Buck Owens letter to Joe Nichols, to perform at Fox Theater Saturday

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Joe Nichols’ career blew up in the early 2000’s.

With half a dozen number one hits like “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off” and “Brokenheartsville” he stayed true to making traditional country music like his heroes once made.

Some heroes from here in Bakersfield.

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“My connection with Bakersfield goes back to when I was a little kid listening to Merle Haggard records, trying to mimic his voice at like seven or eight years old, which was probably hilarious. And of course, being a huge Heehaw fan and grown up loving Buck Owens and, you know, all the stories and the music out of Bakersfield, always been in love with the Bakersfield sound,” award winning country artist, Joe Nichols said.

His first show in Bakersfield was at the legendary Buck Owens Crystal Palace and he attended the Legends in Bronze unveiling.

“That was a ridiculously cool night in my life. That’s where I first met Merle Haggard, actually, at that place. And so it was it was super great and it was great getting to know Buck Owens as well. And he was always super kind to me and very gracious, good man,” Nichols said.

When Buck Owens passed, the Nation mourned. To Nichol’s surprise, he received a letter from Buck Owens a day after Buck’s death.

It’s now one of his most prized possessions.

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“I’d play the Crystal Palace there pretty, pretty regularly. He’d come out and he’d tell me about my hair. He’s like, well, you know, you’re doing great, kid, you know? But you’ve got to do something about that hair. If you just cut that hair, your career is going to it’s going to really take off,” Nichols said.

When “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off” released, he had shorter hair in the music video.

And and he wrote me a letter. I still have it in my on my on my wall. He wrote me a letter, a letter handwritten in pencil. It was a talked about. It was congratulating me on wonderful success. And he wrote in there and, you know, not so many words. And it’s about that time you cut that hair. And that’s the key to all of this because you cut the hair. You finally took my advice and now your career is exploding because of that.”

Presented by 18th St. Bar and Grill–he’ll be performing at the Bakersfield Fox theater, May 11. Tickets are still available.

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