Alvis Edgar Owens Jr. (August 12, 1929 – March 25, 2006), professionally known as Buck Owens, was an American musician, singer, songwriter and band leader who had 21 No. 1 hits on the Billboard country music charts with his band the Buckaroos. They pioneered what came to be called the Bakersfield sound, named after Bakersfield, California, the city Owens called home and from which he drew inspiration for what he preferred to call American music.
Growing up in Arizona, Buck picked cotton and learned to play the mandolin, the guitar and horns. He had his first radio program at age 16 and a year later, worked with the Mac's Skillet Lickers, whose lead singer was Bonnie Campbell. Bonnie soon became the first Mrs. Buck Owens; together, they had a son, Buddy. Buck and his young family moved to Bakersfield, California, in the early 1950s, where he worked as a session guitarist and played for a band called the Orange Blossom Playboys. Buck played back-up for Tennessee Ernie Ford, Wanda Jackson, Tommy Collins, Tommy Duncan, and many others. After a few years of recording rockabilly songs (as "Corky Jones"), Buck signed a contract with Capitol Records in 1957.
Eighteen more No. 1 hits, all in the Bakersfield tradition, followed during the next nine years. Many of them featured Buck's chief guitarist, right-hand man and close confidant, Don Rich. Together, Owens and Rich (the leader of Buck's backing band, the
Buckaroos) polished their sound, which graced AM radio throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.
Buckaroos) polished their sound, which graced AM radio throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.
Buck parlayed his popularity on two country music TV shows: the syndicated "Buck Owens Ranch Show" and CBS' (and later syndicated) Hee Haw (1969). Through it all, he was an astute businessman, keeping control of his publishing rights and master tapes, purchasing several radio stations and forming a booking agency among them. He also recorded a live album in 1969 in London. Then, in 1974, Rich was killed in a motorcycle accident and Buck's life faltered.
Buck left Hee Haw in 1986 because he felt the show ruined his credibility as a musician and he was no longer taken seriously in the music industry. He spent the next few years re-building his credibility. Then, in 1988, he found renewed popularity when new country star Dwight Yoakam (whose own Bakersfield Sound was strongly influenced by Owens) asked him to duet on "Streets of Bakersfield," which soared to No. 1.
He had varied business enterprises concentrated in Bakersfield and Arizona...from real estate, television and radio stations to his Bakersfield's jewel, a nightclub called "Buck Owens' Crystal Palace" where he performed regularly. His three trips to the altar all ended in divorce. His health began to wain after being diagnosed with cancer in 1993, pneumonia in 1997 and a stroke in 2004. He continued to perform at his Bakersfield nightclub, restaurant and museum. His last performance completed, Buck Owens would retire to his North Bakersfield ranch and pass away peacefully in his sleep from a heart attack on March 25, 2006.
He was elected to both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of fame in 1996. U.S. Highway 82 which passes through Sherman, Texas, his hometown, was named "Buck Owens Freeway" in his honour. Owens left behind a media empire worth millions of dollars and a priceless musical legacy that spans generations and genres.
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In his own words, Owens wanted "just [to] be remembered as a guy that came along and did his music, and did his best and showed up on time, clean and ready to do the job, wrote a few songs, and had a hell of a time". (Edited from mainly from IMDb & Wikipedia)