Owens was born August 12, 1929 on a farm in
Sherman, Texas, United States, to Alvis Edgar Owens Sr. and Maicie Azel (née Ellington) Owens. In the biography
About Buck., Rich Kienzle writes: "'Buck' was a donkey on the Owens farm." "When Alvis Jr. was three or four years old, he walked into the house and announced that his name also was "Buck." That was fine with the family, and the boy's name became "Buck" from then on." He attended public school for grades 1–3 in
Garland, Texas. Owens's family moved to
Mesa, Arizona, in 1937 during the
Dust Bowl and
Great Depression. While attending school in Arizona, Owens found that while he disliked formal schoolwork, he could often satisfy class requirements by singing or performing in school plays. As a result, he began to take part in such activities whenever he could. When he obtained his first electric steel guitar, he taught himself to play it after his father adapted an old radio into an amplifier. Owens quit school in the ninth grade in order to help work on his father's farm and pursue a music career. In 1945, he co-hosted a radio show called
Buck and Britt. Career peak In early 1963, the
Johnny Russell song "
Act Naturally" was pitched to Owens, who initially didn't like it. His guitarist and longtime collaborator Don Rich, however, enjoyed it and convinced Owens to record it with the Buckaroos. Laid down on February 12, 1963, it was released on March 11 and entered the charts of April 13. By June 15 the single began its first of four non-consecutive weeks at the No. 1 position, Owens's first top hit.
The Beatles recorded a cover of it in 1965 with
Ringo Starr as lead singer. Starr later recorded a duet of it with Owens in 1988. The 1966 album
Carnegie Hall Concert was a smash hit and further cemented Buck Owens as a top country band. It achieved crossover success on to the pop charts, reinforced by
R&B singer
Ray Charles releasing cover versions of two of Owens's songs that became pop hits that year: "
Crying Time" and "
Together Again". In 1967, Owens and the Buckaroos toured Japan, a then-rare occurrence for a country act. The subsequent live album,
Buck Owens and His Buckaroos in Japan, was an early example of a country band recording outside the United States. Owens and the Buckaroos performed at the
White House for President
Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968, which was later released as a live album. Between 1968 and 1969, pedal steel guitar player
Tom Brumley and drummer
Willie Cantu left the band, replaced by
JayDee Maness and Jerry Wiggins. Owens and the Buckaroos had two songs reach No. 1 on the country music charts in 1969, "Tall Dark Stranger" and "Who's Gonna Mow Your Grass". In 1969, they recorded a live album,
Live in London, where they premiered their rock song "A Happening In London Town" and their version of
Chuck Berry's song "
Johnny B. Goode". During this time
Hee Haw, starring Owens and the Buckaroos, was at its height of popularity. The series, originally envisioned as a country music's version of ''
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'', went on to run in various incarnations for 231 episodes over 24 seasons.
Creedence Clearwater Revival mentioned Owens by name in their 1970 single "
Lookin' Out My Back Door". Owens frequented the nightclubs of
Jack Ruby, where he encountered
Lulu Roman—then working as bawdy comic relief at one of Ruby's clubs—and hired Roman to join the cast of
Hee Haw. Also between 1968 and 1970, Owens made guest appearances on top TV variety programs, including
The Dean Martin Show,
The Ed Sullivan Show,
The Jackie Gleason Show and seven times on
The Jimmy Dean Show. In the early 1970s, Owens and the Buckaroos enjoyed a string of hit duets with his protege
Susan Raye, who subsequently became a popular solo artist with Owens as her producer. In 1971, the Buckaroos' bass guitarist
Doyle Holly left the band to pursue a solo career. Holly was known for his booming deep voice on solo ballads. His departure was a setback to the band, as Doyle had received the Bass Player of the Year award from the
Academy of Country Music the year before and served as co-lead vocalist (along with Don Rich) of the Buckaroos. Holly went on to record two solo records in the early 1970s, both were top 20 hits. Owens and Rich were the only members left of the original band, and in the 1970s they struggled to top the country music charts. However, the popularity of
Hee Haw was allowing them to enjoy large crowds at indoor arenas. After three years of not having a number one song Owens and the Buckaroos finally had another No. 1 hit, "
Made in Japan," in 1972. The band had been without pedal steel since late in 1969 when Maness departed. In April he added pedal steel guitarist,
Jerry Brightman, and Owens returned to his grassroots sound of fiddle, steel, and electric guitars, releasing a string of singles including "Arms Full of Empty," "Ain't it Amazing Gracie" and "Ain't Gonna Have Ole Buck (to Kick Around no More)". Owens's original version of "Streets of Bakersfield" was released in 1972.
Death of Don Rich On July 17, 1974, Owens's best friend, the Buckaroos' guitarist
Don Rich, was killed when he lost control of his motorcycle and struck a guard rail on
Highway 1 in
Morro Bay, where he was to have joined his family for vacation. Owens was devastated. "He was like a brother, a son and a best friend," he said in the late 1990s. "Something I never said before, maybe I couldn't, but I think my music life ended when he died. Oh yeah, I carried on and I existed, but the real joy and love, the real lightning and thunder is gone forever." Owens would never fully recover from the tragedy, either emotionally or professionally.
Business ventures Before the 1960s ended, Owens and manager Jack McFadden began to concentrate on Owens's financial future. He bought several radio stations, including
KNIX (AM) (later KCWW) and
KNIX-FM in
Phoenix and
KUZZ-FM in Bakersfield. During the 1990s, Owens was co-owner of the country music network
Real Country, of which, the Owens-owned station KCWW was the flagship station. In 1998, Owens sold KCWW to
ABC/
Disney for $8,850,000 and sold KNIX-FM to
Clear Channel Communications, but he maintained ownership of KUZZ until his death. Owens established Buck Owens Enterprises and produced records by several artists. He recorded for
Warner Bros. Records, but by the 1980s he was no longer recording, instead devoting his time to overseeing his business empire from Bakersfield. He left
Hee Haw in 1986.
Later career Country artist
Dwight Yoakam was largely influenced by Owens's style of music and teamed up with him for a duet of "
Streets of Bakersfield" in 1988. It was Owens's first No. 1 single in 16 years. In an interview, Yoakam described the first time he met with Owens: We sat there that day in 1987 and talked about my music to that point, my short career, and what I'd been doing and how he'd been watching me. I was really flattered and thrilled to know that this legend had been keeping an eye on me. Owens also collaborated with
Cledus T. Judd on the song "The First Redneck On The Internet" in 1998, in which Owens also appears in the music video. The 1990s saw a flood of reissues of Owens's Capitol recordings on compact disc, the publishing rights to which Owens had bought back in 1974 as part of his final contract with the label. His albums had been out of print for nearly 15 years when he released a retrospective box set in 1990. Encouraged by brisk sales, Owens struck a distribution deal with
Sundazed Music of New York, which specializes in reissuing obscure recordings. The bulk of his Capitol catalog was reissued on CD in 1995, 1997 and in 2005. Sometime in the 1970s, Owens had also purchased the remaining copies of his original LP albums from Capitol's distribution warehouses across the country. Many of those records (still in the shrinkwrap) were stored by Owens for decades. He often gave them away as gifts and sold them at his nightclub for a premium price some 35 years later. In August 1999, Owens brought back together the remaining members of his original Buckaroo Band to help him celebrate his 70th birthday at his
Crystal Palace in Bakersfield. Owens,
Doyle Holly,
Tom Brumley, and Wille Cantu performed old hits from their heyday including "
I've Got a Tiger By the Tail" and "Act Naturally". Long before Owens became the famous co-host of
Hee Haw, his band became known for their signature Bakersfield sound, later emulated by artists such as
Merle Haggard,
Dwight Yoakam, and
Brad Paisley. Buck inspired indie country songwriter and friend Terry Fraley, whose band "The Nudie Cowboys" possessed a similar sound. This sound was originally made possible with two trademark silver-sparkle
Fender Telecaster guitars, often played simultaneously by Owens and longtime lead guitarist Don Rich. Fender had made a "Buck Owens signature Telecaster," and after his death paid tribute to him. In 2003, Paisley blended creative styles with this guitar and his own Paisley Telecaster, creating what became known as the Buck-O-Caster. Initially, only two were made; one for Paisley himself and the other presented to Owens during a New Year's celebration that Paisley attended in 2004. Following the death of Rich, Owens's latter trademark became a red, white and blue acoustic guitar, along with a 1974 Pontiac convertible "Nudiemobile," adorned with pistols and silver dollars. A similar car, created by
Nudie Cohn for
Elvis Presley and later won by Owens in a bet, is now enshrined behind the bar at Owens's Crystal Palace Nightclub in Bakersfield. Owens would hand out replicas of his trademark acoustic guitar to friends, acquaintances, and fans. Each would contain a gold plaque with the name of the recipient. Some of these guitars cost $1000 and up. ==Personal life==