No longer performing on other promoters’ package shows, Buck headlined his own from 1966 to 1970, and it was a formidable one at that. Featured were Susan Raye and 1950s country star Freddie Hart, along with Tommy Collins, Sheb Wooley, and Rose and Cal Maddox of the Maddox Brothers & Rose (Buck had recorded two hit duets with Rose in 1961). It was easy and profitable for all concerned. "You have a complete package," explains Buck, "and you don’t have to book anyone else with the show. The other singers got the money from me, so they always got their money."

While OMAC simply booked Collins and Maddox, Buck also plunged head-first into efforts to develop new young talents. Freddie Hart, Susan Raye, Tony Booth, Buddy Alan, and many of the other artists Buck worked with were managed by Performance Management, founded by Buck and Jack McFadden. In March 1969, Buck opened Buck Owens Studios in an old movie theater in downtown Bakersfield. It featured 16-track recording equipment and a then-new Moog synthesizer. The media began referring to Bakersfield as "Buckersfield," a term Buck himself never used.

Buck's stature with Capitol permitted him extraordinary clout. A deal between Capitol and Buck Owens Productions allowed Buck to record himself, Tony Booth, Freddie Hart, Buddy Alan, The Buckaroos, Susan Raye, and others in his Bakersfield studios. Capitol merely packaged and released the recordings. No country singer at that time had a similar deal. Among the other aspiring singers Buck discovered were longhaired twin brothers Jim and John Hager, who were also signed to Capitol.

Few country entertainers played San Francisco’s legendary Fillmore Auditorium, the premier rock concert hall in America in the late ‘60s. Buck played there October 11 and 12, 1968. Many country singers, hostile to the music and youth of the time, would have refused such an engagement. Buck would not. Conversely, his music, along with that of Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard (despite his anti-hippie hit "Okie From Muskogee") were admired by young people and rock musicians. Ironically, in 1969 Buck’s desire to experiment beyond the "freight train" sound grew with numbers like the waltz-tempo "Who’s Gonna Mow Your Grass," which boasted rock-style fuzztone guitar, and "Tall Dark Stranger." Both reached #1.

Rolling Stone, the San Francisco-based rock music publication that had run a story on Merle Haggard a year earlier, ran a lengthy piece on California country music in their June 28, 1969 issue. Written by John Grissim Jr., it profiled everyone from Glen Campbell and Ken Nelson to John Hartford and Judy Lynn. Buck, however, was the main focus. Though the story was plagued by factual errors, Grissim explored Owens' popularity and extensive business holdings in detail, and later expanded the article into a full-length book: Country Music: White Man’s Blues, covering the country scene nationwide.

Eventually, aside from Buddy Alan, Susan Raye, the Haggers, and a few others, Buck abandoned his efforts to develop new talent. Without naming names, he explains that many lacked the all- powerful drive to succeed - the drive of, say, a Buck Owens. Buck explains his views thusly: "Lady Limelight is a jealous lady. She wants all of your attention. You don’t have any time to think of anything else but Lady Limelight, because pretty soon that light will be shinning on somebody else. So you better do it while you can. I wanted it for these people a hell of a lot worse than they wanted it."


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