Buck Owens – “I hope that they see me as absolutely honest”
BUCK: Nothing. The only live entertainment is here. Let me tell you why I built this place and how it came to be. I walked outside the Blackboard [a former club in Bakersfield] where I worked for about eight years. I’m not a Bible-banger or anything like that, but I am a born-again Christian. I’m a believer. So anyway, I walked outside the Blackboard. I have this thing — I don’t need anybody to introduce me to God. He knows who I am and what I’m doing. And so anyway, for some reason or another it came over me that when you wanted to hear our kind of music, you had to go to the outskirts of town and find the worst little place. So, I just kind of made a statement, more or less…
LAURA: About creating the Crystal Palace?
BUCK: Yes. This is 1958, and I just decided, I just said, “Lord, if you ever decide to let me be somebody or do something, I will build a place where people can come that you’ll be proud of. I’m going to build the nicest dang place in this town.”
LAURA: So you envisioned it years back, consciously seeding the future?
BUCK: Yes! It’s a promise I made to the Lord. And it turned into a place of celebration, and I like it that way.
LAURA: Speaking of good things you’ve made the choice to create, let’s talk about your business empire. In the ’60s you started building the publishing/real estate/radio businesses, which have been quite lucrative for you. I’ve read that people are astounded by these successes, because you don’t expect musicians to be good at so many darn things.
BUCK: Most of them are dumber than hell! (laughs)
LAURA: OK (laughs)…or…in order to be as successful as you’ve been in music, most artists don’t have the drive, stamina and focus to do something in addition to music, which can be quite encompassing in and of itself. So how the heck did you do it?
BUCK: I’ll rattle off a couple things, and you decide. As a kid I was cold a lot, and I was hungry sometimes. Sometimes all we had to eat for supper was cornbread and milk. I never had a toothbrush till I was 11 years old. As a kid I said, “I’m not going to be cold and hungry anymore.” And I haven’t been. I’ve had a lot of good things happen to me and for me, but I think it’s simple: I put myself in a position for good things to happen to me. And, I was given great gifts from God.
LAURA: Sure, but a lot of people are given gifts from God and don’t use them. You obviously had a hand in the equation.
BUCK: I never heard it put that any better than that. That’s right! Because a lot of people don’t make use of their talents. And I think and always thought: Use it or lose it.
LAURA: You once said, “I was always afraid but never afraid enough not to try it.”‘ I love that quote. Is there anything you’ve been afraid to try?
BUCK: I’m not a fearful guy. I can tell you I’ve not had many failures in business — and that’s all luck, just pure luck.
LAURA: So a lot of things came to you? You must be very good at receiving.
BUCK: I think so! (laughs) My whole life has been focused on being myself. And for years now, I’ve done exactly what I wanted to do.
LAURA: So your motto might be, “If it’s not fun, don’t do it?”
BUCK: Exactly! (laughs)
LAURA: I came up with another one.
BUCK: All right, let me hear it.
LAURA: It’s a line from a current song: “It’s better to be hated for who you are than to be loved for who you’re not.”
BUCK: Well, that’s good! Now that would fit right in with me!
LAURA: You tell it like it is pretty much, it seems.
BUCK: Honesty is so important. There’s nothing to take the place of honesty. You know, I’ve been drunk one time in my life.
LAURA: Well, at least you tried it.
BUCK: Well, it wasn’t exactly just that. I got drunk and got married!
LAURA: Ha! That’s why I don’t drink much. It’s hard enough to navigate life without having your judgment altered.
BUCK: I put my name by that, too. I sign up there!