“I was this short guy playing through a full stack, and the speakers were five feet from my head. It’s a miracle I can hear anything”: Buck Dharma on the Blue Öyster Cult story, his Gibson SG heroes, and what he really thinks of that SNL sketch

Buck Dharma of Blue Öyster Cult plays his white Gibson SG onstage. He wears all white. The image is black-and-white.

The names are invariably lifted from album and song titles. There’s Agents of Fortune, Spectres, Secret Treaties and, of course, Dominance and Submission.

They’re just some of the various Blue Öyster Cult tribute acts floating around, and the very mention of their existence elicits a curious chuckle from BÖC’s guitarist, singer and co-founder, Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser. “I’m not aware of these things at all,” he says. “I’d be interested in seeing them. I find the whole thing rather surprising.”