He had been suffering from double-pneumonia and died Wednesday, his 79th birthday.
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Willie Nelson released a statement saying of Haggard “He was my brother, my friend”.
Thousands of festivalgoers packed in tightly near the Palomino stage to catch a glimpse, or settled in on a bale of hay under the stars further back just to hear him sing “Workin’ Man Blues”, “Okie from Muskogee” and “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink”. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts presented him with a lifetime achievement award for his “outstanding contribution to American culture”, and, in the five years between that award and his death, Merle Haggard managed to release two more albums. The show is scheduled to go on, with Jamey Johnson joining Nelson. Later, he told The Boot he wrote it to support soldiers, “When I was in prison, I knew what it was like to have freedom taken away.
Country music legend Merle Haggard had a unusual premonition he’d die on his birthday, according to the singer’s son. If there was a new Merle Haggard album, you knew it was going to be something good.
“I met Merle for the first time whenever I was seven years old, fan fair in Nashville, Tennessee”, he said.
He also had 38 no. 1 country hits over his career spanning 50 years.
Willie said at the time: “Merle’s one of the best”. His heart was as tender as his love ballads, said Dolly Parton.
It set off a somber stream of comment from the country music faithful in Southeast Texas.
Singer Brad Paisley thanked God for Haggard’s life and music. On the bluegrass project, Alison Krauss and Haggard sang a duet of his song, “Mama’s Hungry Eyes” , and the sessions also featured Marty Stuart, Carl Jackson, Rob Ickes, and Aubrey Haynie. It was during that stint he saw Johnny Cash play, and he returned to Bakersfield at age 22 in 1960 ready to write music.
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The song – its title reference to a slang for a person from the conservative Plains state of Oklahoma, in which Muskogee is a small city – tells of pride in the USA flag and the war against communism in Vietnam.
