Live From Austin, TX

Maybe it was an epiphany of sorts. As Buck tells it, “One day I was watching Austin City Limits and Dwight Yoakam was on, then he dedicates the program to ‘Buck Owens.’ So I said, I’m going to see what this kid is like.” It wasn’t long after that he was on stage with Dwight singing his old hits. Buck was bitten by the bug to return to music, after calling it quits almost ten years earlier. This man from Sherman, Texas - probably best-known as the wide-grinning rube on Hee Haw for so many years - started a country music revolution. Or more accurately, a counter-revolution. It was called “The Bakersfield Sound.” He and fellow revolutionary Merle Haggard were cranking out raw, hard-driving honky-tonk music that stood the country-pop coming out of Nashville on its head. When Buck Owens and the Buckaroos would launch into “I’ve got a tiger by the tail, it’s plain to see....!” the packed crowds would be on their feet and headed for the dance floor. Along the way Buck inspired none other than The Beatles to record their first country song, his classic “Act Naturally,” and the master of soul, Ray Charles, to immortalize one of the best-known country songs ever, “Crying Time.” Buck always loved his home state, and once flew to Austin on his private jet to make surprise visit to a club that celebrated a “Buck Owens Birthday” night every year. He was also one of the few artists to ever write a handwritten note thanking us for inviting him on the show. “Many thanks,” he wrote, “it is very representative of what I am all about.” In my mind, Buck Owens will always be a rock star. - Terry Lickona (Producer Austin City Limits)