Veteran Knoxville musician, bartender passed in January
The Knoxville music scene lost one of its most beloved vanguards when 3 Mile Smile guitarist and local bartender extraordinaire Jeff Livingston passed away on January 27. A friend of this publication, his presence will be sorely missed.
Livingston was known as much for his joyful disposition and helpful spirit as for playing live music locally for three decades, notably in late-’80s metal act Rough Justice and his current longtime project, 3 Mile Smile, with his wife and longtime partner Becki Grace Livingston. Over the years, he also helped start or helmed the bar at several Knoxville establishments, including Barley’s, Union Jack’s, Half Barrel and Open Chord. In the process, he became a local fixture and a familiar face for many Knoxvillians.
Becki Grace Livingston, his surviving partner, contributed the following tribute to Livingston:
“Jeff was an impeccable partner. We stood side by side as equals in life, giving our all to one another and to our relationship. We used to say, ‘It’s always better when we’re together,’ quoting Jack Johnson’s song. (We generally did speak in movie and lyric quotes.) Because we both experienced a significant amount of death and loss in our individual lives before we met, we each brought to our marriage a sense of urgency to fully live each day and to forfeit only what is unnecessary. This shared mentality helped us to let go of fear and to embrace hope.
People have commented over the years that we went to a lot of shows or we played a lot of shows – this was because of the choices we made to get out of our own way and to do, to truly live instead of merely exist, to make the word a verb instead of an adjective. And so we loved in the same manner. Jeff opened his heart to the vulnerability of life and threw his arms wide to the chance to know real love in a way he had never allowed before. The side I saw of him at home was only deeper and richer than the man the rest of the world saw, but he was real all the time.
Jeff was a phenomenal bandmate. He was our bandleader, the organizer, the brain trust, the arranger, the producer, the manager, the heart. He and I shared songwriting, with him usually writing the music and me usually writing the lyrics. But you could talk to any person who ever played music with him, and one would tell you nobody worked harder than Jeff at pushing the music. He was excellent at networking, learning, absorbing, sharing and figuring out how to get his own music heard. He believed so wholeheartedly and dared to act on his faith that his music was as good and as deserving of being heard as anything else being cranked out of this town. I hope the music he created is listened to and supported and pushed because that’s what he did for others.
Much like Tom Petty, Jeff was the embodiment of cool (from my quite biased perspective). He was the coolest guy pretty much anywhere we went, but he was laid back and approachable and easy to talk with, easy to work with. He just loved music and had to get his fix, listening and supporting if he couldn’t play his own. He also really enjoyed turning people on to good music, whether working at a record store, doing grassroots concert promotions or sharing his favorite music at work. Knowing that he was helping get good music heard made him feel important. I can’t tell you how many people have told me stories about Jeff giving them their first gig in town or pushing them to play when they felt insecure. His encouragement and belief in music was moving and inspiring. Music was Jeff’s greatest passion, and he committed his life to it. We can only better the world by being more like him.”
