‘Buddy’ Seigal, SoCal rocker and music journalist, dies at 48
from the MercuryNews.com
LA MESA, Calif. - Bernard ”Buddy” Seigal, a founder of the country-rock band the Beat Farmers and a fiery music journalist, has died. He was 48.
Seigal died Sunday of a heart attack at his home in the San Diego suburb of La Mesa, said Will Swaim, a colleague at the OC Weekly, for which Seigal had written features and music reviews since the mid-1990s.
Beneath his cantankerous journalistic style, Swaim said, Seigal was a gentleman.
“You were able to politely disagree with him on any topic - until it came to music,” he said. “His music knowledge was phenomenal, and he believed his point of view was the one truth with a capital T.”
The singer and guitarist, who performed under the stage name Buddy Blue, was a founding member of the Beat Farmers, who formed in August 1983 when they were playing at the Spring Valley Inn in eastern San Diego County. He left the band in 1986 and later enjoyed a successful solo career, playing under the marquees of acts including the Buddy Blue Band, the Rockin’ Roulettes, the Jacks and Raney Blue.
Starting in the 1990s, he worked as a music writer, contributing to the Los Angeles Times, the San Jose Mercury News, The Orange County Register, The San Diego Union Tribune and, most notably, the OC Weekly, for which he produced ribald descriptions of singer Tom Jones, politician Bob Dornan and rocker Billy Zoom of the Los Angeles punk band X.
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