Following his father’s death of double pneumonia on Thursday (AEDT), Haggard’s 22-year-old son Ben took to Facebook to pay tribute to his father.
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And as the honky tonks along the bright lights of Broadway honor “The Hag”, it gives comfort to friends to know the working man’s music lives on.
“It really shakes the country world a little bit when legends like this pass away, because of the legacy they’ve left behind, and the inspiration they’ve been to many other singer songwriters as well”. As he said himself, with a laugh, “That’s what I’m for; that’s what I do”.
Haggard will be widely remembered as one of country music’s best singer-songwriters, responsible for such classic cuts as “Today I Started Loving You Again”, “The Fightin’ Side of Me” and “Sing Me Back Home”.
Parton said, “We’ve lost one of the greatest writers and singers of all time”.
Haggard in his later years was also outspoken about what he saw as the decline of country music, accusing the Nashville-based industry of churning out shallow, formulaic songs. #RIPMerleHaggard. Merle was gonna join me on “Going Where The Lonely Go” but we had to postpone due to illness.
“I told him it was not the flawless country and western song because he hadn’t said anything at all about momma or trains or trucks or prison or gettin’ drunk”.
“He was my brother, my friend”.
Haggard was born in 1937 near Bakersfield, California.
Okie from Muskogee made him a hero among conservatives, but he softened on the counterculture and released the lighthearted Big Time Annies Square, a tribute to a hippie girl and her crazy world. More recently, he was a backer of prominent Democrats. Married five times and the singer of many love ballads, Haggard became best known for outlaw country songs about run-ins with the law-a subject matter he knew first-hand.
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A fatherless upbringing from the age of nine just north of Bakersfield included near poverty and led to multiple run-ins with the law, a stint at San Quentin State Prison, lifelong personal battles and one of the most celebrated careers in all of music. They had two children named Jenessa and Ben Haggard. I could keep you pretty busy with a hammer and nails, it ain’t a glamorous life but it’ll keep you out of jail” (lyrics from “Home Boy’).
