From the Official Buck Owens Website: 03-25-2006 KUZZ Radio owner and Country Music Hall of Fame musician Alvis E. "Buck" Owens died early Saturday morning at his Bakersfield, CA home. His family says Buck died in his sleep and the cause of death is not yet known.
For those of us who grew up loving Buck's music, and watched our parents watching Hee Haw (every weekend at my Grandma Vicki's on a huge console tv set), this is indeed a sad day.
Allmusic.com has a nice biography on Buck by Stephen Thomas Erlewine:
Buck Owens, along with Merle Haggard, was the leader of the Bakersfield sound, an twangy, electricified, rock-influenced interpretation of hardcore honky tonk that emerged in the '60s. Owens was the first bona fide country star to emerge from Bakersfield...
scoring a total of 15 consecutive number one hits in the mid-'60s. In the process, he provided an edgy alternative to the string-laden country-pop that was being produced during the '60s. Later in his career, his musical impact was forgotten by some as he became a television personality through the country comedy show Hee Haw. Nevertheless, several generations of musicians — from Gram Parsons in the late '60s to Dwight Yoakam in the '80s — were influenced by his music, which wound up being one of the blueprints for modern country music.
(read the rest of the biography at allmusic.com
For those of you with Sirius Satellite Radio you can catch a tribute to Buck Owens on WSM Entertainment, Channel 117 on Thursday, March 30th from 5pm - 10pm PT.
Very sad, indeed. I suspect that much like Johnny Cash, it will become cool to like Buck Owens, now that he has passed.