Buck ‘Em! The Autobiography of Buck Owens

Imagine yourself backstage with the mavericks of country music, and Buck Owens begins spinning yarns about the music business, the way it was when to get a hit you had to make it happen at the “Grand Ole Opry” in Nashville. Buck went the opposite direction, to Bakersfield, California, and found a way to make it happen in a very big way by buckin’ the norm. Late in life, with “Hee Haw” reruns still getting air time, and his twenty-first number one hit playing on the country music charts, Buck Owens started talking to a tape recorder about his life. Randy Poe, an author of five other books, transcribed Buck’s words in his memory. In 2006, Buck died doing exactly what he loved. ll Arranged in a series of vignettes that offer plenty of insider information about show business, Buck talks to us with casual frankness about owning radio stations, recording music, and making a hit out of a television program with a funny name. Perhaps the story that tells us the most about Buck is near the end of the book when he buys the old “Bakersfield” sign and moves it to keep them from demolishing the thing.