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Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

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Merle Haggard finally topping the charts

The Columbian
Published:

The first line in Merle Haggard’s 1967 smash “Sing Me Back Home” is: “The warden led a prisoner down the hallway to his doom.”

It’s about Haggard’s time in San Quentin State Prison in the ’50s. One of his friends, Rabbit, tried to escape, a guard died and Rabbit wound up executed. The country star has had to sing that song hundreds of times, and it isn’t easy.

“They’re personal experiences I’ve written about, and sometimes, middle of a song, I’ll actually listen to what I’m saying. And it might cause a lump in my throat and mess up the damn song,” Haggard says by phone from the road. “So I try not to get totally involved with it, because it can cause you to whimper.”

It’s hard to imagine Haggard, 78, choking up over anything. He grew up a tough kid in Bakersfield, Calif., stealing cars and getting into trouble, until he landed in San Quentin on a burglary sentence. (He was in the audience during Johnny Cash’s famous show there.)

Haggard’s songwriting talent, and his Cash-like ability to sing impossibly low without losing the emotion in his voice, made him a prolific country star. His ’60s and ’70s hits included “Sing a Sad Song,” “The Bottle Let Me Down,” “Mama Tried” and “White Line Fever.” He has put out 80-plus albums, including the new “Django and Jimmie,” a duet with old friend Willie Nelson, which recently hit No. 1 on the country charts.

“I’ve recorded with 100 different people, and I’m sure Willie has recorded with 500 people, and I don’t think any one of us has had a No. 1 record with anybody else,” Haggard says.

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