Merle Haggard
Merle Haggard
Merle Ronald Haggardwas an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, fiddler, and instrumentalist. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band the Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the twang of Fender Telecaster and the unique mix with the traditional country steel guitar sound, new vocal harmony styles in which the words are minimal, and a rough edge not heard on the more polished Nashville sound recordings of the same era...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCountry Singer
Date of Birth6 April 1937
CityOildale, CA
CountryUnited States of America
I think I'm most proud of my family right now. I'm more into that then I've ever been. It also gives a new area to draw from in creativity with my songs.
It makes my wife mad, you know, she wants me to stay home all the time. But its what I've done all my life and I think when I quit doing it I'll probably go away pretty quick.
There's a rumor that there may be an attempt at organizing a possible script for a series on my life, which, when you look at my police record, you'd have to have more than one hour to tell the story.
Despite of all my Sunday learnin', toward the bad I kept turning.
Guitar playing is very important to me. It's like golf to some other people; it's important to me that I play good.
Back when the country was strong, back before Elvis and before the Vietnam war came along.
I can't really say why everyone loves Bob Wills' music, but I have yet to meet a person who didn't like it.
I think it was Tommy who told me, 'When your song is called 'XYZ' or whatever, every line has got to make sense against your title.' He showed me little methods of proving to yourself whether the line belongs, and ways of finding out whether you were able to get more out of a line if you tried.
Well, I'm kinda like George Carlin. I think that there ought to be a time where everybody should have all the drugs they want and there'd be nobody in charge, sort of like... now!
The guitar's not all that expensive either, when you compare it to gettin' a toothpulled or something.
In 1960, when I came out of prison as an ex-convict, I had more freedom under parolee supervision than there's available... in America right now.
I'm proud to be an Oakie from Muskogee, a place where even squares can have a ball. We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse and white lightning's still the biggest thrill of all.
I probably wouldn't even be here now if it weren't for chiropractic
Staring at the world through the bottom of a glass, all I see is a man who's fading fast.