I finished that song. As far as the music, it’s a pretty straightforward chord structure. I was always a fan of train songs and this one is kind of an ironic train song. It was great to work with Zeke on it.

Here is a guitar question from one of my musician friends. What is the appeal of the headless Steinberger guitar?

Why did you give up on your Gibson SG which was such an iconic look of Blue Öyster Cult in the glorious 1970’s?

I like the neck of the Steinbergers. I started playing them after going to a NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) show in Anaheim. I bought one and then I got a relationship with the company. I still use it because I like how it plays. Also for touring it’s virtually indestructible. It’s not affected by weather or temperature so it’s very good from a touring standpoint. I like the way they sound, it’s sort of wide-open sounding. I still used a lot of traditional guitars on “The Symbol Remains.” I used a Telecaster, a Stratocaster, some Kiesel guitars. Kiesel who used to be Carvin, they make a lot of great guitars and I used some Gibsons as well so I did use a lot of stuff to record with but for touring, the Steinberger is my main axe to this day.

Where is the most unusual place a Blue Öyster Cult song has been played?

 “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” has been used a lot in movies and I’m happy about that. One of the most unusual usages there was in the documentary of Gary Gilmore getting executed by firing squad.

A song played at an execution would be quite an unusual place. 

Right. And of course, I’m grateful for John Carpenter who put it in “Halloween” and that sort of got the ball rolling getting “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” in movies.

I was reading a narrative about the Agents of Fortune book that came out. The narrative mentions your band’s interests in all manner of conspiracy theories, cults, monsters, vampires, etc. An off the cuff question: have you heard any interesting conspiracy theories recently? 

Recently no, although they abound (laughs).

How has Blue Öyster Cult influenced rock ‘n’ roll? 

I guess we have but to the degree you see stuff out in the general culture that’s tremendous satisfaction to me as a guy who’s been doing it for five decades now going into six. I’m just happy about it when I see it because it makes me feel good.

Does Blue Öyster Cult belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? 

Oh sure, of course. Am I holding my breath to get in, no I’m not.

What is the best thing about being Buck Dharma?

I just count my blessings about having been able to make a good living from playing music and writing songs all these years. The neck of that funnel is pretty tight so to be one of the people that have gotten to do that, I never take it for granted.