Peter Lawrence Buck was born on December 6,1956 in Oakland, California. His family moved to San Francisco when he was 5, before setting off again and spending two years in Indiana. In 1970 they arrived in Roswell, a small town just outside Atlanta, Georgia. An ardent pop fan, Buck's infatuation started with the likes of the Beatles, Kinks and Monkees and extended to the English glam icons such as sweet and T-Rex. The art rock scene in New York channelled Peter's tastes away from the mainstream and towards the off-beat. His knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, such underground acts as Iggy and the Stooges marked him out as different from most of his high school peers. Like Stipe, he too was busy raiding the local record stores and devouring copies of Village Voice and Creem to find out more about these bands. Inspired by the music he was listening to, Buck bought his first guitar for $13 and was taught by his brother Kenny. When he was 19 Buck left home, quitting high school in 1975, and enrolling in Emory University in Atlanta and began working at a local record store. Buck is known to have continued at the University until 1978 and eventually folllowed his brother to Athens, landing a job at a local record store. Buck first met Stipe when he was a customer at the store. A friendship developed between the two and they began to write songs together. In the autumn of 1979 Buck moved into a shared house on Oconee Street and within months Stipe had also moved in. Kathleen O'Brien introduced Stipe and Buck to Mills and Berry. Peter is married to Stephanie, has two daughters, Zoe and Zelda, and now lives in Seattle Buck's primary job in R.E.M is to play the guitar, but he has also played mandolin, drums, electric octave guitar, bozouki, bass, banjo and has sang backing vocals

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