In 1975 Andy Wickham of Warner Bros. Records, a long time Buck Owens fan, signed him to Warners. "I was very comfortable with Andy. He let me do what I wanted to but it just wasn’t there. I couldn’t do it by myself. I missed Don so much every place I’d go." With Norro Wilson producing, Buck recorded in Nashville for the first time, leaving the control to others and concentrating on generic pop-country music. The fire was gone and his fans knew it. Neither his Warner singles nor albums were up to his old standards proven by their low chart positions.

Today he’s philosophical about his lack of success at Warners. "It wasn’t Norro’s or AndyWickham’s fault, it was my fault. I didn’t want it bad enough to go out and do the job. Because from the day of Don’s death, I went through the paces...things were over at that time for me. It never did pick up."

A decade before, Buck Owens had been the top country singer in the nation. Now, with his record sales dragging, Hee Haw was his major outlet. And people began to forget the dynamic honky-tonk singer Buck Owens had been. They saw him as an over all-clad comic holding a red, white and blue guitar, standing in a fake cornfield singing "Phfft! You Were Gone" with guest after guest. Then in his late forties, his artistic frustration was growing.

On June 21, 1979, Buck married Jennifer Smith, whom he met in 1967 at the Cotillion Ballroom in Wichita, Kansas, where Buck was playing. She was a college student but they dated from then on. Also in 1979, he had his biggest hit with Warners: "Play Together Again Again," a tribute number that became a duet with long-time Buck admirer Emmylou Harris and reached #11 in Billboard.