Alvis Edgar Owens, Jr. (August 12, 1929 – March 25, 2006), better known as Buck Owens, was an American singer and guitarist who had 21 number one hits on the Billboardcountry music charts with his band, the Buckaroos. They pioneered what came to be called the Bakersfield sound—a reference to Bakersfield, California, the city Owens called home and from which he drew inspiration for what he preferred to call American music.
Beginning in 1969, Owens co-hosted the TV series Hee Haw with Roy Clark. He left the cast in 1986, convinced that the show's exposure had obscured his musical legacy.
Owens was born on a farm in Sherman, Texas to Alvis Edgar Owens, Sr. and his wife Maicie Azel Ellington. Midway Mall, at 4800 Texoma Parkway, now sits where his farm once was. (U.S. Highway 82 through Sherman was named Buck Owens Freeway in his honor).
"'Buck' was a donkey on the Owens farm," Rich Kienzle wrote in the biography About Buck. "When Alvis, Jr., was three or four years old, he walked into the house and announced that his name was also Buck. That was fine with the family; the boy was Buck from then on." He attended public school for grades 1–3 in Garland, Texas. In 1937, his family moved to Mesa, Arizona, during the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Went on to Bakersfield, California, and broke into country music.
