Merle Haggard
#
132
Ranking
Hall of Famer
BIRTHDATE
BIRTHPLACE
Oildale
,
CA
,
USA
79
5
'
11
"
DIED
Merle Haggard was an Oildale, California-born country legend and Bakersfield Sound pioneer who rose from a converted boxcar childhood and a San Quentin prison sentence to record 38 number-one hits, write more than 250 original songs, and earn a Country Music Hall of Fame induction and Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as one of the most honest and uncompromising voices in American music history.
Current Tour & Setlist
Merle Haggard continued performing until very close to the end of his life, canceling only a handful of dates in early 2016 due to pneumonia before passing away on April 6, 2016, at age 79. He is no longer touring, but his legacy is actively carried on by his sons Marty Haggard and Noel Haggard, and his music remains a cornerstone of the outlaw country and Bakersfield sound traditions celebrated by artists including Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings.
Early Life
Born Merle Ronald Haggard on April 6, 1937, in Oildale, California, he was the son of Oklahoma Dust Bowl refugees whose barn fire had driven them west, and the family made their home in a converted railroad boxcar near Bakersfield where his father, a railroad worker who played fiddle, instilled an early love of music before dying suddenly when Merle was just nine years old. His father's death turned the boy deeply rebellious. He ran away from home repeatedly, was in and out of reform school throughout his early teens, and drew his first major inspiration from seeing Lefty Frizzell perform at the Rainbow Room in Bakersfield, teaching himself guitar by obsessively mimicking Frizzell's phrasing.
Career Highlights
In January 1958 Haggard was sent to San Quentin State Prison following a bungled burglary and escape attempt from county jail, where he turned 21 behind bars, played in the prison's country band, and witnessed a Johnny Cash concert that he later credited as the turning point that convinced him to commit fully to music upon his release in 1960. After his parole he plugged into the Bakersfield honky-tonk scene alongside Buck Owens, signed with Capitol Records, and broke through with the number-one single "I'm a Lonesome Fugitive" in 1966, launching a run of 38 number-one country hits and nearly 70 albums that made him one of the most covered artists in country music history. His controversial 1969 anthem "Okie from Muskogee" made him President Nixon's favorite country singer and earned him a full pardon from then-California Governor Ronald Reagan in 1972, while the Country Music Hall of Fame inducted him in 1994 and GRAMMY awarded him a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.
Family & Personal Life
Haggard was married five times: to Leona Hobbs (1956 to 1964), with whom he had four children including sons Marty Haggard and Noel Haggard, both of whom became country artists; to Bonnie Owens (1965 to 1978), the former wife of Buck Owens, with whom he recorded duets; to Leona Williams (1978 to 1983); to Debbie Parret (1985 to 1991); and finally to Theresa Ann Lane in 1993, who remained his wife until his death. Haggard passed away on the morning of April 6, 2016, his 79th birthday, at his home in Palo Cedro, California, from complications of pneumonia, and was survived by Theresa and six children.
