From www.yahoo.com Country music innovator Buck Owens,who sold more the 16 million albums and popularized country entertaiment on television as host of "Hee Haw",died of heart failure at his home near Bakersfield,CA on Saturday at age 76.Owens and his Buckaroos performed hits including "I've Got A Tiger By The Tail" and "Act Naturally",which was covered by the Beatles.Several generations of musicians from Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Grateful Dead in the 1960s to Dwight Yoakam in the 1980s were influenced by Owens' gritty "Bakersfield Sound",prominent with guitars and drums.Owens was elected to the Country Music Hall Of Fame in 1996.Alvis Edgar Owens,Jr. was born in Sherman,TX,the son of sharecroppers,and the family moved to Arizona when he was young.Owens moved to Bakersfield in 1951 looking for work in the oil and farm town's popular country music halls.He went on to become one of country's greatest successes,with 15 consecutive No. 1 hits in the mid-1960s.In 1969,Owens was asked to host "Hee Haw",a country themed music and comedy variety show that stayed on the air until 1986.Despite his broad popularity,Owens vowed to stay true to country music.Accused once of abandoning country to record a "rockabilly" song,he said:"I didn't say I wasn't gonna do rockabilly.I just said I ain't gonna sing no song that ain't a country song.I won't be known as anything but a country singer." R.I.P. Buck,you will be missed.
