Merle Haggard Dead at 79

next month at a ranch in California President Reagan will be host at the videotaping of a concert called in performance at the White House the concert will feature Merle Haggard a former inmate of San Quentin prison whom mr. Reagan pardoned when he was governor of California a singer who has moved to the very summit of country music here with the remarkable story of Merle Haggard is Bob Brown Bob you were laggard is won almost every major award a country music entertainer can win and 28 of his recordings have been number one on the country music sales charts but of all the accomplishments any artist can claim he has one that's unique my name is Merle Haggard this is my band strangers and I hope that we be able to do something you'll enjoy hearing on your way to the moon someday Merle Haggard has sung as an inmate in San Quentin prison and a guest in the White House by special request even on a mission to the moon he made a custom recording for the Apollo 16 crew on the request of astronaut Charles Duke who like millions of others is a haggard fan Burrell has always seemed to prefer out-of-the-way places especially places where he can fish there's a convenient pond on the estate where he lives with his third wife singer Leona Williams whom he detoured onto a fishing trip the day they were supposed to begin their honeymoon above the pond there's a view of the Cascade Mountains from their hilltop home near Redding California and it's a couple of hundred miles to the nearest big city San Francisco 20 Dallas would be the most desirable place employment wise when we just live but it's centrally located a lot of people choose to live there they're in this business but I can order just about anything you got in the big city through the mail what the tank me send me free somewhere in the middle of hanging me all I've got come into me Merle Haggard is a balladeer whose life and feelings are in his music a troubadour of working people but two people in the music industry he is a giant not only because of the easygoing side of his style and his consistent popularity but because of an intense feeling for history that has led him almost obsessively to track down the sources of American music and pay his respects to them in his performances to Jimmie Rodgers one of the fathers of country music - song stylist Lefty Frizzell and to Bob Wills whose style of western swing music and fiddle breakdowns could make a room full of drunks forget about fighting Oh and so the Merle Haggard who loves the peace and solitude of the country is the same Merle Haggard who keeps the gears turning beneath his steady composure whose intensity about his music once kept him up for 48 hours just to play the fiddle do you think it's possible to be too intense about things I've never had that problem I've always been I know someone's looking to me in the road said no I have had a problem - yeah I have strange how one day a period of your life can seem so bad and then the next morning you wake up you think well what was I so upset about you know what was it that got me down you can't even find it that's the way I am I'm probably as emotionally disturbed as anyone Marley's very insecure person and he shouldn't be but he is seems like he brings a lot of problems on his ownself and why I don't know maybe it's from his childhood days you know his daddy passed away we was nine years old and and he had you know all these problems and his own little mine it's almost like sometimes he's mad at yourself Merle spent years trying to get over his father's death from a brain hemorrhage mad at the elements restless and rebellious despite his mother's patience they got them even mon-sol his father had been a railroad man in Bakersfield California helping inspire a fascination for trains you can hear in Murrells rhythms and lyrics I live out my days like hobo take myself a long needed rest I'm long in a ride on freight train old American again he keeps a collection of precise scale models worth thousands of dollars in his home I sometimes wish I was small enough to get in the cab there and even though he may have been born a few years too late for the Depression era heyday of locomotives he made up for lost time as a child by using his father's railroad pass and also hopping on illegally testing his ability to ride like the hobos from the age of 10 when he slipped onto afraid and was caught later by a railroad detective Burrell spent much of his time travelling hopping trains driving through the west and southwest with friends it was a habit that continued well into his first marriage leaving often unannounced returning the same way his mother never understood what caused it he said and it was something he couldn't explain it all stopped when Merle was locked up in San Quentin prison at the end of a string of petty crimes I woke up one day and found myself in the midst of it life a crime really you know and I decided well I might as well do it right and there was some guys who came through Bakersfield who were professional thieves and I got with a couple of guys like that and he pulled some jobs and I got stopped and during a screwed up mess I got into and I tried to break into a place it wasn't even closed we were all drunk Merle returned to San Quentin in 1971 to give a prison concert and to remember how he felt the day he walked in 19 years old with a wife and one child and another on the way in closer Brian banks unpleasant memories he served what became a two-year nine month sentence on burglary and escape charges this area that we're coming up on here is the world-famous big yard first first day first day of raining verdict you need to shed whimpers lockout himself one of his most vivid memories of San Quentin involved an escape by a friend of his nicknamed rabbit who had offered to bring Merle along on the escape attempt and then advised him against it telling him that with his music he had a future he probably thought about it and thought you know it would really be a shame if I should choose to go with him and because I would wind up with a what they call an ass full of time you know for no reason because I was young and was gonna get out and could clean up my act and you know and go ahead and be a citizen rabbit did escape but he killed a law officer in a shootout and was returned to San Quentin and condemned to die despite what rabbit had done Merle remembered him as a friend who had encouraged him sing me back home is a song Merle wrote because he thinks he knows how rabbit felt the night he waited in his cell before he died in the gas chamber for the song I used here come on take me and right here when you do the song sing me back home do you think that I try not to because I get emotional I can't think about that I'm saying - so I'm trying to think about what it's really about sing me back before I die what did you get out of your experience in San Quentin I learned many things there you know I learned other things about honesty believe it or not in prison you know you you have situations that arise and they're where you must keep you word it becomes a habit they tell me that there's only one thing stronger than country moonshine that's country music will now find out only 13 years after his parole from San Quentin Burrell found himself singing at the White House wondering what rabbit would have fought his career had taken him from long shifts in California honky tonks to a small recording deal that led to his first national hit in 1964 but this was the song that got everybody's attention okie from Muskogee released in 1969 with a message that some people felt played up tensions over the Vietnam War while others felt the message was overdue we like three I think there was a lot of people had second thoughts about Nene I here was a guy who had been in prison and had every reason to put down the system I may have lost some fans of there's really no we're telling but I think the mountain games or more than ones lost we don't it is Alexandra and I'm Ravi album of the year for 1970 male vocalist of the year single of the year 1970 a country music Entertainer of the Year 1970 Merl hit a grand slam for major country music awards for okie from Muskogee and the notoriety had received overshadowed the rest of his music for a while but he doesn't shy away from strong lyrical themes in his songs they are often themes that wonder whether some things are lost forever things people felt inside and things they could touch and work with and count on in their lives practical dreams and everyday wishes I wish afford and shitty which still has ten years like the shoe it's the bestop free life the Hat is now the good times are they over for good and there are other changes that are more difficult to define it came out of what I diagnosis the change of life like somebody said I thought maybe they would make an exception in my part but they're not going to you mentioned the change of life period what was that like for you things that you've enjoyed for years or don't seem nearly as important and you're at war with yourself as to what's happening Wow why don't I like that anymore why do I like this now and and finally as I think you actually go through a biological change you just to become another your body's getting ready to die and and your mind doesn't agree if change is inevitable compromise doesn't necessarily follow you can hear the care and quiet moments when Merle begins to explore a song with other musicians in a recording studio we call it a circle communication we don't have to say anything we can almost read each other's mind learning cards and guitars his intensity also touches the musicians who back him up who help accompany the personal history that is in his lyrics songs that are strung together like the places on a road map to tell his story rhinestone guitar cases honky tonks and army bases trying to keep my name up there learning chords and guitar rhythm singing blues livin livin singing every song gotta let me ride cause I'm you can see on his face that he likes what he's doing and you can sense that the restlessness that once almost told him under helps give his music a kind of buoyancy he will go back home to the mountains to fish on lake shasta when it's over and he has thought about staying there but in the back of his mind the gears are still turning you know you have these turns and corners in life some people are not that lucky to come around those corners so well those are moments that are hard to deal with in everybody's life and you have to be careful and you have to be lucky what do you think has made the difference for you in a long run desire he acknowledges luck but he says desire that made the difference he has a lot of both fascinating thank you Bob

Channel: ABC News

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Id: dxZu_Kj1-iI

Length: 15min 26sec (926 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 06 2016