Pop fandom has always been about communion; about the hope that, as you crane your face towards the star on stage, you might meet their gaze and see that you are as precious to them as they are to you. Usually, of course, you’re not. But Earlon “Bucky” Bronco is not your average performer, and his newfound fans might just turn his life around.
Chicago native Bucky wrote and recorded a handful of glorious soul tracks as a schoolboy in 1967. With a band of tight session musicians behind him, a great voice and muscular good looks, his career looked set to soar. But after a James Brown concert in Detroit the following year, Bucky and his college-age brother Sess were assaulted. Sess was wrongfully imprisoned and a distraught Bucky retreated into “a little bit of prizefighting and a lot of drugs”, finding love with the sweetly pragmatic Maybellene.
