Merle.

abelson:

#897: merle haggard - swinging doors (1967, hillbillys in a haunted house)

the reason you know this is from a movie and not good old reality, besides merle’s charmingly poor ability to mouth the words to his own beautiful song, is that he’s introduced not only as “one of my favorite singers” but also “one of my favorite people” by the gentlemen in an ascot. merle haggard, by all accounts, was nobody’s favorite person in his younger days, and nobody wearing an ascot. he escaped from californian juvenile prison, started playing music in bars, was found, sent back, released, got physical during a burglery, was sent back, was released, and discovered by lefty frizzell, all before merle haggard was sent at age 19 to san quentin for three years. “i wasn’t really that bad a guy,” he’s said. “they just couldn’t hold me anywhere else.”

a few weeks away from his 75th birthday, merle haggard, according to his official website, is said to be “recovering from 3 stomach ulcers, the removal of 8 polyps from his colon and diverticulitis in his esophagus. he will be back up and running in 30 days.”

Source: abelson

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