How much is Buck Owens worth?
| Net Worth: | $100 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Singer |
| Date of Birth: | August 12, 1929 (aged 76) |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Height: | 1.83 m |
About Buck Owens
Alvis Edgar Owens Jr. (August 12, 1929 – March 25, 2006), known professionally as Buck Owens, was an American musician, singer, songwriter and band leader with an estimated net worth of $100 million. Buck Owens is one of the central figures of Bakersfield country. He recorded with his road band in the ’50s, helping to inspire outlaw artists like Waylon Jennings who would do the same thing in the ’60s and ’70s.
Buck scored a total of 21 No. 1 country songs during his career. In 1965, Buck won the first ACM Award for Top Male Vocalist. “Act Naturally,” Owens’ first big hit, was later covered by The Beatles on Help!
After Buck and his wife Bonnie divorced, she married Merle Haggard. Outside of his music career, Owens served as co-host of TV’s Hee Haw for many years.
Buck Owens was born in Sherman, Texas, in August 12, 1929. He came from a family of sharecropper farmers but they moved to Arizona to escape Dust Bowl conditions in the mid-1930s. It was in Arizona that Owens started to play country music seriously. He began taking the stage at local clubs and, from an early age, Owens learned how to perform in a variety of musical styles. These including rock ‘n’ roll, R&B, and Western swing.
After meeting singer Bonnie Campbell in 1947, Owens married her and the couple moved to Bakersfield, California, in ’51. In his new home he performed at the soon-to-be-legendary Blackboard, the venue would become known as the epicenter for emerging Bakersfield acts including Merle Haggard and Wynn Stewart.
Buck worked as a guitar player for live gigs, and as a session player for Capitol Records in Los Angeles. Later, he signed with the label as a solo act in 1957.
In 1963, Owens earned his first number-on country hit with “Act Naturally.” Part of the success was perhaps owing to Buck’s phenomenal backing band, the Buckaroos. It also featured guitarist and fiddler Don Rich who would become one of Buck’s closest collaborators and friends.
In the ’60s, Owens wasn’t content with being just a musician he also wanted to be an entrepreneur. He formed a management agency, a music publishing company, and the Bakersfield radio station KUZZ-FM. For his efforts and the fruits which was an expanding business empire, Owens was given the nickname “The Baron of Bakersfield.” He was called by some “The Robber Baron Of Bakersfield.”
In 1969, Owens joined the variety show Hee Haw, where he served as host alongside fellow country singer Roy Clark. He had a long tenure on the popular program, only leaving it in 1986.
As his stardom waned in the late-60s and ’70s, Owens had become performing more novelty songs like “(It’s a) Monster’s Holiday” and folk-rock covers including “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” However perhaps slowing his recording career was the devastating death of Owen’s key guitarist Don Rich in 1974, from a motorcycle accident.
Filling the void, was Dwight Yoakam. He convinced Owens to join him in a duet of “Streets of Bakersfield” on his 1988 album Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room.
Reinvigorated, Owens followed this with three more albums of new material: Hot Dog! (1988), Act Naturally (1989), and Kickin’ In (1991).
In 1996, Owens was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
The country music legend died in 2006 after a heart attack. At the time of his death, Buck Owens’ net worth was $100 million.
