Author Marc Eliot knew the subject of his latest released biography, "The Hag: The Life, Times, and Music of Merle Haggard," for 25 years before his death in 2016. The writer's exposure to music ...

Merle Haggard, 1960s Everett Collection. I t all came from that evening, in spring 1946. Merle Haggard was nine. He had been at a Church of Christ prayer meeting outside Bakersfield, California ...

Merle Haggard performs onstage during day one of 2015 Stagecoach, California's Country Music Festival, at The Empire Polo Club on April 24, 2015 in Indio, California.

Merle Haggard performs at the 2015 Big Barrel Country Music Festival in Dover, Del., June 28, 2015.

Opinion: Merle Haggard, who likes Obama, compliments him by saying, ‘I think he knows he’s in over his head’ Dec. 29, 2010 5:55 PM PT Share via Close extra sharing options ...

One evening around sunset, Merle Haggard was leaning against his silver tour bus, the Santa Fe Super Chief, before a show at the Crazy Horse Saloon on the dusty fringes of Orange County ...

Merle Haggard, the Grammy Award-winning singer whose autobiographical prison songs and populist political anthems, notably “Mama Tried” and “Okie From Muskogee,” made him one of country ...

As tributes to the late Merle Haggard continue to roll in, one anecdote keeps coming up: That time Haggard was an inmate at San Quentin and saw Johnny Cash perform Merle Haggard's too-good-to-be ...

Ben Haggard doesn't make a habit of slapping himself, but he's constantly reminded that his father is the great Merle Haggard, the Kennedy Center honoree who released a full 30 albums in the first ...

Haggard announced in late March of 2016 that he was canceling all of his scheduled shows on doctor’s orders. He passed away on April 6, 2016, after battling another round of pneumonia.