From 1974 until 1986, millions of Americans still saw Buck Owens every week on Hee Haw, grinning, picking, and trading jokes. What most viewers could not see was the empty space beside him. In July 1974, Buck Owens lost Don Rich, his bandleader, his harmony partner, and his closest friend. Years later, Buck admitted that something in him ended that summer.
The Other Half of the Buck Owens Sound
Don Rich was born Donald Eugene Ulrich on August 15, 1941, in Olympia, Washington. He started out on the fiddle, an instrument his father first put in his hands when he was just three years old. Buck Owens heard him play in the Pacific Northwest, and in December 1960, at 19, Don Rich joined him in Bakersfield.
It turned out to be one of the great partnerships in country music. Don Rich switched to guitar, and his bright, twangy Fender Telecaster, along with the high harmony he sang right on top of Buck’s voice, became the heart of what people now call the Bakersfield Sound.
In 1963, Don Rich played lead guitar on “Act Naturally.” He was also the one who pushed Buck Owens to record it. The song became Buck’s first No. 1, and it was only the beginning. Through the rest of the 1960s, the two of them stacked up hit after hit, and Don Rich became the leader of the Buckaroos.
When Buck Owens signed on to co-host Hee Haw in 1968, the Buckaroos became the show’s house band, with Don Rich as its musical director.
July 17, 1974
On July 17, 1974, Don Rich finished a recording session at Buck’s studio in Bakersfield. He climbed on his motorcycle and headed north toward California’s central coast, where his family was waiting for a fishing trip.
Near Morro Bay, on Highway 1, his motorcycle struck a center divider. He was taken to the hospital in San Luis Obispo and pronounced dead that night. The California Highway Patrol found no skid marks and no obvious mechanical problem. Nobody has ever been able to say exactly what happened. Don Rich was 32 years old.
It was the kind of loss Buck Owens had feared. For years, he had asked his friend to give up riding motorcycles.
Carrying On Without Him
Buck Owens did not walk away. He kept recording, and he kept showing up on Hee Haw, where he stayed as co-host until 1986. To the audience at home, he was still the same smiling Buck.
But the people closest to him saw something different. His son, Buddy Alan, later said that Don’s death devastated his father for years. Buck himself would not talk about Don Rich in interviews for a long time. His creative spark did not really return until his comeback in the late 1980s.
“My Music Life Ended When He Died”
Near the end of the 1990s, in an interview with Salon, Buck Owens finally put it into words. He said Don Rich had been like a brother, a son, and a best friend. Then he said something he had never said before:
“Something I never said before, maybe I couldn’t, but I think my music life ended when he died.”
He said he had carried on and existed after that. But the real joy and love, the real lightning and thunder, was gone forever.
The Harmony You Can Still Hear
Every time an old Buck Owens and the Buckaroos record comes on, that high voice and that ringing Telecaster are still right there. Don Rich only lived to 32, but he is on almost every song that made Buck Owens a legend.
Do you remember watching Buck Owens and Don Rich together on Hee Haw? We would love to hear your memories.