Alvis Edgar Owens, Jr., better known as Buck, became one of country music's most consistent hit-makers, particularly in the 60s. With a knack for penning catchy songs, an earnest singing voice, affable personality, driving guitar -- equally potent using his acoustic or Telecaster -- Buck Owens knew how to please listeners. His smash tunes, many covered by other artists, included "I've Got a Tiger by the Tail," "Act Naturally," "Cryin' Time," "Together Again" and "Love's Gonna Live Here," to name but a few. His "Bakersfield sound" influenced the next generations, including Dwight Yoakum.

In addition to being a champion of the charts, Owens found fame in television, co-hosting "Hee Haw" from 1969 to 1986. Beginning in the 90s, he suffered from health issues, including oral cancer and a minor stroke. But he kept performing as much as he could. He died of a heart attack in 2006, hours after completing a set at his club, the Crystal Palace, in Bakersfield. He had been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

We interviewed Buck in 1999.

POP CULTURE CLASSICS:
It seems like you still have a lot of fun performing.

BUCK OWENS:
Oh, I have fun. If I didn't, I wouldn't play. The audiences are into it. They come to have a good time and whoop and holler and hear the things they know.

PCC:
There was a period in the 50s, when you were struggling. Were you always confident that the breakthrough would come?

OWENS:
[Laughs] Oh, I don't know. All I knew was, I felt like, from the reaction I would get from the audience, that they enjoyed the music. And I knew that, if I could get a chance on a major label... I recorded I think five or six songs, like a song called "Down on the Corner of Love," on a little label called Pep. And I got three covers on it -- James O' Gwynn, Bobby Bare and Red Sovine. But the guy didn't have one distributor. He sold 900 records and all out of the back of his car. But what do you know when you're 26 years old? 28 years old or whatever? You don't know anything. You just wanted to hear your stuff on the radio.

So I released another record and this time, it got both sides of it covered by artists on major labels. So I knew I was writing okay, but that wasn't what I was looking for. Since they'd made me a singer, I wanted to do that. But I was getting nowhere fast, you know.

But ultimately, it led to me getting on a major label. But stop and think about it now, all the people who were turned down by major labels before they made it, from Johnny Cash to Elvis Presley to Roy Orbison, to Merle Haggard to Hank Williams, Sr. Just almost invariably, every one of them, the big stars of the 50s and 60s, had all gotten turned down by the major labels.

PCC:
The labels don't appreciate originality.

OWENS:
No, they don't. They don't seem to. They want somebody else to take a chance. You could still cover something. Once it's played on the radio, you're free to go make a record of it... So confident? No, I don't even know that I had that thought. I was getting to do something that I loved. And I was making a living at it. Not much of a living [laughs]. But we were eating.

PCC:
A lot of people would think that was a hard life. But it was easier than working in the fields, which you had done earlier.

OWENS:
A hell of a lot easier. You know, I was raised in Arizona. I was born in Texas and I was part of the Grapes of Wrath migration to California... only we didn't get to California. We broke down and we were out picking cotton or whatever. And I would perform, if the owner wouldn't insist that I had to be 21 and the band would take responsibility. And I wouldn't get off the bandstand. If I wasn't on the bandstand and I wasn't in the bathroom, somebody was with me.

But when you got to California, no way. You ain't 21, you ain't coming in here. But I remember the first time I got inside a honky tonk, this was in Arizona, and it was cool in the summertime, and it was warm in the wintertime. I said, "This has got to be the way." [Laughs]

Getting out of those fields, man, picking up the potatoes and the carrots, the tomatoes in Tracy and the peaches in Modesto, that's what you did. But you have to remember, in those days, we always got through about the middle of May and we would be out here, to California, to Edison, to Bakersfield here. And we'd start picking up potatoes. About the middle of September, we'd go back home, but I never did know that I would be moving out here. We'd go back home and we'd start school a couple of weeks later. But in those days, if you needed to help the family make a living, well, what the hell?

It's different these days. My kids, I have a lot of fencing and stuff around the ranch. They thought they had to go out for a couple hours in the summertime and paint over the fence, they thought that was terrible [laughs].

PCC:
You're such an original, when it comes to musical style. Were there particular performers who really inspired you at the beginning?

OWENS:
Let me put it this way, there were a lot of people, that I liked their music, that inspired me. But when I look back at the late 40s and the 50s, my music and my Bakersfield sound, as I call it, a hard-driving, raw sound, that people seem to enjoy, because it's so real, I have to go back to Bob Wills. It was like swing music, like the big band swing music that he played, but he played country & western songs.

And Little Richard. Yeah, that's right -- Bob Wills and Little Richard. The Little Richard stuff just hurried you. When you sang a Little Richard song, you was always in a hurry, because you better be. But, Bob Wills, he played up on top of the beat.

Some of my compadres don't understand it, but you know that I have gotten to work at my profession that I chose. And I got make a living at it, to work all my life in music. And it's been wonderful to make a living at it. Do you know how lucky those people are? Well, I'm one or those people that knows how lucky I was. If you're making a living at what you love to do, man, what is that? That's the most important thing that can happen to you, I think, because think of all the hours you're going to have to spend to make a living.

PCC:
As far as developing your own sound, how important was it find that first Telecaster?

OWENS:
[Laughs] Oh, good Lord! It might have made all the difference, the old Tele and the old Bassman amp. Because I was playing what they called an L-5, a Gibson box guitar, which had a nice sound and all, but nothing like that. And as soon as I got a hold of the Telecaster, I paid 30 bucks for it, that was it.

I'd hocked my guitar, when I got to this town. And I slept in the park. I slept in the car. I did all those things. But I hocked the guitar and the guy gave me 10 bucks for it. He treated me rather rudely. I did get back over there in about three weeks. But he had sold my guitar. I was 20 or 21. So I bought the old Tele. And I still have it. It's on display at the Crystal Palace, among some other things.

But it was one of the most, if not the most, important things, aside from being able to write songs that Elvis sings in movies and Barbra Streisand sings. And The Beatles. And you don't dream of that shit. It's too big of a dream. You dream of other people, smaller people, recording your songs.

Ray Charles did some of my songs. And I got to ask him one time, they had a thing about five years ago for Johnny Cash and the great writer Harlan Howard, my friend, who passed away just recently, I think there were four of us. And they had different artists come to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in L.A. And they had a show and people came. And Ray Charles came and sang, "Cryin' Time," and I got to ask him, "How did it happen that you recorded so many of my songs?" He was surprised and said, "How did it happen? I head 'em, I liked 'em and I sang 'em."

And they, of course, weren't all as big as "Cryin' Time," but he was a very consistent record seller in those days. It was wonderful when country artists recorded my songs, but there's nothing like when you get one of those world-famous artists doing one of your songs. There's a big dollar difference is what I'm trying to say [laughs].

PCC:
When you were having a string of number one hits, one after another, did it seem like it was never going to end? What did it feel like when you were in that groove?

OWENS:
It was an unbelievable thing. I don't think that I can explain it. What I think I was lucky enough to do, I wasn't trying to pick number one songs. I was trying to pick songs that I liked, songs that I felt things in. And I think there were 21 in a row. That's damn near all the 60s. So somebody was looking after me.

I remember I was recording a Chuck Berry song, "Johnny B. Goode." They said, "Buck, that's a rock 'n' roll song." That was about '69. I said, "Well, I want to put it out." Well, it also made number one [laughs]. That was about all they could take, some of the purists, you know.

I remember they sent me pictures of what they called, "The burning of Buck Owens records." One of the big stations in Atlanta, they did a promotion. Just prior to that, I'd done a record called "Who's Gonna Mow Your Grass" and I put a big, ol' heavy fuzztone in it. [Laughs] And oh, my God, you'd have thought the world was coming to an end. And "Johnny B. Goode" was just too much for them.

PCC:
Did you think of yourself as a maverick? Or you just did what you wanted to do?

OWENS:
I never thought of myself as anything except just me. But I have to admit that I love to be right. I'm the poorest damn winner you ever saw [laughs]. I'm a terrible loser, but I'm a worse winner.

After about three or four songs in a row. After "Tiger By The Tail" and those, you run into something that you weren't prepared for. You run into... I don't suppose jealousy would be the right word, but you run into people who are ready for you to not have every one of your songs be number one. I'm talking about in the industry. Hell, I thought everybody was rootin' for me. But they weren't.

PCC:
With all you accomplished, does any one thing stand out as a proud moment?

OWENS:
We got to play so many prestigious venues. We played the White House and Constitution Hall. I remember my manager calling me and saying, "Guess what? They want you to perform at Carnegie Hall." It was in '66. I said "No, no, we're not going to do that." He said, "Let's think about that now. Carnegie Hall really means something to you. It means something to the whole world." And that was one of the most important things I think I did, to do a live album at Carnegie Hall. It was the most important of all the live albums I did.

It became kind of the standard of live albums in the country music world. It was unbelievable what that four-piece band and I did. We had different modulations and different tempos and probably 16, 18 songs. We gave up two or three or four or five, because you've got so much time and that's all you've got... I'm one of those fortunate people that got to do what he wanted to do.

PCC:
A lot of people having that kind of success would head right for Nashville. You've always remained loyal to Bakersfield. What has kept you there?

OWENS:
You know, Nashville is a whole different animal. The way I feel about Nashville -- I'll give you a little story that's typical Nashville. I had one manager for 34 years, the only manager I ever had. And I was the only client he ever had. My manager goes into a record company and talks to the guy running the company, trying to get me signed. The guy says, "Well, what's he look like? Is he tall?" "Oh, yeah, he's six-foot tall." "What's he look like?" "Well, he's got a good build." "Has he got hair?" "Yeah, he's got hair." "Can he write songs?" "Oh, yeah, he's got a whole bunch of songs. He's just looking for a publisher to put them with."

Well, that woke up the guy behind the desk. He said, "What color's his hair? Does he have blue eyes?" Finally he said, "Okay, you got a deal. Bring him over, we'll sign him right now." As the manager gets over to the door to leave, the record company man says, "Hey, I forgot something -- Can he sing?" [Laughs]

Do you remember Fabian? He wasn't exactly like Milli Vanilli, but, you know... He was tall, good-looking. That's what they were looking for in '57, '58. That's when the marketing took over and the music started taking a back seat. It's sad. I listen to music, but my favorite music is country and the old-time rock 'n' roll. Jerry Lee Lewis. I like the '50s and the '60s rock 'n' roll. I like The Beatles. I like The Rolling Stones. I like Waylon Jennings. I like Johnny Cash. Those kind of people.

PCC:
Artists who are real.

OWENS:
Yeah, they're real. They don't bullshit. Turn on the microphone and get out of the way, you know? That's when it was fun. It's too damn perfect today. Too damn perfect. Who thought being perfect would be a problem? [Laughs]

PCC:
It takes the heart out of it, when it's too perfect.

OWENS:
Well, it does. You know what I always tell them? Here you go to all the trouble to make these two or three wonderful pancakes and you go and of a sudden, you put all of this butter and this syrup on. That's what I call what they've done. But they've done it several times and we've gotten through it. Eventually, we go back to the roots. It's happening again. Music seems to be starting to get better.