Vince Gill receives a Buck Owens guitar from Buck's Bakersfield, Calif. radio station, KUZZ.
November 22, 2006--While on tour in Bakersfield, Calif., Vince Gill recently stopped by the late legend Buck Owens' radio station, KUZZ, where he found a surprise awaiting him. Way back in 1991 during Vince's performance at the Kern County Fair, Buck had presented him with one of his signature red, white and blue acoustic guitars. That guitar currently hangs in Vince's office.
After Buck's death earlier this year, his family and friends were going through his personal items and came across another red, white and blue guitar, one of the rare 1964 Gibson models that Buck gave to very few people. This one carried a gold plaque that read, "To Vince Gill I finally got it right! A fan, Buck Owens March 5, 1992."
Friends said they believe that Buck, after having watched Vince play, regretted giving him a lesser model and was planning to make up for the gaffe by presenting him a finer version.
No one knows why Buck never delivered the better guitar, but KUZZ program director Evan Bridwell made it right by presenting it to the stunned Vince. Afterward Vince commented to a KERO-TV reporter, "I honestly will treasure it. I still have the notes that I would get from Buck from time to time when I’d make a new record he’d like. He would say ‘I love this new record, and I’m singing it in my shows down here at the Crystal Palace.’ I feel like he genuinely liked some of the stuff I did, and that meant the world to me."
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