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Good God, Buck Owens Was An Asshole!
If you read his new biography, you'll think so too.
*When Buck Owens and the Buckaroos played the Fillmore, Buck took a rolled-up paper from the crowd, thinking it was a song request. It turned out to be a joint, which an uninterested Buck passed to his band mates.
*After a car accident that necessitated 20 stitches in his head, guitarist Jim Shaw was forced by Buck to perform a show the night he was released from the hospital.
*On the set of Hee Haw Buck made more in a single day than all the band members would have made for all 51 episodes had they gotten their rightful union wages.
*Buck Owens’ iconic backwards overalls were in fact his attempt to protest having to wear them at all; this backfired, and the audience loved the look because it reinforced the character’s comic country bumpkin image.
*When Kris Black told Buck her parents were coming to visit, he fired her from her position as promotional director, and hired her back after her mom and dad returned home, just to ensure that he wouldn’t have to meet her folks.
*Following an interview in which Buck claimed he was lonely, a magazine reporter urged women readers to write to Buck proposing marriage. Buck received 20,000 letters, including one from a married man who claimed he could make Buck “as happy as any woman [could].”
*Buck posed nude for Playgirl in 1977, but the photos never went to print. Buck had purposely stipulated that the photos would need his approval (which he never gave) before getting published.
*In his lifetime, Buck accumulated 450 songwriter credits and recorded 47 top 10 singles.
*In 2005, Buck unveiled 10 bronze statues of country “legends” at his Crystal Palace. One of the statues was a likeness of Garth Brooks, who proposed to wife Trisha Yearwood at the Palace.
*The night of his death, Buck planned to cancel his nightly performance, but when he learned that fans had traveled from Oregon, he decided to give it a shot. He died in his sleep on March 24, 2006.
*Replacement musicians were hired not only on the basis of their talent, but on their clothing measurements. Replacement bassist Wayne Wilson had to suffer through two months of stuffing his size 10 feet into 8 1/2 boots because Buck was unwilling to buy a new pair.
Buck Owens: The Biography is out now on Chicago Review Press.
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1. Jerry said... on Mar 22, 2011 at 04:15PM
“Jerry:
Looks like Buck was something else.
Bill”
2. Alex said... on Apr 25, 2011 at 01:34AM
“The book was a true wall thrower, attempts at cornpone down home-isms which rang really hollow. But it is pretty clear Owens was a tool.”
3. fiddler said... on Dec 11, 2011 at 02:50PM
“I guess you should never find out about your heroes. Very disappointing. One correction on page 223...it's "Kaw-Liga" not "Elijah."”
4. Anonymous said... on Feb 10, 2012 at 08:50PM
“yea but he wrote and sang 40 years of great music so what about his personal life is yours pure white”
5. Anonymous said... on Feb 19, 2012 at 05:07PM
“for all the negatives that are out there about the man and I have some things that pissed me off as well, he di do a lot of good in the community, he gave everyone in the band jobs somewhere in his empire when he quite touring, he gave donations to many organizations under different names. The asshole part is also true. He spoke bad about a band I was in playing locally and we were really not his kind of music but his comments were pretty bad. Then he could be the complete opposite. He saw my grandmother outside his window with a flat tire, he came out and changed it for her when he could have had one of his minions do it.”
6. Anonymous said... on Jun 12, 2012 at 10:22PM
“Biographies can be written about people, but it doesn't mean that everything that is written is gospel. That's why some of the biographies are UNAUTHORIZED, because the subject of the book didn't authorize for the author to write it. I can write bad things about my husband, but it doesn't mean it's true. So before you start burning the man (Buck) at the stake, take what you read with a grain of salt. I myself will continue to think that Buck was a good man with good music that I really enjoyed.”
7. anonymous said... on Jun 19, 2012 at 07:37PM
“I don't know where the author got her information, but she either had a lot of bad resources or just wanted to fabricate much of the stories for $$$. I am not a country music fan, but I do know that this icon had been blessed with many musical gifts. Let's not always look for the bad in a person, for surely we will find it in all of us.
”
8. Katrina said... on Jun 30, 2012 at 03:40PM
“I don't believe any of that hogwash that was written about Buck Owens. I have admired him since I was a kid and a teen in the 90's and now as an adult I admire him even more. Buck wasn't anything like what you wrote! Buck was a good man!”
9. Carl said... on Jul 8, 2012 at 07:40PM
“You're right Katrina. Buck was a talented entertainer and a good man. Why anyone would write such trash is beyond me.”
10. strawman said... on Sep 30, 2012 at 11:16PM
“I worked as a carpenter on Jack McFadden's home in Modesto. He told me that Buck was a real hound dog and screwed everything in sight. He was especially fond of the 'mile high club' and would try to screw every 'stewardess' on every flight.... Just sayin”
11. Anonymous said... on Oct 29, 2012 at 03:42PM
“Do not believe everything you read in this book. I have known the Owens family for almost 40 years and most of this is a lie...not all, but most of it. Eileen S. never even tried to interview anyone other than Buck at his place of business nor any of the current Buckaroos and when she interviewed with Buck, he did not see her as the author of his biography. So I think it is sour grapes on her part as well as sour grapes of most of the people she interviewed since she only interviewed disgruntled people. I know that huge portions of this are flat out lies.”
12. Sandy said... on Dec 13, 2012 at 12:18AM
“This story is so not true!!!!!!! I met Buck in the 50s and was his friend until the end-He was the sweetest most caring person in the world-I would love to meet this person-Must been someone that wanted Buck and he said no!There were women who would cut his tires because they wanted a date with him-Soooooooooo many stories I could tell you-”
13. Anonymous said... on Apr 7, 2013 at 12:35PM
“The first rule of research writing - always use footnotes. While Sisk utilizes numerous primary sources throughout her tabloid flavored offering, she does not alway cite her sources. This is most evident as she makes speculations about group orgies and even hints at homosexual relationships among band members based on word-of-mouth, third-hand sources that bare no name. True, there is a bibliography, but it fails to connect actual sources with their direct contributions. It is apparent that Sisk has an axe to grind with Buck Owens, focusing only on the negative aspects of his relationships and career. Revisionist historians love to find threads and pull at them, putting their new-age spin on history without taking the time to properly cite references. It is a contradictory piece of pulp!”
14. jack mccall said... on Apr 24, 2013 at 06:02PM
“I first met "buck" when he made an appearance at a small club in Bloomfield, New Mexico. The name of the club was the "Somewhere Club". It was located between Bloomfield and Farmington N.M. I was a fan of "Bucks" for a number of years. My friend Kkn & I were
”