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What the Buck?

Buck Owens died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack on March 25, 2006, only hours after performing at his Crystal Palace restaurant, club and museum in Bakersfield. He had successfully recovered from oral cancer in the early 1990s, but had additional health problems near the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century, including pneumonia and a minor stroke suffered in 2004. These health problems had forced him to curtail his regular weekly performances with the Buckaroos at his Crystal Palace.

The Los Angeles Times interviewed longtime Owens spokesman (and Buckaroos keyboard player) Jim Shaw, who said Owens "had come to the club early and had a chicken-fried steak dinner and bragged that it's his favorite meal." Afterwards, Owens told band members that he wasn't feeling well and was going to skip that night's performance. Shaw said a group of fans introduced themselves while Owens was preparing to drive home; when they told him that they had traveled from Oregon to hear him perform, Owens changed his mind and took the stage, anyway.

Shaw recalled Owens telling the audience, "'If somebody's come all that way, I'm gonna do the show and give it my best shot. I might groan and squeak, but I'll see what I can do.'" Shaw added, "So, he had his favorite meal, played a show and died in his sleep. We thought, that's not too bad."[4]

Okay, so I took that off of Wikipedia. But, I've been out on the ice a few days this Winter, and all that time spent on a bucket, jigging over a hole really releases the synapses of my brain and lets things bubble to the surface.

Something has been bugging me since the Country Music Association Awards. I wasn't sure what it was at the time. It was just a gnawing feeling that I missed something that night...that I missed an opportunity to take my metaphorical Sawz-All to Nashville's knees one more time. The 40th Annual CMA's were as dumbed down and awful as they were any other given year. But what was it? What was bothering me?

Then it hit me. Where was the tribute to Buck Owens? Why wouldn't they carve 5 to 10 minutes out of the bullshit and bad jokes awkwardly delivered by the Country Wham, and have 3 to 5 singers or groups do a quick medley of Buck Owens tunes?

Let me put this into persepctive...Buck had a lot of #1 songs in the 60's all the way up until the time he took over on Hee Haw. You know who had more #1's? THE FUCKING BEATLES!

This can only be described as a calculated slap in the face to the legacy of a man who purposefully avoided Nasvhille until they drove a dump truck full of money up to his house and ruined his career with that Hee Haw bullshit. Aside from that, they never got their claws on him, and he simply overran them and their asinine machinations of America's music. There was not a single person in that building that night who deserved to polish the shit off of Buck's boots, and they should all be ashamed of taking part in a ceremony that so cowardly and hamfistedly ignored his importance to what they all are now.

This is just reason number 3,568 why Nashville can kiss my ass. There's not a single thing going on in that town that's worth a shit.

Posted by Jack Sparks at January 10, 2007 10:13 AM

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