Buck Owens |
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Buck Owens Biography |
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Buck Owens is a true legend in country music. Along with fellow performers Merle Haggard and Wynn Stewart, Buck helped popularize the Bakersfield Sound, or honky-tonk infused with electric instrumentation and rock influences. 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. After a few years of recording rockabilly songs (as "Corky Jones"), Buck signed a contract with Capitol Records in 1957. His first recordings floundered, and it wasn`t until the spring of 1959 when he hit with "Second Fiddle." That song only reached No. 24 on Billboard magazine`s country singles chart, but it was the follow-up, "Under Your Spell Again" (which reached No. 4 in the fall of 1959) that Buck`s future in country music was assured--and was it ever. After several top-five songs that flirted with the No. 1 spot (among them, "Above and Beyond," "Under the Influence of Love" and "Foolin` Around"), he finally hit the top of the charts in June 1963 with "Act Naturally." That song`s four-week stay at No. 1 paled in comparison, though, to his incredible 16-week stay that fall with "Love`s Gonna Live Here." 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. 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. He recorded for Warner Bros. for a time in the mid- to late-1970s, but only one song, 1979`s "Play Together Again, Again" (a duet with Emmylou Harris) was a substantial hit. 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 still performs occasional shows at his Crystal Palace, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996. Buck Owens remains one of country music`s most respected (if not underrated) legends.
Biography Credit: www.imdb.com/name/nm0654325/bio |
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Trivia |
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Trivia and QuotesQuotes We were sharecroppers - we were a little bit of everything. We farmed and tried to make something. But most distinctly, I remember always saying to myself that when I get big, I`m not going to go to bed hungry, I`m not going to wear hand-me-down clothes. We used to get one room and we`d park the vehicle outside, everybody would all take showers and we`d steal towels because we knew we wasn`t gonna have enough towels for all five of us to shower. I am who I am, I am what I am, I do what I do and I ain`t never gonna do it any different. I don`t care who likes it and who don`t. The last 16 years of my daddy`s life, he got to work for me, and that made him his own boss and he like that. If you want me in the Hall of Fame put me in because of some contributions that I have made to country music. Lady Limelight is a jealous lady. She wants all of your attention. You don`t have any time to think of anything else but Lady Limelight, because pretty soon that light will be shinning on somebody else. So you better do it while you can. I`m in an absolute frenzy towards doing as many things as I can that I want to do today. The rest can wait till tomorrow, next week, if I`m around we`ll take a look. I enjoyed the Hee Haw people, but from 1980 on I didn`t enjoy it and thought about leavin`, and thought, hell, it`s an easy job and pays wonderful. I kinda just prostituted myself for their money. I found a sound that people really liked - I found this basic concept and all I did was change the lyrics and the melody a little bit. My songs, if you listen to them, they`re quite a lot alike, like Chuck Berry. You get up about 2-3 o`clock in the morning and get through about 7 or 8 and 12 hours later you start all over. That`s the worst kind of work a person can do. You have to do these two shifts to get one day. My mother told me on several different occasions that she was livin` her dream vicariously through me. She once said that I was getting` to do all the things that she would have wanted to have done. That was where my dream began to take hold, of not havin` to pick cotton and potatoes, and not havin` to be uncomfortable, too hot or too cold. That in itself had driven me to try to find some better way of life. And I said, `Why not? It`s the truth! Why can`t I say I`m a Beatles fan?` I used to get criticized for that. I got to realizing that I wanted to record, I wanted to experiment. And doing those same old songs the same old way - I said, `I think it`s time for me to have some fun.` I`m from the Bob Wills and the Little Richard school of music. Bob Wills did what the hell he thought, Little Richard did what he thought, and those were my big influences. I didn`t say I wasn`t gonna do rockabilly. I just said I ain`t gonna sing no song that ain`t a country song. I won`t be known as anything but a country singer. I never expected to record again. I knew I had done everything I ever wanted to do. I was satisfied. But... all the time I`m watching the country music horizon. And I`m sayin` `Lord, is there anybody gonna come?` I was always very grateful to `em and am grateful to `em now. I went back a couple of years ago and did their 20th anniversary show. But the longer I stayed on Hee Haw, the worse things got for me musically. I`d like just to be remembered as a guy that came along and did his music, 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. The road had the lonely times, but I kept myself busy.Trivia Ex-wife `Bonnie Owens` died shortly after Buck of complications from Alzheimer`s disease. They remained friends after their divorce. Mentioned in the Creedence Clearwater Revival hit "Lookin` Out My Back Door." Father of Buddy Alan. Over a 25-year span, had 21 No. 1 hits on Billboard magazine`s country singles chart. The biggest of those, 1963`s "Love`s Gonna Live Here," spent 16 weeks at No. 1 and was the last to stay atop the charts as long. That song`s reign was interrupted once -- in October when Ernest Ashworth`s "Talk Back Tremblin` Lips" took over for one week. Members of the Buckaroos: Don Rich (guitar), Doyle Holly (bass), Tom Brumley (steel guitar) and Willie Cantu (drums). The Buckaroos also had several of their own albums. Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996. Dwight Yoakam gave his induction speech. Got his nickname "Buck" at age three from a favorite horse. Buck had recorded his own version of "Streets of Bakersfield" in 1972. That album cut became a major No. 1 hit as a duet with Dwight Yoakam in the summer of 1988. Opened the Crystal Palace restuarant and perfomance hall in his adopted hometown of Bakersfield, California. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996. Buck has three sons named Buddy, Michael and Johnny. Born at 5:00am-CDT He had throat cancer in 1993, and lost part of his tongue. His band was called "The Buckaroos". Born in Sherman, Texas, USA Married 4 times. | ||
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