Buddy
Buddy
Causey
Causey
By Benjamin Nunnally
B
uddy Causey didn’t come back from
the dead, but he wasn’t that far off.
A stroke in 2007 left the singer with
no voice. He’d performed for years with his
band, Buddy Causey and the Handsome
White Boys, signed contracts with record
labels and taken his songs on tour. The
stroke ended all that, costing him almost
everything, from his marriage and singing
career to his eyesight and mobility. For
Causey, though, the stroke represented a
second chance.
“It was the best thing that ever happened to
me,” said Causey.
Causey’s vocal cords had developed
14
dystonia, a nerve condition that makes
the cords act irregularly. A mild case is no
problem for speech in general, but it’s havoc
on a singing voice. To even try would cause
pain, and Causey’s doctors told him outright
that he’d never go back to singing. The
situation was completely hopeless. It wasn’t
Causey’s first time at the bottom.
“I started recording at 19, at 20 got married,
at 21 I had a baby, and the same month I had
my daughter I got signed to United Artists
and went on the road for the next three
years,” said Causey, in his gravelly voice. In
the next decade, he’d lose the contract with
United Artists, split from his first wife, find
another manager and try to pull together
May 2016
INSIGHT