Buck in the mid-'60s.

With the HeeHaw Gang in '69:


March 27, 2006

Buck Owens, 76, Country Musician and a Star of 'Hee Haw,' Is Dead

By JEFF LEEDS
LOS ANGELES, March 25 — Buck Owens, the maverick honky-tonk singer who scored a string of country hits that included "Act Naturally" and "Waitin' in Your Welfare Line" before steering country music to television as a co-host of the series "Hee Haw," died on Saturday at his home in Bakersfield, Calif. He was 76.
Mr. Owens died in his sleep, hours after finishing a gig at his concert hall and restaurant, Buck Owens' Crystal Palace, said Jim Shaw, a family spokesman who was the keyboardist in Mr. Owens's band, the Buckaroos. Mr. Shaw noted that Mr. Owens had suffered a stroke some time ago. The singer also suffered from other ailments and underwent surgery for cancer in 1993.
Mr. Owens pioneered a shift in country music toward the "Bakersfield" sound, a raw, electrified take on traditional country that served as an alternative to the lush, string-heavy sound that dominated Nashville in the 1960's. His influence can be heard in the music of artists from Gram Parsons to Brad Paisley.
After releasing a string of No. 1 singles during the 1960's, Mr. Owens agreed to be a co-host of "Hee Haw," stepping into the persona of a country rube, a role that he would later say destroyed his album sales. During the show's long run, Mr. Owens also devoted himself to his private mini-empire, which included radio stations in Bakersfield and Phoenix, and developed a reputation as a savvy entrepreneur. He re-emerged in the 1980's as a mentor of sorts to neo-traditionalists like Dwight Yoakam.
Alvis E. Owens was born on Aug. 12, 1929, in Sherman, Tex. His father was a sharecropper, and he spent his first years in deep poverty. His family headed toward California as part of the Dust Bowl migration in the late 1930's, but when their trailer broke down, they settled in Arizona near Phoenix. Mr. Owens worked in cotton and maize fields, and dropped out of school around the ninth grade.
He took up the guitar, eventually moved to the San Joaquin Valley in California, and settled in Bakersfield, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles, in 1951. He broke into the local music scene as a member of a honky-tonk band called Bill Woods and the Orange Blossom Playboys, and became a regular session player and sideman in Los Angeles.
His first wife, Bonnie, performed with him on occasion, and continued her musical career after their divorce in the 1950's. She later married his main rival at the top of California's country scene, Merle Haggard, who was one of the band's first bassists and had named it the Buckaroos.
Learning of Mr. Owens's death on Saturday, Mr. Haggard said: "Buck and I are from the same town. We've been in many battles together, always on the same side." He added: "Over the last few years, we'd become closer than we ever realized; he even flew up to Portland to see me when I opened for Dylan last year. We were outlaws together."
In the late 1950's, however, Mr. Owens, worried that his own prospects as a recording artist were uncertain, moved to the Tacoma, Wash., area to work as a radio disc jockey and advertising salesman. But he kept writing songs, and soon recorded "Under Your Spell Again," which rose to the top of the chart and began a long hot streak.
He recorded a parade of classics, including "I've Got a Tiger by the Tail," "Together Again" and "Love's Gonna Live Here." While Mr. Owens and the Buckaroos repeatedly snagged the top position on the country charts, they also managed to cross to the mainstream: the Beatles recorded a version of "Act Naturally," and Ray Charles recorded "Cryin' Time."
Mr. Owens achieved a different sort of mainstream success, however, when he agreed to be co-host of the newly created show "Hee Haw," which would go on to be one of the longest-running series on television. But the singer eventually found that the role that increased his exposure seemed to damage his identity.
"Early on I was doing three songs in an hour, and at that time all my songs were hits," he told The Washington Post in 1989. "It slowly gravitated to the point where I did a hell of a lot of comedy and hardly any music." He added: "Weekly TV, that's death for recording artists. It's too much exposure. There's no longer any mystery."
But Mr. Owens suffered other setbacks as well. Don Rich, the Buckaroos' guitarist and one of his best friends, died in a motorcycle crash. Mr. Owens's recording contract with Capitol Records ended — though he negotiated ownership of his master recordings from the label. He moved to the Warner Brothers label, but this brief stint yielded no major hits.
He retreated from the music scene for roughly a decade, resurfacing when a new generation of country stars was rising. Mr. Yoakam, who had cited Mr. Owens as an influence, coaxed him back to recording and touring: in addition to working with Mr. Yoakam, Mr. Owens even re-recorded "Act Naturally" with Ringo Starr.
Mr. Owens is survived by three sons.

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