Merle Haggard Calls Modern Country “Crap.” Says It’s “Screwing on a Pickup Tailgate.”
“I can’t tell what they’re doing. They’re talking about screwing on a pickup tailgate and things of that nature. I don’t find no substance. I don’t find anything you can whistle and nobody even attempts to write a melody. It’s more of that kids stuff. It’s hot right now, but I’ll tell you what, it’s cooling off.”
That was the firebrand language coming from country music legend Merle Haggard ahead of an appearance Sunday, September 6th at the Bluestem Center for the Arts in Moorhead, Minnesota. In preparation for the show, In Forum talked to the 78-year-old performer, and he felt no need to be guarded with his feelings of where country music is headed. However he did show appreciation for one newer country star: Sturgill Simpson. Sturgill, along with Kris Kristofferson, share the September 6th bill.
“As far as I’m concerned, he’s the only one out there,” Merle is quoted as saying. “The rest of them sound like a bunch of (crap) to me. He comes out and does a great show,”
This isn’t the first time Merle has praised Sturgill. In a recent interview with Billboard, when asked about new artists, Merle said Sturgill was “about the only one that I can tell you I’m excited about. You hear a lot of Waylon [Jennings], a lot of George [Jones],” said Haggard. “He’s got something going energy-wise that I haven’t seen in a long time.”
Something else interesting from the Merle Haggard interview is that the country legend initially didn’t think too fondly of his later friend, Johnny Cash. But a performance at San Quentin when Merle was in the audience changed his mind.
“I didn’t like Johnny Cash. I thought he was kind of corny. I wasn’t really a fan,. When he came there, he’d been roaring the night before in San Francisco and had blown his voice. He couldn’t talk above a whisper, but he was able to absolutely waylay that crowd. Five-thousand prisoners is a good way to check your talent. I was impressed with his ability to handle that crowd without a voice. I’ll always remember that.”
Reserved seating for the show in Moorehead is sold out. Some tickets remain in the general admission lawn.
September 3, 2015 @ 11:34 am
Yeah, but….Sturgill ain’t the only one out there. There’s others and hell, he’s even played with some of them. I guess he’s saying Jamey Johnson and the like don’t do great shows.
September 3, 2015 @ 12:42 pm
Let’s not bury the lead here. You can’t assume someone like Merle Haggard is hanging out on savingcountrymusic.com, making sure he’s up on any and all of the cool new artists coming down the pike. He met Sturgill at Stagecoach, and if it wasn’t for that, he probably wouldn’t know who Sturgill was either. He’s 78 years old. He wasn’t slighting anyone but the knuckleheads making crappy country music. That’s what we should take away from these quotes.
September 3, 2015 @ 2:30 pm
Exactly. He said in an interview a while back that Ben does all the social networking stuff for him. I doubt Merle uses computers more than the average 78-year old, which is almost never. It makes sense he wouldn’t know who else is out there.
November 14, 2016 @ 4:08 pm
When you know of a better songwriter, or a voice better, let me know….but i won’t be waiting for your hatred….I LOVE MERLE
September 3, 2015 @ 11:35 am
Someone should tell Merle about Whitey & the 78’s
September 3, 2015 @ 11:40 am
Agreed! I saw Whitey in concert recently and thought he did a bang up job representing traditional honky-tonk country. I’m a big fan of Whitey!
September 3, 2015 @ 2:44 pm
He’s awesome. I’ll be seeing him in October for the 3rd time in 14 months
September 5, 2015 @ 9:48 am
I saw Whitey and the 78s for the 1st time recently at a small venue in Asheville. He was decent, but his opener, Cody Jinks, totally stole the show.
September 5, 2015 @ 6:03 am
Nobody need to tell Merle Haggard anything. He knows all he needs to know about any of ‘todays’ “country music” singers. And it’s sad that just about everyone of them are just about the same. They are girly, sissy dancing, non-talented, non-appreciative, little boys. Anyone that says things like luke bryan said obviously has heros like clay walker, I suppose…..that’s just sad.
September 3, 2015 @ 11:45 am
We have a very big name and living legend very blatantly call out mainstream country music and instead of appreciating that, we’re gonna sit around bitch that he didn’t spend 15 minutes name dropping?
He only mentioned Sturgill. So what? After the shooting rocket that has been his career in the last year, that seems reasonable. Sure he could’ve mentioned Jamey Johnson, but when’s the last time he put out an album (don’t jump to conclusions-I’m a very big Jamey Johnson fan). Hell, maybe Sturgill’s was just the first name that popped in his head?
Doesn’t matter, I’d bet an awful lot of money this comment thread will be nothing but people bitching about whoever he didn’t mention…
September 3, 2015 @ 12:44 pm
Agreed.
If anything, it should challenge us more to push our favorite artist until they reach as similar level of name recognition Sturgill Simpson has. My guess is Merle Haggard has never been on Facebook. He mentioned Sturgill because he’s young and he’s sharing a bill with him. It wasn’t a slight towards anyone else.
September 3, 2015 @ 4:04 pm
I always find it a little weird how people always feel the need to specifically list off individual singers/bands. I guess that’s supposed to be a way to show how much better their own taste is than everyone else.
September 3, 2015 @ 9:43 pm
Somehow I feel like whatever is written, some people on here will find a way to bitch about it.
September 4, 2015 @ 5:42 am
Very true Megan! People enjoy coming on here to talk about the articles but also tell others about artists they are into at the moment. And somehow, we all tend to gang up on each others opinions sometimes vs just simply supporting each other.
September 14, 2015 @ 6:51 am
Well, Merle, I do disagree with you (don’t be haters) even though I like you, Willie, Waylon and the rest of the legends. I’m sure you heard the same hate when you came on the scene, rebels that you were 🙂 Country music was going a different direction at that time and you were carving the way. Not everybody liked it. I guess it is a cycle. Obviously, MILLIONS of people like the diversity of country music today. Personally, I’m proud of the fact that I have not put myself in a box when it comes to listening. I have quite a collection of the “older” music as well as today’s. I listen to both. What I don’t like, is when artists are so opinionated that they tear others down. Makes me second guess who I really want to listen to.
September 3, 2015 @ 11:48 am
Merle probably doesn’t have time to know the ins and outs of independant country music like many of us do. So stop acting like whiny ass hipster assholes
September 3, 2015 @ 11:58 am
Who is this Haggard bloke?
September 3, 2015 @ 3:54 pm
Good one , haha! Truth is, Chase Rice probably has no clue who the Hag is.
September 3, 2015 @ 5:29 pm
I don’t think Chase Rice has much of a clue about anything.
September 3, 2015 @ 12:03 pm
Keep in mind, Sturgill is on the same bill with Merle in Moorhead. Thinking this was a bit of showmate promotion versus an intentional slight of anyone else.
September 3, 2015 @ 12:05 pm
I’ll admit this article may have just made my week.
September 3, 2015 @ 12:12 pm
Yet, he shared the Grammy stage with Blake Shelton a year and a half ago. I love Merle. I just saw him in concert last month. But, let your actions speak louder than your words.
I love Jamey Johnson, but seriously when was the last time did something relevant? 2010’s The Guitar Song – 5 years ago. So, of course Sturgill is fresh on Merle’s mind.
September 3, 2015 @ 12:49 pm
Blake was singing Merle’s songs, not vice versa. It was a tribute to the older guys and we should be happy they gave them a segment on the show at all. I’m no member of the Blake Shelton fan club, but what is Merle supposed to do, turn down the opportunity? Come out and reack Blake in the nuts on live TV? It’d be fun, but I’m sure that lineup was constructed by someone else and Merle didn’t want to disrespect someone offering to honor him.
September 3, 2015 @ 12:53 pm
Merle’s a pretty cool dude, I don’t think he’s one for starting things. He and Johnny Cash are two of the coolest, easiest to like men in Country Music. Waylon, on the other hand, or David Allan Coe, would go out of their way to start something on national television, I bet.
September 4, 2015 @ 11:34 am
Waylon went out of his way to stay OFF of national TV
September 3, 2015 @ 1:50 pm
Willie, Kris, & Merle all looked like they didn’t want Shelton up there with them during that performance.
September 3, 2015 @ 12:21 pm
Sturgill’s way over rated. Only one song I really like. Turtles of course. Sings about dad and the good old days. zzzzz.
September 3, 2015 @ 2:59 pm
That is your opinion……………and your opinion sucks! Go listen to FLG and Darius Rucker, and the rest of us will listen to Sturgill.
September 4, 2015 @ 6:09 am
Like I said on another post, not all of us are enamored with Sturgill. Respect him, hope he does well, just not into him. Guess my opinion sucks, too? Sorry not everyone agrees with you, sucks to be us. You listen to Sturg, and I’ll throw on some Whitey Morgan, Cody Jinks, Troubadours. Think there’s enough good music to go around, no need to put down those who don’t share your opinion of an entertainer.
September 4, 2015 @ 12:24 pm
FLG?
If you are going to put someone down, at least spell a band’s name properly.
It is dismaying enough that 9+ people liked it.
September 7, 2015 @ 4:38 pm
Those dimwits don’t deserve the respect of even spelling their fucking name right. The disrespect they are causing Country music warrants that completely!
September 3, 2015 @ 12:32 pm
Agreed, God bless Merle Haggard, and I saw in the article that Merle Haggard was a part of the Highwaymen? That is news to me, either way great article!
September 3, 2015 @ 3:36 pm
I meant to make a reference to the story earlier this summer that Merle was asked to become the 5th member of The Highwaymen but figured out a way to screw it up.
https://savingcountrymusic.com/merle-haggard-turned-down-a-highwaymen-spot-doesnt-know-what-the-fk-is-wrong-w-dylan
“I was asked to become a fifth member, and I turned it down because I said hell, it will cut the money down so low so the four of you guys won”™t even want to do it. But they did offer me a part ”¦”
September 4, 2015 @ 11:23 am
Thanks, interesting read!! He would have a nice addition but I get why he didn’t. Thanks again! Love this site, learned a lot of good music from here!
September 3, 2015 @ 12:33 pm
Hate to be picky, but Merle wasn’t a Highwayman…
September 3, 2015 @ 12:33 pm
Hell yeah, Merle. The sad thing is, the jokers clogging up country radio have so little self-awareness that they will probably continue to name-check the Hag in their “screwing on a pickup tailgate” songs.
September 3, 2015 @ 1:05 pm
we’d better hope Blake Shelton never hears about this! to hear HIM tell it anybody who likes music with a little more substance than “dayum garl hand me anuther beer in yer painted on jeans on mah tailgate in the moonlight huh huh huh huh” should just roll over and die!
September 3, 2015 @ 2:55 pm
Or maybe lets hope he does……..I would love to see Merle lay the boots to BS!
September 3, 2015 @ 4:56 pm
FUCK Blake Shelton ! He is one of the worst offenders when it comes to trend-chasing , forgettable substance-free fare . ” All About Tonight ” ??????
Fuck Blake Shelton and the crap he releases .
September 5, 2015 @ 2:59 pm
^ yes Albert F**k Blake Shelton indeed! perhaps gtrman86 has a point it might be funny to see Blake smart-off to the wrong “old fart” and then promptly have his @$$ handed to him!
September 3, 2015 @ 1:15 pm
Merle is great, but he is 78 years old after all. If I were 78, I don’t think I’d b out touring, but that’s his choice. I have seen him at least 20 times over the years. So I truly enjoy his music. I have never even listened to Sturgill Simpson. As the music industry is today who and what u listen to is a choice. My number one choice in country music is @jamey_johnson. We’ve seen him in concert 4 times already this year and several times on the opry. It doesn’t matter that he hasn’t put out a record bc he has plenty of songs I love to listen to.
September 3, 2015 @ 1:15 pm
Ok somebody needs to tell this guy that music evolves! Nobody wants country music to sound like it sounded 50 years ago! You know they said Johnny Cash didn’t sound country when he came out…
September 3, 2015 @ 1:53 pm
Sturgill Simpson is the best example of country music evolving. Country music evolving doesn’t mean it needs to be replaced by fake music & autotuned voice tracks.
September 23, 2015 @ 1:40 pm
I don’t think that country music needs to evolve. When did that become a natural law of country music? Anyway, the “evolution” we’ve been hearing for decades hasn’t been an organic one, it’s been pushed by marketing, and has openly and admittedly just cut “country” music off from its roots, a thing that never happened even with the outlaw music movement. If anything, the outlaw movement was about cutting off the fat and getting closer to the roots. It organically led to the neo-traditionalist movement, by freeing country from the “Nashville Sound” or “countrypolitan” sound which had taken over though, admittedly, giving country a needed influx of mainstreaming when rock and pop were threatening to overwhelm it into oblivion. It served its purpose, kept country alive (and when I listen to “countrypolitan”, very much of which I love, I could tell blind-folded if I’d never heard most of it before, that it was a distinctive branch of country, which I can’t tell when I listen to contemporary “country” or “country pop”). IMO, there’s a distinct difference between a natural evolution of country, and cynical marketing decisions which just ignored and even erased the history and roots of country music from the music being made now. Waylon etc always tipped their hats to country’s roots and weren’t ashamed to do so. What I hear now is music which is so ashamed of its past that it pretends it doesn’t have one, and my ears make no distinction between the guys’ “bro-country” or rap/EDM “country”, and the gals’ straight pop “country”. The most they do, if that, is throw in some fake “twang”. On that basis, “Bam A Lam Oh Black Betty” is country, or the Doobies “Black Water”.
September 3, 2015 @ 3:59 pm
Being into that mainstream country stuff probably allows Six String Douchebag to score with HS girls of course he loves it.
September 3, 2015 @ 8:11 pm
Be careful saying that. Trigger will show up at your house and take a dump on your pillows.
September 4, 2015 @ 12:09 pm
Well well well… The BS evolve argument ….yawn!!!!
September 3, 2015 @ 1:18 pm
I suppose all of the adolescents (of whatever age) are on Twitter writing erudite comments like “OMG! He is such a h8ter!!! Country music is evolving!!!”. Or perhaps not; such people probably don’t know who Merle Haggard is.
Which raises a question for me: how the devil do these folks know that country music is “evolving” when they’ve no earthly idea where it started?
September 3, 2015 @ 2:49 pm
“He is such a h8ter”
That comment just made my day.
September 3, 2015 @ 3:14 pm
Ha! That’s a great point. I don’t think many of these kinds of fans really care at all about the evolution of country music, because I don’t think they care about Country music. Most of them are just into bandwagons. They just tote that evolution line because someone else said it.
September 4, 2015 @ 8:15 pm
You nailed it, Stephanie. I know plenty of country “fans” who love Red Solo Cup (worse song ever), but don’t know the words to He Stop Loving Her Today and haven’t a clue who sang it. They strut around in their cowboy hats and boots, holding their beers thinking they’re true country fans. I get that music should evolve, but modern country has devolved.
September 3, 2015 @ 1:33 pm
Theres alot great Country today still in the underground as well i guess Merle isnt aware of.And they all remind me of the classics like Those Poor Bastards,Hank III,Wayne Hancock,Rachel Brooke,the.357 String Band,Lexi Lenn & the Strangers,Jayke Orvis & Broken Band,Dead Soldiers,Bob Wayne & Outlaw Carnies,Junk,Chris Stapleton,the Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir,Ol Red Shed,James Hunnicutt,Honky Tonk Hustlas,Slackeye SLim,Scott Biran,Filthy Still,Angry Johnny & the Killbillies,Ghoultown,Sons of Perdition,Randolph Robinson,the Goddamn Gallows,the Butchers & Builders,etc And at least we still have Merle,Willie,Billy Joe SHaver,Dwight Yoakum,David Allan,Coe,Hank Jr,Charlie Daniels Band.Loretta Lynn,Bill Monroe.And still got recordings of Hank WIlliams,Johnny CAsh,Waylon Jennings,Buck Owens,Grandpa Jones,Patsy Cline,George Jones,Hasil Adkins,Little Jimmie Dickens,Doc Watsun,the Louvin Brothers,GG Allin & the Criminal Quartet,Doc Boggs,Johnny Paycheck,String Bean,Boxcar Willie.
September 3, 2015 @ 2:18 pm
Let’s just see which one of ’em has the balls to dare argue with or patronize Merle on his statement here. It’s one thing to snap back at Maddie and Tae for their opinion or a journalist with questions about the state of today’s music, but Merle? One of THE guys? Let’s just see which one of the little pri…er, little “boys” pipes up about Merle speaking out.
September 3, 2015 @ 4:53 pm
Just say it Anna . Lets see which one of these little PRICKS whose whole SHOT at the country music business was made possible by guys like Merle starts squawking !!
September 4, 2015 @ 6:17 am
whose whole SHOT at the country music business was made possible by guys like Merle
Great point! Those sneering “sophisticates” and their puerile fans stand on the shoulders of giants, and they either don’t know it or don’t appreciate it.
September 3, 2015 @ 2:59 pm
Hag pretty much nailed it. Not really anything else to say.
I’d be interested to see what he thinks of folks like Boland and the Turnpike Troubadours, though.
September 4, 2015 @ 11:36 am
There is a whole genre of Texas Country that most of the rest don’t seem to have heard of.
September 3, 2015 @ 3:50 pm
Well yeah, man, screwing on a pickup tailgate is bullshit. Maybe they do that in North Korea, but here in America we bolt those mothers on.
September 3, 2015 @ 4:50 pm
The Hag hits the nail on the head. How could ANYONE who writes songs with the kind of substance he does find ANYTHING to like about country radio ? ” Screwing on a pickup tailgate ” is an apt description of what the whole country music business is doing right now .
Listen to SING ME BACK HOME and you’ll understand what SUBSTANCE is about in a country song . And if you really want an emotional meltdown , listen to George Jones’ version of that classic . Honest to God …it don’t.. and never will… get any better !
September 3, 2015 @ 5:19 pm
SING ME BACK HOME ( George Jones’ version ). You’re welcome
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ULZVKiDZMs
September 3, 2015 @ 5:34 pm
Merle Haggard’s never been shy to speak his mind, so it’s good to hear him speak up about this. Here’s hoping some others do the same.
September 3, 2015 @ 6:00 pm
I am so glad Merle says what he thinks, I am also glad he is still touring, I saw him last October, and he
still has it. Also still has a kick ass band, with Ben, Norm, Scott, Floyd, Doug, and a new drummer, and horn man, MORE POWER TO YA MERLE !
September 3, 2015 @ 8:01 pm
Just a heads up–I’m pretty sure the Fargo/Moorhead show is on Saturday the 5th. I live 2.5 hours away and am hoping to get rained out of the field so I can go.
September 3, 2015 @ 9:04 pm
Every indication I’m seeing is Sunday the 6th. I called the venue today to confirm everything and to see if it was sold out.
September 3, 2015 @ 8:27 pm
The fact that Merle Haggard has a solid basic read of the state of mainstream country/”country” music also underscores how it has permeated American culture so expansively that even someone who quite likely rarely uses the Internet knows what’s amiss.
The final sentence of his statement is just as revealing. He obviously has observed countless trends and fads come and go, so I’m sure he’s onto something when he is confident it’s cooling down for bro-country and metro-bro.
September 3, 2015 @ 9:59 pm
How did so much of this post become about who Merle didn’t name? All of you, be thankful a living legend is speaking up about this. Stop finding a reason to complain and bitch about everything. None of these comments should be about Jamie Johnson versus Sturgill, they should be about Merle Haggard speaking out about the state of country music. You criticize mainstream fans for being so attached to certain artists that they can’t accept a rational argument for why that artist isn’t country; don’t be a person who is so focused on your artist being name-dropped that you lose sight of the point of this article. And as for the point of the article, this is some of the best news I’ve heard in awhile. First Maddie & Tae slam drum machines and now this, it’s been a great week.
September 4, 2015 @ 5:02 am
Here’s my thoughts..
https://youtu.be/FJQtjPq03Ec
September 4, 2015 @ 10:02 am
There is hope….a lot of the young people (well, under 30, anyway) that I talk to absolutely hate the new stuff. The old guys are their heroes. My stepson is 20, and loves Johnny Cash and Waylon….of course, I’d like to think that I had something to do with that..;-)
September 5, 2015 @ 7:42 pm
Merle is right. Country music is an absurd Disney-Micky-Mouse-cowboy-hat world these days. Yes, there are some great acts out there, but few know about them because of the lack of promotion, air play, and the lame critical response to good music.
September 7, 2015 @ 1:24 pm
Sam Kershaw also recently gave his favorable review of country music.
http://www.centredaily.com/2015/08/16/4874334_grange-fair-preview-entertainer.html?rh=1