COUNTRY MUSIC LEGEND MERLE HAGGARD DIES
Singer famous among fans as ‘outlaw hero’
COUNTRY music legend Merle Haggard, an outlaw in song and life who gave voice to the hippie era’s disaffected conservatives before moderating his views, has died.
Haggard, who had recently returned to touring despite frequent illness, died on his 79th birthday on Wednesday after a bout of pneumonia at his home in northern California, a representative said.
Tributes poured in from across the music world for Haggard, who released a staggering amount of work over six decades with over 30 songs that topped the US country charts.
“We’ve lost one of the greatest writers and singers of all time. His heart was as tender as his love ballads. I loved him like a brother,” singer Dolly Parton said.
Willie Nelson, a collaborator of Haggard who is the bestknown living star of the outlaw country genre, wrote on Facebook that the late singer was “my brother, my friend”.
Haggard had the greatest impact with his 1969 hit Okie from Muskogee, an anthem of sorts for the counterculture to the counterculture which had become so prominent among US youth.
The song – its title a 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 US flag and the war against communism in Vietnam.
While the song became a rallying cry in the US culture wars, Haggard later described Okie from Muskogee as an attempt to understand heartland America rather than a statement of his own principles.
He became a critic of the more recent war in Iraq and a supporter of Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton.
Married five times and the singer of many love ballads, Haggard became best known for outlaw country songs about runins with the law.
In his later years, Haggard was outspoken in his dislike of modern country music. Last year, he told a North Dakota newspaper that Nashville was churning out formulaic songs about sex.
“I don’t find no substance. I don’t find anything you can whistle and nobody even attempts to write a melody,” he said.