Merle Haggard enjoyed numerous artistic and professional triumphs, including more than 100 country hits (38 No. 1s), dozens of studio and live album releases, upwards of 10,000 concerts, induction ...

There’s a warm fuzzy feeling that comes with letting go. It’s easy to miss, though. The sting of relinquishing control over an idea, a person or, worse, your own life is often the focus in moments ...

Take a pinch of every song Merle Haggard has written, put it in a huge black pot, and simmer over an open fire until well blended. The result: the embryonic stage of the persona of Merle Haggard. The ...

Before bands like The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers merged country and rock music, musicians from the two genres rarely mingled; they were more likely to flash a one-fingered salute than a ...

Merle Haggard initially encountered Blaze Foley’s music when he cut “If I Could Only Fly” with Willie Nelson in 1987, after which the country icon became one of the late Austin troubadour’s biggest ...

Twenty years ago, the country legend talked with Variety's chief music critic about what drove him to write the anti-Bush/anti-Iraq-war song, now being revived as the Republican VP candidate's walk-up ...

The relaxed, utterly confident twists in the phrasing Merle Haggard takes throughout his new album, I Am What I Am, prove that he is what he is: a country-music star who takes great pleasure in ...

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Haggard's biographer Marc Eliot about his book: The Hag. Haggard spent his early years going from family tragedy to odd jobs to broken marriages to petty crime to prison.

The words of an old Merle Haggard song came to mind when Michael Ray learned his grandmother had died. On Tuesday (Jan. 1), Ray shared the sad news and that Haggard's "I I Could Only Fly" came to him ...

Rocker Sammy Hagar picked a Merle Haggard song to ponder life after the death of Charlie Kirk. The Red Rocker took to social media to sing a slightly adjusted version of the chorus of Haggard’s “Are ...

Country legend Merle Haggard has been brought into the national spotlight again, thanks to vice presidential candidate JD Vance repeatedly using one of the late singer’s anthems as his walk-up music ...