Merle Haggard Turned Down a Highwaymen Spot / Doesn’t Know “What The F**K” is Wrong w/ Dylan
Merle Haggard is getting ready for the release of his new album with Willie Nelson next week called Django & Jimmie (you can stream it over on NPR), and ahead of the release he spoke to Broadway of Country 92.5 in Connecticut and had some interesting revelations about some things in his past, and what he might have coming up in the future.
For a few years now there has been talk of a “Musketeers” album between Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and Kris Kristofferson. Some were wondering if Django & Jimmie would be replacing the Musketeers project, but according to Merle, The Musketeers is still on. Just finding the time in the three men’s busy schedules to get it done is the issue. “Well I think so, yeah,” Merle said to the question if fans could still expect it in the future. “Just when, I’m not sure.”
On the subject of supergroups, Broadway wondered why Merle never joined the Highwaymen, but it apparently wasn’t because they didn’t want him. “I was asked,” Merle said. “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 … When you’re touring the world, you’ve got to take the economics in play. It’s going to cost a lot of money to do that. When you’ve got 15 or 20 people traveling with you, you know, it’s a big deal.”
Merle Haggard also addressed his recent brushup with Bob Dylan. During a Grammy function Bob Dylan said, “Merle Haggard didn’t even think much of my songs. I know he didn’t. He didn’t say that to me, but I know way back when he didn’t. Buck Owens did, and he recorded some of my early songs. ‘Together Again,’ that’s Buck Owens. And that trumps anything else out of Bakersfield. Buck Owens or Merle Haggard? If you had to have somebody’s blessing, you can figure it out.”
Merle responded on Twitter by saying, “Bob Dylan I’ve admired your songs since 1964. ‘Don’t Think Twice’ Bob, Willie and I just recorded it on our new album.”
“Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” appears on Django & Jimmie. Dylan later clarified his statements, saying, “I wasn’t dissing Merle, not the Merle I know.”
When asked where the matter stood today, Merle said,
“I don’t know what the fuck’s wrong with Bob (laughing). I’ve always liked his music. And his writing was just impressive to me, because I was a songwriter, and struggling. So I admired him from the very first. I love hearing him sing. And I loved hearing him play guitar. I wish he’d come out from behind that damn piano and play his guitar. He’ll think it over and change his mind.”
READ: 10 Badass Merle Haggard Moments
As for how much music Merle Haggard has stored away over his Hall of Fame career that fans haven’t heard yet:
“I’ve got probably 300 to 400 songs that I haven’t released, that I’ve collected over the years,” Merle says. “It’s because of the archive. And we haven’t released anything from that. When I get unable to sing or record anymore, or get killed or something, well they’ll probably put it out. We own them, the family owns them.”
Listen to the full interview below:
May 27, 2015 @ 6:35 pm
“I love hearing him sing.”
The first and only time you’ll hear that said about Bob Dylan.
May 27, 2015 @ 10:30 pm
I’ll say it over and over
May 28, 2015 @ 4:55 am
Nice joke
May 28, 2015 @ 6:38 am
That’s patently untrue, but your comment seems to be very popular.
May 27, 2015 @ 6:43 pm
I’ve said many times that the Highwaymen supergroup should have included Merle or Jerry Reed instead of Kris Kristofferson.
May 27, 2015 @ 7:26 pm
I think Kris Kristofferson is one of the best songwriters ever. So I kind of don’t agree. But I don’t poo poo your opinion.
May 27, 2015 @ 9:34 pm
Once again, what exactly is wrong with Kris Kristofferson?
May 27, 2015 @ 9:49 pm
Don’t know what RD meant but if I were to make the argument that he shouldn’t have been in the Highwaymen I would say that Kris’ genius was as a songwriter not as a performer. Personally I can’t stand his singing but would say from a quality standpoint he may be the best pure songwriter in country music history.
But I had no issue with him being in the group despite my above reservations but I would say as a performer he is not even close to the class of Waylon, Willie, Cash and Haggard.
May 27, 2015 @ 10:02 pm
Totally agree about the songwriting vs. vocals point.
If Haggard had been a member of the Highwaymen, he would be tied with Willie as the best vocalist in the band.
May 28, 2015 @ 7:43 am
Everyone has an opinion, but no way in hell is Willie tied with Haggard as a vocalist. Love Willie, but his vocals have never been exactly impressive.
May 28, 2015 @ 6:50 am
I think that most people forget the supergroup Old Dogs with Jerry Reed, Waylon Jennings, Bobby Bare, and Mel Tillis. I believe that Jerry fit in with that group much better that he would have with The Highwaymen.
May 28, 2015 @ 7:37 am
Yeah, as much as I love Jerry Reed, I think he would have stuck out like a sore thumb in The Highwaymen. Merle on the other hand sort of felt like a curious exclusion.
May 28, 2015 @ 6:26 pm
Why would Jerry Reed have stuck out like a sore thumb? He would have easily been the best musician in the group. Most people only know his novelty songs and know him from the movies, but he had a lot of great, lesser known albums. There was a lot more substance there than he is ever given credit for. Have you ever seen that clip of him playing Wabash Cannonball on the Porter Wagoner show?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCE48O6U4Yw
He might have even been able to teach Johnny Cash how to play the guitar.
May 28, 2015 @ 9:36 pm
Throughout his long career, Johnny Cash was able to stand–or sit–in front of an audience, solo–and hold their attention for a whole set with just his voice and his guitar.
Johnny Cash could play the damn guitar!
May 29, 2015 @ 6:11 am
While Jerry had many great songs like Smell The Flowers and A Thing Called Love, I think he was mostly known for his novelty songs (which were great too). I think of him kinda like the original Brad Paisley. I agree that he was one hell of a guitar player and if he was in The Highwaymen, probably would have been the best picker. However, I don’t think that the purpose of The Highwaymen was to showcase anyones guitar playing abilities. I just don’t think his vocal stylings wouldn’t have fit in comfortably.
May 30, 2015 @ 12:42 am
Nothing is wrong with Jerry at all, I love him. But i agree he wouldn’t have fit in with that particular project. Guitar talent aside, the highwaymen wasn’t about that. Merle would have fit better. Or Billy Joe Shaver much more so! Jerry just didn’t run in that crowd, outside of his homage to Willie with “The Bird”.
Having said all that, I always believed the highwaymen’s parts were much greater than their sum. Here were four amazing artists and songwriters and they were given arguably lackluster material and/or overly slick production. Each of their 3 albums had their moments but for every “Big River”, “Silver Stallion”, or “I Do Believe” there was a bizarre cover of “Against The Wind”. When you’ve got royalty in the studio, don’t give them what amounts to songs that sound like they were turned down by the likes of Kenny Rogers. Just my two cents.
May 27, 2015 @ 7:34 pm
I always thought that Merle and Jesse Colter would have made great additions to the Highwaymen after Waylon and Cash died.
May 27, 2015 @ 7:51 pm
He’s saving songs for after he’s dead so his family can profit?
Got a song, sing it. I’m becoming very disillusioned with the likes of Merle, Willie. They have become franchises.
May 27, 2015 @ 8:00 pm
All artists tend to do that. Cash did it as well.
May 27, 2015 @ 8:07 pm
Yeah, I’m not sure it’s a financial thing. For many artists, and natural part of the album making process is to record a few extra songs that may not make it out as finished products. In Cash’s case, there were entire albums. Maybe there is a financial calculation as well of a painter’s works being more valuable once they’re dead, but I don’t see this as some cash grab. Merle Haggard is a franchise though, though he’s nowhere near Willie at this point in that department.
May 27, 2015 @ 10:37 pm
what else can he do? flooding the market isn’t considered good business and he releases pretty often already. everyone from hank williams to duke ellington had unreleased music at the time of their death, also who knows how old some of the material is, would be weird of him to try pass off some recording from the 70s as a single for his new album
May 28, 2015 @ 7:44 am
‘He”™s saving songs for after he”™s dead so his family can profit?
Got a song, sing it. I”™m becoming very disillusioned with the likes of Merle, Willie. They have become franchises.’
… It’s the music BUSINESS . EVERYONE who is ANYONE understands this and there is no reason not to believe this is good business sense . I mean …I’m a Willie fan but nobody puts out more product than Willie and God knows how much HE must have leftover after an album release. I’d rather listen to Merle or Willie sing a to-do list than half the shit on radio right now .
May 27, 2015 @ 8:14 pm
Love Haggard. Love that he’s out making music when he could easily be retired and resting on his considerable laurels instead. Chances are, the “archive” recordings include different takes on already released songs or material that didn’t make it onto the studio albums. It may not be the kind of stuff that he would feel comfortable putting out while he is still alive.
May 27, 2015 @ 8:37 pm
Willie and Merle’s album sucks. There aren’t even any tailgate, molesting a girl on a dirt road, Fireball, flat bill hat, jacked up truck, checklist songs on it!! …….
It’s so nice to non-ironically hear a harmonica, pedal steel, and acoustic guitar in a country song
May 28, 2015 @ 7:47 am
I caught McGraw’s performance of his current single ” Ol Barstools…etc.. ” last night and the sound of that steel guitar was soooo sweet I had to shake me head that its so underused and overlooked on most ” country” records today .
May 27, 2015 @ 8:58 pm
I’ve seen Merle sing in the last 3 years, same with Bob. Bob Dylan couldn’t carry Merle’s guitar case. Dylan is a washed up has-been, living on his laurels and the bedazzled critical acclaim that he could get from putting out a record of him yelling at his television. Dylan? Who cares?
May 28, 2015 @ 3:02 pm
This.
Between Haggard and Kristofferson, their contributions to American music have been more significant than Dylan’s.
The real proof here is that both Merle and Kris are still out putting on solid performances, writing new material, and still impressing fans with their back catalogues to boot. Dylan, on the other hand, has drifted into being a cranky, poorly performing shell of who he used to be, refusing to show the world why he was looked up to in the first place. I’ve never been a Dylan fan, but it’s sad for those that are. One needs only to look at the rather pathetic recent performance of Dylan on Letterman.
May 28, 2015 @ 3:18 pm
I could not agree more. I saw Merle and Kris together at HSB in 2011 in SF. They sounded like what they were: two elder statesmen of American country music. Regal, even.
I saw Dylan at The Greek Theater in Berkeley in 2012, and he was freakin’ pathetic. Thank God I saw him in the 70’s, when he still had some semblance of artistic integrity.
I heard some kids playing hacky sack laughing and making fun of Dylan when we were leaving the show (early). One kid started singing “It AIn’t Me, Babe” in the same cadence that Dylan was singing onstage, then broke into a Cookie Monster imitation. The two sounded nearly identical.
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