BUCK OWENS, 76 Rhinestone cowboy brought country to TV

'Together Again' and 'I've Got a Tiger by the Tail' were among his big hits.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Singer Buck Owens, the flashy rhinestone cowboy who shaped the sound of country music with hits like "Act Naturally" and brought the genre to TV on the long-running "Hee Haw," died Saturday. He was 76.
Owens died at his home, said family spokesman Jim Shaw. The cause of death was not immediately known. Owens had undergone throat cancer surgery in 1993 and was hospitalized with pneumonia in 1997.
His career was one of the most phenomenal in country music, with a string of more than 20 No. 1 records, most released from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s.
'Bakersfield Sound'
They were recorded with a honky-tonk twang that came to be known throughout California as the "Bakersfield Sound," named for the town 100 miles north of Los Angeles that Owens called home.
"I think the reason he was so well known and respected by a younger generation of country musicians was because he was an innovator and rebel," said Shaw, who played keyboards in Owens' band, the Buckaroos. "He did it out of the Nashville establishment. He had a raw edge."
Owens was modest when describing his aspirations.
"I'd like to be remembered as a guy that came along and did his music, did his best and showed up on time, clean and ready to do the job, wrote a few songs and had a hell of a time," he said in 1992.
Known for rhinestones
An indefatigable performer, Owens played a red, white and blue guitar with fireball fervor. He and the Buckaroos wore flashy rhinestone suits in an era when flash was as important to country music as fiddles.
Among his biggest hits were "Together Again" (also recorded by Emmylou Harris), "I've Got a Tiger by the Tail," "Love's Gonna Live Here," "My Heart Skips a Beat" and "Waitin' in Your Welfare Line."
And he was the answer to this music trivia question: What country star had a hit record that was later done by The Beatles?
"Those guys were phenomenal," Owens once said.
Ringo Starr recorded "Act Naturally" twice, singing lead on The Beatles' 1965 version and recording it as a duet with Owens in 1989.
In addition to music, Owens had a highly visible TV career as co-host of "Hee Haw" from 1969-86. With guitarist Roy Clark, he led viewers through a potpourri of country music and hayseed humor.
Owens started recording in the mid-1950s, but gained little success until 1963 with "Act Naturally," his first No. 1 single.
Background
Alvis Edgar Owens Jr. was born in 1929 outside Sherman, Texas, the son of a sharecropper. With opportunities scarce during the Depression, the family moved to Arizona when he was 8.
He dropped out of school at age 13 to haul produce and harvest crops, and by 16 he was playing music in taverns.
Owens' first wife, Bonnie Owens, sometimes performed with him and went on to become a leading backup singer after their divorce in 1955. She had occasional solo hits in the '60s, as well as successful duets with her second husband, Merle Haggard.
One of her two sons with Owens also became a singer, using the name Buddy Alan. He had a Top 10 hit in 1968, "Let the World Keep on a-Turnin'," and recorded a number of duets with his father.
In addition to Buddy, he is survived by two other sons, Michael and John.
After his string of hits, Owens stayed away from the recording scene for a decade, returning in 1988 to record another No. 1 record, "Streets of Bakersfield," with Dwight Yoakam.
He spent much of his time away concentrating on his business interests, which included a Bakersfield TV station and radio stations in Bakersfield and Phoenix.
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