Buck Owens and Don Rich spent 16 years making music together, building a partnership that helped define the Bakersfield Sound. Long after Rich’s death, Owens continued to perform with a silver-flecked Telecaster that had belonged to his friend—a physical reminder of the musical bond they had shared.
Owens first met Rich when Rich was a teenager in Washington. A fiddler at the time, Rich later became the guitarist and harmony singer whose sharp Telecaster lines and high vocals became a defining part of Owens’ records. Their musical understanding was quick: Owens said Rich could grasp an idea before he had finished explaining it. Rich played on songs including “Act Naturally,” “Love’s Gonna Live Here” and “Together Again.” Owens later said Rich was as much a part of his sound as he was.
On July 17, 1974, Rich finished work at Owens’ Bakersfield studio and set out by motorcycle to meet his family on a California coast vacation. Near Morro Bay, his motorcycle struck a center divider on Highway 1. Rich, 32, never reached his family.
Owens continued working, with contracts, television commitments and employees to consider. But he later described the time after Rich’s death as a haze and said he believed he had come close to a nervous breakdown. Recording became less frequent, touring dwindled, and by the end of the decade Owens had largely withdrawn from the road.
Other players could perform Rich’s parts, but the instinctive connection between the two musicians was harder to replace. Their timing, harmonies and shared feel had helped distinguish the Bakersfield sound from the smoother Nashville country records of the era. Rich’s death meant Owens had lost not only a bandmate but a collaborator who had helped shape his music.
Owens returned to the top of the charts in 1988 with “Streets of Bakersfield,” recorded with Dwight Yoakam. It became his first No. 1 single in 16 years and brought his music to a younger generation. The success marked a comeback, but it did not restore the partnership. By then, Rich had been gone for more than a decade. Owens continued playing the silver-flecked Telecaster, carrying a remnant of their musical life together onto the stage.
