On March 25, 1966, Buck Owens and his Buckaroos played Carnegie Hall in New York City. Buck later called it the proudest moment of his career and the best show he ever played. On March 25, 2006, exactly forty years later, he died in his sleep at home in Bakersfield, just hours after one last show at his own club.
Here is the story of both nights.
Why Carnegie Hall Scared Him
In 1966, Carnegie Hall was known for classical music and opera, not honky-tonk. A country band from Bakersfield playing that stage meant something. Fans saw it as a win for the respect of country music itself, and Buck was treated like its ambassador.
He didn’t feel like one at first. When the offer came, he admitted:
“It scared me to death.”
He worried Manhattan audiences wouldn’t be interested and that the tickets might not sell. He also figured New Yorkers were picky about what they paid to see.
He had help. WJRZ, a radio station in Hackensack, New Jersey, had switched to an all-country format in September 1965, and it was the first country station serving the New York City area. The station pushed hard for the show, and its deejay, Lee Arnold, introduced Buck that night.
A Yellow Suit on a New York Stage
The 2,700-seat hall sold out. According to opening act Kay Adams, as told to biographer Eileen Sisk, some in the crowd showed up in furs and fancy gowns.
Buck dressed for the occasion too. He wore a bright yellow Western suit made by Hollywood tailor Nathan Turk, and the Buckaroos wore matching blue Turk suits. Photographer Ken Veeder shot the band near Carnegie Hall, and that photo became the album cover.
The band behind him was one of the best in country music: Don Rich on guitar and harmony, Doyle Holly on bass, Tom Brumley on steel guitar and Willie Cantu on drums. Buck called Don Rich his “right arm,” and that night Rich was introduced as “Dangerous Don Rich.”
The Crowd Wouldn’t Let Him Start
The Buckaroos took the stage a little after 10 p.m., following several warm-up acts. They opened with “Act Naturally,” and the cheering went on so long that the band had to keep playing the intro before Buck could sing a word.
Buck later wrote about it:
“From the opening song, we had that crowd in the palms of our hands.”
He told the audience they had to be the best audience the band had ever played for. He also said later that nobody in the band hit a wrong note, missed a beat or flubbed a single word.
The set ran through his hits, including “Love’s Gonna Live Here,” “I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail” and “Together Again,” along with a hillbilly take on “Twist and Shout.” Buck kept his comedy a little tamer than usual for New York. One comic routine with Don Rich and Doyle Holly didn’t make the original record.
The Album That Lasted
Capitol released Carnegie Hall Concert on July 25, 1966. It was Buck’s first live album for the label, and it went to No. 1 on the country albums chart. Critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine later singled out how gifted the Buckaroos sounded, especially Don Rich.
In 2014, the Library of Congress added the album to the National Recording Registry, which preserves recordings considered culturally important to the country.
For Buck, the night was about more than sales. He said he wanted to show the world country music with “more dignity, more integrity—more class.”
Forty Years Later, One Last Show
By March 2006, Buck was 76 and had been ill for some time. On Friday night, March 24, he still took the stage at Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace, the Bakersfield club he opened in 1996.
Longtime fans said the show felt more subdued than usual. One of them, Joe Stormont, said Buck had a look on his face he had never seen before, and he later thought Buck was probably in pain.
Buck tried to leave early. Outside, he ran into fans who told him they had driven all the way from Oregon to see him. He turned around, went back in, and played a few more songs.
He went home to his ranch afterward. A few hours later, in the early morning of March 25, 2006, he died in his sleep. His family said the cause was heart failure.
It was forty years to the day after Carnegie Hall.
This year marks 60 years since that night in New York and 20 years since Buck’s passing. Do you still have the Carnegie Hall Concert album, or remember the first time you heard it?