Charles “Fuzzy” Owen was a steel guitar player and vocalist in a Bakersfield country band before he met Merle Haggard and recognized the singer’s potential for soaring greatness. After that, everything changed. Owen put away his guitar to become Haggard’s recording engineer, record producer, booking agent, promoter, road manager, and for more than five decades, his friend.
One of the architects of the Bakersfield Sound, Owen became one of the last pillars of the generation that changed the face of country music in America. He died Monday evening at his home in Bakersfield. He was 91.
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