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Merle Haggard | page 1, 2
Today he is on his way to financial health and says he is finally living at peace. The habits of his wild years are nowhere to be seen on the ranch outside Redding where he lives with his fifth wife, Theresa, and their children, Ben and 9-year-old Jenessa. Instead of chasing women and throwing parties, Haggard spends his free time with his family at one of the nearby creeks, fishing for bass. "After we take care of all our chores, and we have about 200 acres so there's a lot to do, at about 4 we turn off the phone and go fish until dark. We usually have our supper down there by the creek. It's our tradition." Merle Haggard's My House of Memories : For the Record By Merle Haggard with Tom Carter
Looking back on the old days wasn't easy for him. "Writing a memoir is like going to a psychiatrist," he says. "The emotions are still sensitive. You uncover these memories and the emotions are just lying there, naked." Indeed, his guilt and regret are clear in the memoir's passages about his children from previous marriages, who he doesn't think got enough of his affection; his mother's memories and fears that were only revealed to him in a handwritten autobiography discovered after her death; and his loss of control over his life due to drugs and drink, which allowed others to take financial advantage of him. Sound like the screenplay for a movie? Robert Duvall thinks so. He owned the film rights to Haggard's life story, but they expired recently. Now he's trying to buy them back. However, "the deal he's offering isn't that good, and I'm just not in the market for deals that aren't that good," Haggard says. "It's my life and I don't particularly care if the story is told." Haggard stares out the window for a moment, seeming not to hear my questions about his opinion of contemporary country music. The bus inches forward. Did I say something wrong? I think about his recent encounter with two pushy reporters from the Star tabloid at his ranch -- Haggard got fed up with their prying and escorted them off his property, mid photo session -- and hope I am not about to be ejected from the bus. Finally he turns and quips: "Someone said to me today they really like the commercials on the radio --they let you know when one song stopped and another started." (Phew, I'm safe.) "I hear a lot of blandness, a lot of songs about things with no point. In Redding, I'd rather listen to the rock 'n' roll station than the country station. At least on the rock station you get good rock." The last "spectacular" thing he heard on the radio, he says, is "Unforgettable" by Natalie Cole, one of his favorite singers. Particularly rankling for Haggard, who is passionate about the history of music, is contemporary country's lack of roots. "I'm not sure today's country comes from the same place mine does. It comes from technology, not from the labor camps or cotton fields that I identify with," he says. "When I got started in this business, you started with the art form. Then they'd say they want you to record. Now they pick you because you look like Hank [Williams], and they add the music. But you can't take a guy and make him into a Hank." Haggard thinks pop-country music -- which has produced megastars like Shania Twain and Garth Brooks -- is on its way out. "People are being force-fed new country. They haven't had a choice. Only one type of music is getting played. But I think a change is about to occur. Music fans are bored to death," he argues. "It's like Harry Potter. No one expected that to be so successful. But people grabbed on to something different." Haggard, too, seems ready for something different. "The music and the crowd's response are what make this fun," he says as the bus rounds the corner of Sixth Avenue and 44th Street. Yet of all his songs, he says the one that best describes his current position in life is "Footlights," a 1978 number about a burned-out musician. He wrote it after he had to play a concert five minutes after hearing that Lefty Frizell, one of his idols, had died. I'll try to hide the mood I'm really in "I'm getting to the point where it's time to start thinking about not being able to make a living the way I have for 35 years," he says as the bus parks in a once-in-a-lifetime empty stretch of curb not far from Virgil's, the barbecue restaurant where he will have a quick dinner before taking the stage. "I wasn't investing until recently. Now I have a new family I wasn't planning on. You know they say if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. Well, my plan was to live on a houseboat and drink and party my way out. I quit drinking and smoking not because of pressure from outside but because of the kids and new responsibilities. I'm glad I did it. I think I'm more in charge now." He'd like to get into business -- the "other side of the camera," as he calls it. But that's later. Right now he's looking forward to getting back to his ranch and his family. "I like to listen to the creek run."
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