Buck Owens: The Biography

by Eileen Sisk

Buck Owens was the top-selling country act of the 1960s, with 21 number-one hits and 35 consecutive top-ten hits, a total surpassed only by the Beatles. Inventor of the Bakersfield sound, he was hugely popular not only with country fans, but rock fans too. The Beatles covered his songs, Gram Parsons idolized him, the Grateful Dead loved him. At least five marriages, several TV shows, and a publishing and media empire followed. And a number of current country stars, ranging from Dwight Yoakam to Marty Stuart, owe their sound to him. Yet never before has there been a book about Buck Owens. And the man that emerges from its pages is the polar opposite of the aw-shucks image he cultivated on Hee-Haw . A tight-fisted control freak with an outsized appetite for sex, Owens could be ruthlessly cruel at one moment and as slippery as a snake the next. Buck Owens chronicles his rise from poverty as son of a sharecropper to one of the nation’s best-loved entertainers, worth at least $100 million when he died. It is it counts among its myriad sources five Buckaroos, the producer of Hee Haw , the former president of Capitol Nashville, numerous country singers, relatives, wives, lovers, and employees. This biography fully reveals, for the first time, not only one of country’s biggest stars, but perhaps its biggest son of a bitch.

Genres: Music

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Eileen Sisk is the author of "BUCK OWENS: The Biography," (Chicago Review Press, 2010) and "HONKY-TONKS: Guide to Country Dancin' and Romancin'" (HarperCollinsWest, 1995).

Sisk contributed the Bakersfield/Central Valley, CA entry to the Continuum Encyclopedia Of Popular Music Of The World and has worked at such newpapers as The Tennessean (2000-2008), The Washington Post (1982-1992), and The Las Vegas Review-Journal (1978-1980). A member of the Society of Professional Journalists and Investigative Reporters and Editors, her work has appeared in such publications as the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, American Cowboy, and Nevada magazine.

Honors include being a subject of biographical record in Who's Who in the World, 2007-2010; Who's Who in America, 2006-2010; Who's Who of American Women, 2006-07 and 2008-09; Who's Who in the South and Southwest, 1997-98 and 1995-96; four awards of excellence from the Society of News Design, 1990 and 1992; and four merit of awards for black and white photography from the Pro Show, Long Beach, Calif., 1978.

A native Nevadan, Sisk grew up in Las Vegas, attended high school in Scottsdale, Arizona, and college in California. She also has lived in Maryland and Virginia but calls Tennessee home."

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Boy howdy! There's an old adage that says "Never meet your heroes" (or, to paraphrase Louisa May Alcott - "disappointment . . . feeling as so many of us have felt when we discover that our idols are very ordinary men and women"), but while I enjoy a lot of the Buck Owens & Buckaroos discography he was not really a hero or idol to me. I simply like his group's musical output . . .

And I'm not even a really a big fan of country music -- I like some of the other well-known names (Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn) from the same time period, but that's about it. However, I admire that Buck and his Buckaroos had twenty-one consecutive #1 hit singles between 1963 and 1967. Next to the Beatles and Frank Sinatra, they were one of Capitol Records' biggest acts of the 1960's. Owens' group was truly 'lightning in a bottle' - five talented men pioneering the rocking 'Bakersfield sound' (twangy Fender Telecasters, steel-pedal guitar, and drums) genre with their great songs, such as 'Hello Trouble,' 'Love's Gonna Live Here,' 'My Heart Skips a Beat,' and 'Act Naturally.'

Sisk's Buck Owens: The Biography was a well-written work, but it was unexpectedly darker than even some of the books I've read about Owens' contemporaries Cash and Elvis Presley. If everything is to be believed here - and Sisk appears to have done exhaustive research and interviews - Owens was largely an unlikeable man with questionable habits in his business and love life. I mean, I like reading biographies - call it education through entertainment - but this one had such a negative tone, but I know that's not the author's fault. Good 'ol Buck sounds like he was just one bad dude.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Unless you are already aware of the TRUE story of Buck Owen's life, you will be as shocked as I felt throughout the book. I had always seen Buck as a fun, nice, good guy who seemed to be someone you would spend the day with and never once seen anything negative. Well, hold on to your hat because you are about to find how opposite that description truly is in reality. His moods found extremes and could go from normal to rage in a matter of seconds. His band, road crew, wives, and everyone close to him had no idea what to expect of him. You will find a man unlike the sweet, gentle guy he appeared to be on TV. This story is extremely well written and one you will find very hard to put down.

[Victoria · Rating 2 out of 5]

My resolution for 2017 is to never read another biography again.

I was a fan of Buck Owens and since I didn't know much about him, other than a few songs that I liked and his being on Hee Haw, I thought this would be a good book to read. I then found out what a horrible person he was to his family and band members. He was so greedy that he had everyone sign their lives away in contracts that gave him all control over their money. Not only was he married 6 or 7 times but keep 2-3 girls on the side at all times.

N0w, I'll never be able to listen to or watch him again without all this information that I wish I didn't know.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

The country music version of RAGING BULL.

[R.G. Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm embarrassed to admit that--other than rereading Stephen King's Carrie--this was one of the only books I finished reading this summer. The embarrassment is inherent in the fact itself, but also because Sisk's book is decidedly, as quoted in the Country Music podcast Cocaine and Rhinestones, "a hatchet job." Apparently, Buck Owens had given his approval for the book early on, but for some reason cut off Sisk's access to him somewhere along the way. This seems to result in a case of "if you don't have anything nice to say about a person, put all the bad stuff down in a book. Admittedly, Sisk does chronicle Owens's many contributions to the field of popular music and points to his acute business acumen, but it's all done through a lens of contempt and poison pen journalism. Buck Owens was one of my father's favorites and became one of my musical heroes as well. I feel blessed that I got to see him perform live in 1972 at the West Virginia State Fair. Sisk's book does nothing to lessen my opinion of the man or his music; in fact, it's made me turn time and time again to recordings of his songs which I love today as much as I did when I first heard them on my parents' console stereo when I was a boy.

[M.D. Navalinski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eileen Sisk writes a very interesting review about one of country music's all-time legends. It is well researched, well written and enjoyable, although the portrait of Mr. Owens is far from flattering. Buck was born in poverty with a family that had to scrap for its mere existence and moved many times in order to survive. Buck had a very unflattering personality, and his tales/remembrances more often than not deviated from what others remember them as consistently throughout his career. His band, The Buckaroos, were a talented lot but were often swindled out of the money they rightfully earned over the years they were in his band. But...there are many great tales about each musician and their leader and this is a compelling portrait well worth the time to take in, should you be interested in either Owens himself or the music he made.

[Tom McKenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it, great insight into a country icons life!

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, easy read. I've always loved The Bakersfield Sound Buck Owens engineered, but was truly sad to learn of the shameful way Buck treated others in business.

[Dorothy Webb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've listened to this man for so many years. Now I know his story.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

The definition of a real son of a bitch