Buck Owens born 12 August 1929

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.

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.

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.

A public wake was held at the Crystal Palace then some 2,000 family, friends, fans and fellow performers gathered at the Valley Baptist Church in Bakersfield to bid farewell to Owens. He was interred in an elaborate above ground mausoleum at Greenlawn Cemetery, Bakersfield.

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.

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)