“Mama never had the luxuries she wanted… But it wasn’t ‘cause my Daddy didn’t try.” — “Hungry Eyes,” music and lyrics by Merle Haggard His parents moved from Oklahoma to California during the Great ...

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.

We all have things in our past that we are not proud of and for Merle Haggard it was a felony conviction for armed robbery. For decades, I’ve loved Haggard’s music. It was the music of the common ...

Many of his songs are better known by other singers’ interpretations, like Janis Joplin’s “Me and Bobby McGee,” Johnny Cash’s “Sunday Morning Coming Down” and more. By Lindsay Zoladz Nine tracks from ...