| 15th October 2007 03:05 AM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
20 Questions With Merle Haggard
He Talks About Johnny Cash, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Britney Spears
CMT
Oct 8, 2007
Merle Haggard is a very talkative guy, once you get him going. However, he doesn't really care to talk about contemporary country, but that's OK. He has plenty of other things on his mind.
Having just released The Bluegrass Sessions, his first such album, the Hag took time to answer fans' questions about staying away from computers, making a movie about his life and why he can't seem to get on TV.
1. What was it like to be part of the music scene in Bakersfield, Calif., in the 1960s?
It was tremendous. It'd be hard for you to understand. It was like a carnival. There were maybe 20 nightclubs that were putting out good entertainment and maybe four or five of them were top-notch, with people that went on to be famous. Starting in 1960, I was a raw kid. I'd been in trouble and didn't have much going for me, and I was able to claw my way into that clique and it gave me a start in music. I was able to play in the clubs for a few years before I had to present myself as a well-known artist. I had this experience under my belt, which I don't think is available nowadays for an artist. There no place for an artist to go unless he goes to New York or New Orleans, which is in such a shape now that it can't support much. And I'm suspicious of a lot of things about New Orleans. I think maybe they control them damn storms and got rid of the nightlife, the queers and the musicians and everybody. ... I mean, those storms always turn right and go across Florida. For some reason or another, [Katrina] came directly in there, and it makes me wonder if they laser-beamed it and heated the water.
2. In those early days, how did you deal with a rowdy crowd or a crowd that was just nuts?
It really wasn't that way. There were always a couple of honchos that took care of people like that. It was their job. They were famous for it. It was better than having the police around. ... There was no law enforcement that came around and made you sit down in your chair. The club either had bouncers on payroll, or if somebody insulted the waitress, there'd be somebody to take care of 'em. Back in the days of the Mafia, Las Vegas, Bakersfield and Los Angeles had their own law, and it was much safer. People didn't get robbed. Now it's almost like the criminals have an intent to beat the law. Las Vegas is a terrible place. Bakersfield is a terrible place. Didn't used to be that way. I was in both places and worked in both towns, and you could walk down the streets anywhere in Las Vegas in the '60s. The Mafia ran it then, and they didn't want nobody robbing nobody. They made sure of it. A lot of people wouldn't understand that. They don't realize what kind of an America there used to be. They just don't know.
3. Do you have a favorite entertainer?
I think Elvis and Johnny Cash were probably the entertainers of the century. Then after that, you would have to go to groups. In my mind you'd have to go to the Beatles and things like that. Right now I think the greatest entertainer is Britney Spears. Goddamn, she's using everything available. (laughs)
4. The other day I scored a vinyl copy of your tribute to Bob Wills. Is that a favorite album of yours?
Yes, it is. I have done, over the years, about four or five tribute albums and they're the ones that are my most favorite because without their musical influence, I probably wouldn't be in the business. Those are very important albums. I did one to Wills, I did one to Jimmie Rodgers, I did one to Elvis. It wasn't actually a tribute album, but I did one for Lefty Frizzell and all of his songs. I enjoy those kind of albums.
5. When you think of bluegrass, who do you think is doing the best work out there?
I think bluegrass may be the only country music that's really alive. You talk about roots, they may be the only people actually playing their instruments and refusing to use tuners and things of that nature. ... There are some people around like Marty Stuart and Ronnie Reno that are still trying to hold it in the road. They're friends of mine and people I asked to help me make that record (The Bluegrass Sessions). And it's a minority. It's a cult music, and I think it's that way because it refuses to alter.
6. What do you think of Lynyrd Skynyrd?
Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded some of my songs and brought my attention to them way back years ago. You know, they're two different bands. The one that got killed and the ones that survived, and there's a tender place in my heart for them.
7. In the song "Pancho and Lefty," what is your interpretation of the lyric "the dust that Pancho bit down south ended up in Lefty's mouth"?
You know, I don't really know what that meant. A lot of that song I don't know what it meant. It sounded like the overall message was that Pancho Villa and the federale Lefty were actually friends and the truth about the matter was never known. That's the basic message I think.
8. I've seen a photo of you holding a guitar that looks like Jimmie Rodgers' original Martin guitar. Do you own his guitar, or is it a reproduction in the photo?
No, it was the real one. I just went to the [Country Music] Hall of Fame and borrowed it and recorded with it. I used it on a record. ... The lady from the Hall of Fame was at the session, and I said, "What would be the chances of borrowing that guitar for a moment or two?" They went and got it and brought it over there. I recorded it on a song called "Valentine."
9. One of my favorite songs you recorded is "Carolyn." I know you didn't write it, but when you heard that song, what is it about it that caught your ear?
Tommy Collins was a real close friend. We fished together, and so when he wrote something or if I wrote something, we used each other as sounding boards. He wrote a lot and I wrote a lot, and once and a while we'd come up with something we was really proud of. He was really proud of that, and I thought it was a great song, too.
10. Could you please explain your relationship with Gram Parsons and tell me what happened when he wanted you to produce his solo album, and what did you think of the songs he recorded of yours?
He came to my house when I lived in Bakersfield probably in the late '60s, and we talked about what we were going to do. Shortly thereafter, well, he was dead. ... Very complimentary. It's a form of flattery when someone records your music, when they accept it that way.
11. Mel Tillis is being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame this year. Do you have any favorite songs of his?
Mel is a great writer. I look at him as a writer more than a singer. I'm just glad to see it happen. He wrote things like "Detroit City" and many songs that I can't name for you. I've always been a fan of his writing, and I think he's a fan of mine also in return.
12. What do you think about mainstream country music now? How would you describe it?
"Perfect" is a good word. Perfect, always perfect. Nobody's gonna take a breath. You're not gonna hear breathing on it. Used to, you could hear Elvis breathe. You knew he was a man. But nowadays, it seems like everything is digitally perfect -- boringly perfect.
13. Do you think country music will ever return to its roots?
No. There's no roots there.
14. Who are some new artists in any genre of music that you enjoy listening to?
To make it a short and sweet answer, I don't listen to the radio anymore, so that can put an end to those kinds of questions. And it's not really the music. It's the commercials. Television is the same way. You can't even get involved with something you're watching and then they run into commercials. And the commercials are 20 percent louder than everything else, and I just finally turned it off for the last time. I'm not gonna watch it anymore. I don't care about hearing about the f---ing Iraq war. I don't care about hearing any of it.
15. How do you try to keep up with the news?
There's really nothing to keep up with. Hillary's running for president and the guy from Iran came over and spoke. Some people say it's like letting Hitler come over in '39. You know, I think we resemble it in '39, if you want my opinion.
16. Do you like to get online and download songs?
My son does all that for me. I got a 14-year-old that takes care of the computer for me and is also learning to play guitar really good. He does all that. ... I just holler at him and say, "Hey, download me so and so," and he takes care of it. I've vowed to stay away from the computer. It's about to overwhelm me. I think that every time I have gone to the computer, I pick up the guitar instead, so I can play the guitar better than people who use computers.
17. Do you think you will be making a movie about your life?
Yeah, that's actually in the works. It's down to doing the first draft on the script. It usually doesn't happen in one's lifetime. They usually wait until you're dead, so they don't have to contend with you. (laughs) I've had an entertaining life, and to try to contain it all in two hours is a joke. So what you say is, "Now, look, this is a movie. This is not your life. This is sound bites and film bites from parts of your life." It's easy to get confused. You say, "Well, God, they didn't tell this, they didn't tell that." People don't understand that you can't do that. You can only try to entertain folks with a bit of your life.
18. Did you ever see the film, Walk the Line, and what did you think of it?
When you imagine the great life of Johnny Cash, I don't know. ... I think the guy [Joaquin Phoenix] did as good as he could do. I think by trying to make a movie of Johnny Cash, you're whipped before you start. I knew him too well to be entertained by it. I thought Reese Witherspoon did a great job with June, but the guy wasn't really tall enough to be Cash. That bothered me a little bit. It didn't really look like him. But some of the things in it were really good. It's one that I'd watch again. I've watched it a couple of times.
19. I know you've recorded with Clint Eastwood. Are you a fan of his movies?
Sure am. I think he's probably one of the best living directors and a great actor. I'm a fan of his films.... I did Bronco Billy with him. I thought it was a silly movie at the time, but over the years, I think he did a really good job of fantasizing that situation. Unforgiven was one of the best I've seen him do. ... He doesn't do anything anymore unless it has substance. Those are the things that I'm missing in entertainment, all the way around, so he's high on my list.
20. Looking back over the years, is there one decision that you would do differently?
Oh, there are a lot of them that I would change. I did something early in my career that I'll never get over. They'll punish me for it the rest of my life. I had a chance to be on the very first worldwide television show of Ed Sullivan's, and we had seven days of rehearsal. There was no taping in those days and you had to rehearse seven days. I was doing Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma and I was playing the part of Curly. Every day, there was more choreography that became part of my part, and I told them in the beginning that I didn't do that kind of thing.
About six days into the deal, we had six days of rehearsal, and on the day of the shooting I told them to cram it. And they had me dancing to the tulips between Jeannie C. Riley and Minnie Pearl, and there would be a queer to grab my ass every time I came around where he was at. I just finally told 'em, I said, "Hey, I'll be in the bus. You'll find me in the bus." ... Jeannie C. Riley came out and cried and cried, trying to get me to go back, and I said no. I said, "I've built up a following of truck drivers and people of that nature, and they wouldn't find this very funny." Since then, there are enemies of mine that lay in the grass and weeds that show their ugly head every once in a while to keep me from going on Larry King Live or something of that nature. The only thing I can figure is I've got an enemy out there in the television community.
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| 15th October 2007 11:16 AM |
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| Nasty Habits |
That was a great read. |
| 15th October 2007 12:26 PM |
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| gimmekeef |
Merles lookin a lil Haggard these days...... |
| 16th October 2007 09:01 PM |
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| Kilroy |
Love that interview. That was great reading. I saw Merle when he was not feeling well and he still put on a great show. |
| 17th October 2007 05:56 AM |
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| jostorm |
Lovely read. Thanks! |
| 21st October 2007 02:02 AM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
Fri October 19, 2007
CNN.com
Country legend's 'cool factor is off the charts
Merle Haggard's new album is "The Bluegrass Sessions"
NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- Appalachian music might seem a strange fit for a guy so closely linked to the hard electric twang of country's Bakersfield Sound, but don't tell that to Merle Haggard.
For his new album, Merle Haggard and friends performed some of Haggard's classics with bluegrass arrangements.
"The Bluegrass Sessions" finds Haggard and friends putting fiddle, Dobro and banjo to some of his classic tunes, like "Big City" and "Mama's Hungry Eyes."
"I've had years to become a fan of bluegrass and never had done anything in that area. I thought before I cash out I'd do one," Haggard said recently from his home in northern California.
He went to great lengths to be authentic. He released it on bluegrass band leader Del McCoury's record label, recorded it at Ricky Skaggs' studio just outside Nashville and had Ronnie Reno (son of bluegrass banjo ace Don Reno) produce it.
Marty Stuart played mandolin and helped assemble a crack band that included Rob Ickes on Dobro, Carl Jackson on guitar and Aubrey Haynie on fiddle. Alison Krauss sings on "Mama's Hungry Eyes."
"We tried one take the traditional way of doing it with everybody in little booths, and that didn't work," Haggard explained. "So we circled up in the studio and recorded it with one mic. We found that to be much better. It allowed us to see each other and to play together instead of putting things together one piece at a time and making sure every piece was perfect."
He wrote four new songs for the disc and included a Jimmie Rodgers medley and a Delmore Brothers tune, "Blues Stay Away from Me." But the strength of the album might be Haggard's reworked gems. The instrumentation and his weathered voice give the songs a totally different feel, as though they had sprung from a mountain hollow instead of a smoky beer joint.
"We chose to do Merle Haggard songs as opposed to traditional bluegrass songs because we didn't want to do the same songs that have been done so many times. We wanted to have original material," Haggard said.
At 70, the Country Music Hall of Famer is a living legend. He's written and recorded dozens of hits, many of them classics like "Mama Tried" and "Workin' Man Blues." His "Okie from Muskogee" became a cultural touchstone in the late '60s with lyrics admonishing war protesters and the counterculture.
Along with Buck Owens and some others, he helped define the twangy Bakersfield Sound, which was a direct contrast to the smooth, string-laden country records coming out of Nashville in the 1960s.
The Byrds, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Grateful Dead, Emmylou Harris, Vince Gill, Dwight Yoakam, Lucinda Williams and Reba McEntire have all covered his songs.
"His music strikes everybody. It doesn't matter what people listen to, whether it's pop or bluegrass or country or jazz. He strikes a chord with all of them," McCoury said.
The deep-voiced country singer Trace Adkins said he learned by studying Haggard's records.
"He'd sing notes that you didn't expect to come," Adkins said. "That was his thing, and it still is. He does that stuff that's so cool. His cool factor is just off the charts."
Today, Haggard continues to work at a fast clip. Besides the bluegrass project, he joined Willie Nelson and Ray Price earlier this year on an album of country standards, "Last of the Breed." Last year, he and George Jones teamed for an album called "Kickin' Out the Footlights ... Again."
During the interview, Haggard was getting ready to dash off to rehearsal. "I play a lot of music even when I'm off. I have part of the band that lives in Redding (California) with me. We just try to keep ourselves active in music.
"It's quite a hassle trying to keep yourself active in music," he adds.
Besides his own concerts, he's played shows recently with Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones and is working on a new album with Stones' guitarist Keith Richards.
He wouldn't say too much about the project except, "It's a Memphis rock, Chuck Berry, Keith Richards-type record. There will be appearances on there from people you'd recognize."
Perhaps the loftiest compliment paid him came this year, one songwriter to another. Inspired by Haggard's 1969 classic, Dylan wrote "Workingman's Blues #2" for his latest album, "Modern Times."
Dylan told him he was going to write the song and work it into his shows.
Haggard's response?
"I said, 'Good, that gives me a reason to do Blowin' in the Wind #2'." E-mail to a friend
[Edited by Ten Thousand Motels] |
| 21st October 2007 03:27 AM |
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| Bloozehound |
I saw the last of the breed tour this summer, it was worth the price of admission just to see Willie and Merle sing Pancho and Lefty together and that album he's working on with Keith Richards sounds like the cats meow
Keith needs to get away from the gayness that is Mick Jagger and record some real music while he still can, if he's even capable
[Edited by Bloozehound] |
| 21st October 2007 03:48 PM |
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| east_river_trucker |
quote:
and the guy from Iran came over and spoke. Some people say it's like letting Hitler come over in '39. You know, I think we resemble it in '39, if you want my opinion.
When Merle Haggard! starts making comments like this and recording songs like "America First" and songs about how the best golf player is black and the best rapper is white and saying it's about time, you know the political wind is starting to blow in a different direction in America.
It appears Nixon's backlash coalition is starting to fall apart, and Reagan's conservative curtain is starting to lift.
Interesting comment about gayness and his trucker fans. Apparently Mr. Haggard hasn't spent much time on the road. But than again, as the "free" market, let's-put-international-corporations-first Republican Senator from Idaho (with the manly wide stance while at stull) has made clear, some of the most virulently anti-gay people are closeted gay people. |
| 21st October 2007 04:20 PM |
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| guitarman53 |
quote:
Bloozehound wrote:
I saw the last of the breed tour this summer, it was worth the price of admission just to see Willie and Merle sing Pancho and Lefty together and that album he's working on with Keith Richards sounds like the cats meow
Keith needs to get away from the gayness that is Mick Jagger and record some real music while he still can, if he's even capable
[Edited by Bloozehound]
Merle could be a member of the K.K.K. with his Homophobia views, his mentality belongs in the 60's, I'm afraid he's still stuck there, it's the 21th Century for God sakes, |
| 23rd October 2007 12:49 PM |
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| east_river_trucker |
quote:
guitarman53 wrote:
Merle could be a member of the K.K.K. with his Homophobia views, his mentality belongs in the 60's, I'm afraid he's still stuck there, it's the 21th Century for God sakes,
Listen to his new material. His views, while not exactly open minded, are down right liberal compared to his 60s persona. I could be overly hopeful, but I think the political scene is changing. If Merle's songs are a barometer of working class America's attidutes, we could be at the start of a new political alignement in America. The political/investor class can only economicly screw working Americans (no pun intended) so often under the disquise of moral cursader (while they themselves engage in every debauchery known to man and animal) before working America starts to see thru it.
[Edited by east_river_trucker] |
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