Merle Haggard’s music was as rough and true as the man himself.
Always one to speak his mind, and stand up against those who fought to suppress it. No wonder he became such an iconic figure in the heyday of country music.
HAGGARD BEGINNINGS IN A BOXCAR
In 1934, Flossie and James Haggard watched as their barn burnt down.
It was the midst of the Great Depression, so with no other option they trekked from California to Oklahoma with their two children, Lowell and Lillian.
Three years later, Merle was born in a boxcar, which had been converted into a house by his father, in the town of Oildale.
Eight years later, James died, and his death had a profound impact on Haggard. His mother was forced to take up a job to support the family, and without her observation Haggard started to develop a rebellious side. She sent him to a juvenile detention centre for a weekend, but it only made things worse.
For his 12th birthday, Howell was given his brother’s old guitar. He taught himself to play by listening to records at home, and became quite proficient, even as his problems with the law increased.
The following year, he was arrested and sent to a detention centre for shoplifting. Not long after he was released, Haggard and friend Bob Teague ran away to Texas for a year, returning only to be arrested for a robbery they didn’t commit, released, and arrested again for another crime. He and Teague escaped to California, where he held a variety of labourer jobs before making his on-stage debut at the local Fun Centre, for $5 and free beer.
FIGHTIN’ FOR A START
The rest of Haggard’s teen years were spent in and out of high-security facilities. It was during a short period of freedom that he went to see Lefty Frizzell – one of the most influential honky-tonk singers in country music history – perform live.
Backstage, Frizzell heard Haggard singing, and refused to sing himself unless Haggard performed first. So he took the stage, and was met with such enthusiasm that he decided to pursue a career in music.
He worked in the field by day, and performed in nightclubs by night, eventually resulting in an appearance on local television.
In 1956, he married for the first of five times, but was barely in a position to financially support his own life, let alone his wife’s. So, once again, he turned to robbery, and spent the next three years in prison. During this time, his wife gave birth to another man’s child, and Haggard turned to bootleg alcohol to quell his sorrows. Caught drunk, he was thrown in solitary confinement, where he met death row inmate Caryl Chessman.
Chessman’s plight, and the execution of a fellow prisoner who Haggard had planned to escape with (if other inmates had not convinced him to stay, Haggard may very well have found himself in the electric chair that same night), were just the inspiration Haggard needed to turn his life around.
He earned a high school diploma, played in the prison band, and worked in the textile plant, before being released on parole in 1960 a deeply changed man.
LONESOME FUGITIVE
It wasn’t long after release that Haggard was signed to Tally Records. His sound was raw, in stark contrast to the over-produced twang of most country music at the time.
His first song, Skid Row, was a moderate success, and by the following year he had a top-ten hit with (My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers.
The song had been written by Liz Anderson, a relatively unknown woman 10 years older than Haggard. He recalls “If there was anything I didn’t wanna do, it was sit around some danged woman’s house and listen to her cute little songs. But I went anyway. She was a pleasant enough lady, pretty, with a nice smile, but I was all set to be bored to death, even more so when she got out a whole bunch of songs and went over to an old pump organ…There they were. My God, one hit right after another. There must have been four or five number one songs there…”
The first of these #1 hits was I’m a Lonesome Fugitive. Anderson played Haggard the song without prior knowledge of his stretch in prison, but it was clear from the outset how much the piece impacted on him. The audience loved it, not knowing that the honesty in his voice came from a place of fear; fear of a reminder of the criminal past he vowed never to return to.
After the success of his 1966 album, Branded Man, Haggard was established as a critical and commercial success. His producer, Ken Nelson, gave him full creative control, knowing that Haggard’s skill relied fundamentally on his ability to follow his heart, not popular trends.
The result was a slew of #1 hits leading into the 70s, including The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde, Mama Tried, Hungry Eyes, and Sing Me Back Home.
IF YOU DON’T LOVE IT, LEAVE IT
In 1969, Haggard released Okie From Muskogee, as a fierce political statement in support of troops fighting in the Vietnam War.
It came at the perfect time; the Americans who tended to listen to singers like Haggard disapproved of the hippie movement that had spread across the nation, and his song gave their feelings a voice. It went on to become the second biggest hit of his career, topping the country charts and reaching #41 on the pop charts.
The success saw Haggard’s music attract attention from a range of artists across the country. Artists such as Dean Martin, The Grateful Dead, and The Byrds covered his songs live and on their albums. Even Joan Baez, someone who very much fit into the ‘hippie’ movement that Haggard stood so adamantly against, performed Sing Me Back Home and Mama Tried.
1970 saw the release of The Fightin’ Side of Me, a song that received strong opposition from his record label. To those speaking out against the actions of the country at home and abroad, Haggard had a simple message: “If you don’t love it, leave it”.
In hindsight, Haggard told No Depression in 2003: “As a human being, I’ve learned (more). I have more culture now. I was dumb as a rock when I wrote Okie From Muskogee. That’s being honest with you at the moment, and a lot of things that I said (then) I sing with a different intention now.”
Indeed, as Haggard had found himself more and more linked with the extremist right-wing after the release of Okie, he had wanted to change him image by having Irma Jackson, a song about an interracial romance, as his next single. It was the only time that Nelson intervened with Haggard’s vision, and persuaded him to release Fightin’ Side instead.
MOVIN’ ON
Transitioning into the 70s, Haggard has established himself as a patriot, a voice for the silent majority of Americans, and one of the most famous country artists in the world.
In 1972, he performed his first TV special, Let Me Tell You About a Song, and received a full pardon for his crimes from President Ronald Reagan.
He followed this up in 1973 with the recession anthem If We Make it Through December, the first of nine consecutive #1 hits Haggard produced over the next three years.
This success continued into the 80s – with 12 #1 hits between ’81 and ’85 – at which point he suffered a mid-life crisis. “Things that you’ve enjoyed for years don’t seem nearly as important, and you’re at war with yourself as to what’s happening. ‘Why don’t I like that anymore? Why do I like this now?’ And finally, I think you actually go through a biological change, you just, you become another…Your body is getting ready to die and your mind doesn’t agree,” he said in his documentary Learning to Live With Myself.
He started to smoke marijuana (which he’d been so obstinately against when he first saw success) and became addicted to cocaine. Haggard managed to kick his habit, but financial woes and changes in the country music scene saw him disappear from the public eye during the 90s.
Haggard’s last #1 song was Twinkle, Twinkle, Lucky Star in 1988, though he did release nine more albums before 2011.
SUNSET
In 2006, Haggard was honoured as a BMI Icon, having earned 48 BMI Country Awards, nine BMI Pop Awards, a BMI R&B Award, and 16 BMI “Million-Air” awards over his career.
Four years later, he received a lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to American culture from the John F. Kennedy Centre for Performing Arts.
Though Haggard dismissed the change that had revolutionised the country music scene since his fall from prominence, his legacy was clear. He received tribute songs from the likes of The Dixie Chicks, Brooks & Dunn, and Pure Prairie League.
In 2015, he joined Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, and Blake Shelton for a performance of Okie from Muskogee at the 56th Grammy Awards.
In March 2016, Haggard was hospitalised with double pneumonia. He told his son that he would die on his 79th birthday…
and so he did. Merle Haggard died at his home in California on April 6th, 2016.
The reaction to his death proves that though the country music scene is not what it was when Haggard was its king, his influence is as strong as ever. For his fans, a world without him is a strange, strange place..