Buck Owens Biography

Fast Facts

• Joined the house band at the Blackboard, the center of the burgeoning country music scene in Bakersfield, Calif․, after moving to the city in 1951
• Picked cotton with his family as a child, and traveled west with them at the age of 8 to seek employment as agricultural workers, along with millions of others from the Cotton Belt
• When he was a teenager, he started playing in Arizona bars for tips
• Quote: "When anybody asks to do something now, the first think I look for is where the fun is․ If it's there, then we can talk about the deal․"
• Quote: "[on Don Rich] "I don't think there have ever been two people in this business closer than Don and I․ It's like we could read each other's minds․""
• Brought a Californian twist to country music in the 1950s and 1960s
• His No․ 1 country singles include "Act Naturally," "I've Got a Tiger by the Tail" and "Streets of Bakersfield․"
• Was one of the musicians who field-tested Fender's solid-body electric guitars
• Won the rights to his own master recordings from Capitol Records
• Just hours before dying in his sleep, he performed on the stage of Buck Owens' Crystal Palace with the Buckaroos