He was 76. The cause of death was not immediately released.
Born Alvis E. "Buck" Owens in Sherman, Texas, August 12th, 1929, the son of a sharecropper, Owens was determined to work his way out of poverty through a music career, achieving such greatness in country music landing him in the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Buck traveled with his family to the Phoenix, Arizona area in 1937 as they searched for a better life. Eventually, they traveled to California's San Joaquin Valley, doing farm work. At a young age Buck vowed that when he grew up, he would not be poor. He found a way out of his family's poverty through his musical talent.
Bucks reason for following a music career was pretty basic, he said, "I didn't want to dig a ditch, buck hay bales, and do all that hot old dusty, dirty, long-hours work. I didn't want to be cold, and I didn't want to be hungry. Never wanted to do that again."
That talent blossomed after Buck moved to Bakersfield in 1951. Within months he was a member of the hottest honky-tonk band in town, Bill Woods & The Orange Blossom Playboys, who held forth at the legendary Blackboard night club. He began playing a Fender Telecaster guitar, which provided a unique new sound in country music. Soon he was playing for recording sessions at Capitol Records. His first session as a leader came in 1957, but the session produced no hits Shortly thereafter, Buck began his other career, as a broadcaster. He moved to the Tacoma, Washington suburb of Puyallup and bought part-interest in a radio station, where he worked as a DJ and ad salesman as well as playing gigs in the area. He also had a live TV show in Tacoma.
Buck's first Top 10 record, "Under Your Spell Again," was released in 1959. In 1960, he sold his interests in Washington state and returned to Bakersfield, which was his home until he died. From 1962 to 1968 Buck released a series of #1 records that established him as one of the greatest country entertainers of all time.
His biggest hits include "Act Naturally" (#1 '63), "Love's Gonna Live Here," #1 '64), "Together Again," (#1 '64), "I've Got a Tiger By the Tail," (#1 '65), "Waitin' in Your Welfare Line," (#1 '66), "Sam's Place, (#1 '67), "Tall Dark Stranger," (#1 '69), "Streets of Bakersfield," (w/Dwight Yoakam #1 '88). Overall Buck scored 21 Number One hits on the Billboard chart.
Owens later helped introduce country music to mainstream America on the popular T-V show "Hee Haw," which ran from 1969 to 1986. And he was still performing regularly at the Crystal Palace, his personalized, glitzy honky tonk in Bakersfield.
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