Backyard Hero: Michael Hornbuckle of Hornbuckle

by Tim Wenger

I believe that there was once a band called Of Triumph and Tragedy. The reason I believe this, actually, is because my good friend Josh was the drummer in the band, before I ever met him, and I have seen with my own eyes a photo of the band standing together looking tough for a promotional photo shoot. So it turns out that my belief is actually based on fact, unlike many beliefs held in this world, making it less belief and more knowledge. Let me refine my belief- I believe that over the course of a worthwhile lifetime a person will experience both triumphs and tragedies, and that the memories of that person will reflect which of the two extremes he or she let define their life the most.

Of the stories that crossed my desk this month, and in the past few months, actually, the one that seems to follow this mantra is that of Michael Hornbuckle. A born musician, a natural performer, and a person who has experienced life at its highest and its lowest, held together through solid support from a few good people and a willful determination to have his story told with tears of joy rather than tears of pain.

“We come from a musical family,” Hornbuckle says. “Blues, in particular, is part of our pedigree. My grandfather was a country blues picker and my dad was Bobby Hornbuckle. The story goes, when I was about 12, my brother was eighteen I think, my dad had an idea of putting us in a band. My brother was sort of already playing with him.”

His brother Brian took to the strings while Michael got behind the drum kit. “The joke was, ‘Why don’t you guys hurry up and have a kid because we need a keyboard player,” Hornbuckle laughs.

As the brothers started gigging, under their father’s watchful eye, things like academics and athletics, once an important part of Michael’s life, found their way to the backburner, and Michael attended only one week of high school in Highlands Ranch. “That was pretty much it with school,” says Hornbuckle. “We had a family trio. When I was sixteen, it sort of ended.”

The senior Hornbuckle, Bobby, who had made quite a name for himself as a musician throughout his life, got sick and passed away shortly after, cutting the life span of his young son’s band short and, although it wasn’t immediately apparent, sending Michael towards the start of a destructive path. “The way I dealt with (him being sick) was I played guitar,” says Hornbuckle. “I started taking up guitar. When he was sick, I was living in a woodshed at my Grandma’s and trying to be there for him. I’d smoke a joint and sit and listen to my dad’s old recordings and videos and just try to sponge up as much of it as I could.”

Michael spent up to six or seven hours a day in the shed learning his father’s guitar lines, throwing in a touch of his own style. “I was really diligent about it,” he says. He and his brother put together a new band with Michael on guitar, found a new drummer and dropped an album.

They caught the eye of Lewis and Floorwax, the popular morning show crew from 103.5 The Fox, began making appearances at their comedy shows, and eventually started jamming with them, forming what would become known as The Groove Hawgs. Their first gig was opening for The Doobie Brothers at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. “We started getting these high profile gigs because they were these personalities on The Fox and they had a draw,” says Hornbuckle. “We did a big slew of opening spots for all of our heroes. Bad Company, James Brown, Def Leppard. All the people that we grew up listening to.”

These big gigs developed a big name for the group locally, but for Michael, they also started to give him a big head. “We started to do some stuff with it, and we had some opportunities,” he says. “I sort of picked a toxic path. We were young guys, and I got really excessive about things. It wasn’t just a party anymore, it was a non-stop party.” Some time passed, and Michael was unable to pull himself together on his own.

“I wasn’t a musician anymore, I just dabbled in music,” he says. “Big head. I didn’t want to share the spotlight. I got really egotistical and I quickly distanced myself from my brother, and everyone else for that matter.” As time passed, the two brothers continued to gig together on occasion but they also both formed their own groups, The Brian Hornbuckle Band and The Michael Hornbuckle Band. Brian and Michael began gigging less and less with each other as Michael continued his excessive drinking and drug use.

This went on for most of the 2000’s, throughout Michael’s teen years and early twenties. He continued playing music through the partying and even did some touring, as did his brother. “I was sort of this young prodigy at the time,” Hornbuckle says. “I was getting accolades and people were pounding home how big my head was supposed to be. And it grew.”

Brian, on the other hand, was establishing himself as a phenomenal bass player and singer. Michael still did not want to share the spotlight, and as his brother’s reputation grew, Michael tailed further into drug addiction. “I spent a lot of time trying to sober up, some people wasted a lot of energy trying to help me sober up,” he says.

“I couldn’t keep it together on stage,” Hornbuckle says. “I couldn’t remember lyrics. My hands would stiffen up, my arms were hurting. I still had work, but I couldn’t keep a band. Nobody wanted to play with me.”

In January of 2012, as Michael sank further into the dismal depths, he had an opportunity to move to Los Angeles and try to sober up with assistance from his cousin. “Somehow I got willing,” Hornbuckle says. “I finally got honest about some shit. I was beat up, I was tired. I had pushed everybody away and there was nobody left.”

He stayed out in California, working hard to sober up and put his life back together. Music continued to be a part of his life, and it wasn’t long before the opportunity to showcase his talent arose again. “I had a moment of grace or something out there,” Hornbuckle says. His mother was the one person that never left his side, and she helped him not only emotionally but to financially get through this dark time and get back on his feet. “I’m fortunate that I have someone. A lot of people don’t have anybody, and the truth of the matter is that a lot of these journeys when people want to start making some changes, the first steps cost some dough.”

Moving to California and getting away from everything that brought him down also helped Michael on his road to recovery. New places, new faces, and new sights all helped clear his head. “I had to do a bit of a geographical change,” Hornbuckle says. “I couldn’t be in this town with every street I went down, memory lane, you know?” He began feeling comfortable with his life in California, and moved to the San Fernando valley to take up residence in a sober living house.

Then happened a miracle, of sorts. “A fella came through the house and I knew he was into music,” says Hornbuckle.  Alex “Ace” Baker was his name. “He also knew that’s what I was doing. So I finally asked him, I said, ‘What do you do?’ He says ‘I write and I compose music for Universal Pictures.’ He was in charge of their music libraries. In the back of my head I was thinking ‘Full of shit.’ A lot of people out here are full of shit. But he seemed pretty humble, you know, he didn’t want to talk about it too much and he wasn’t boasting.” It turned out that he was also a touring keyboardist in a band called Mother’s Finest. “Some of the first songs I ever learned were Mother’s Finest songs. I was doing these songs with my dad.”

Michael looked up the band on YouTube and sure enough, there he was. “I wanted to entice his ear about these songs I was writing,” he says. “He started getting me in to do some session work, so I started getting my name on these movie scores.”

They also started working on some songs together, and began work on pre-production for an album, of which Baker would eventually produce. The songs were full of the stories of Baker and Hornbuckle’s lives, the triumphs and tragedies of the human experience. Hornbuckle had been sober for two years, and felt he was at a point to make amends with his brother. It also happened that Michael and Baker needed a band for the recording, and Michael couldn’t imagine not having his brother in on it.

“I called (Brian) up and he fell in line,” says Hornbuckle. “My brother has always been real forgiving. He’s right there to be in my corner. He’s my best friend. He’s the best bass player I know, but he’s also my best friend.” Brian drove out to California for the recording sessions and learned the songs.

The album was recorded in two weeks and released about six months later in September of 2013. “So far it’s been getting some great reviews, and it should,” says Hornbuckle. “A lot went into those songs. Not just the process of making them, but what went into writing them. A long time coming. A lot of back years of pain and love, and that type of human journey. We’ve slowly but surely just been sort of reuniting.”

Still sober and excited to get back on the road, Michael Hornbuckle is ready to tell his story.

Michael and Brian are currently gigging under the appropriate moniker Hornbuckle. Catch them on Wednesday, July 23 at Herman’s Hideaway for the Music Munch Management Showcase, and look for upcoming tour dates at hornbucklemusic.com. “It’s once again about the music,” says Michael. “If what I’ve been through can help somebody, I’ve got to be able to talk about it.”

Online: hornbucklemusic.com

Tags: Hermans Hideaway, blues, backyard hero, Kevin Shipley, Michael Hornbuckle, Brian Hornbuckle, Music Munch Management, drug addiction, addiction recovery, true story, Mother's Finest, Alex Baker, Ace Baker

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