New ‘Definitive’ Merle Haggard Biography ‘The Hag’ on The Way
If you love Merle Haggard and Hoover up anything with his name on it, you’ll be happy to hear that a brand new 464-page “definitive” biography on The Hag is coming shortly from Hachette Books and New York Times Bestselling author Marc Eliot.
Called THE HAG: The Life, Times, and Music of Merle Haggard, it will be released on January 18th, and is said to include uncompromising and extraordinary details into Merle Haggard’s life, pulled from over 100 interviews with key figures, and deep secondary research.
Some of the individuals who sat for interviews include fellow Bakersfield country star Dwight Yoakam, the walking country music encyclopedia himself, Marty Stuart, Merle’s best friend Frank Mull, as well as numerous members of Haggard’s backing band The Strangers, and even Fuzzy Owen who passed away in 2020. Fuzzy is considered the Founder and Father of The Bakersfield Sound, and first discovered and recorded Merle Haggard early in his career, and worked as Merle’s road manager for decades.
The book is said to cover every aspect of Merle Haggard’s life, from his father dying when he was only 9, to being sentenced to San Quentin for 15 years after petty thefts and jail escapes, to releasing 63 albums and earning 37 #1 singles over his illustrious, Hall of Fame career that didn’t just leave a legendary footprint in country, but influenced rock music and American culture at large.
Marc Eliot is an acclaimed author who has also written books on The Eagles, Clint Eastwood, Charlton Heston, Cary Grant, and others.
THE HAG: The Life, Times, and Music of Merle Haggard is currently available for pre-order.
January 7, 2022 @ 10:06 am
Very cool. I’m not big on reading but I like stuff like this. Might very well pick it up. Love his music. He also was born around the same time and place as my dad so theres that connection.
January 7, 2022 @ 7:01 pm
One and only never be another Hag number one country artist
January 7, 2022 @ 11:03 am
Sometimes it legitimately feels like the ding dongs over at Whiskey Riff just wait for you to post something, then tweak it slightly and put it on their site.
January 7, 2022 @ 12:25 pm
Just ordered it from Amazon. They’ll deliver it day of release. Was hoping to have some news about Jimmy McDonough’s biography of Gary Stewart, but haven’t heard anything since the end of May 2021.
January 7, 2022 @ 9:23 pm
working away, Mike! Determined to finish it this year!
January 8, 2022 @ 1:51 am
Thanks for checking in, Jimmy. Consider me still first in line when it’s done. Just finished rereading “Tammy Wynette – Tragic Country Queen” to tide me over.
January 8, 2022 @ 12:03 pm
Stoked for this!
January 8, 2022 @ 1:44 pm
And then some!
January 7, 2022 @ 12:27 pm
And overwhelming majority of those 1#’s and many of his other hit songs he wrote himself!
January 7, 2022 @ 11:18 pm
But one of my favorite thing about Merle was he knew a good song and recorded it – I love so many of his songs but many of my favorites he didn’t write – “If I Could Only Fly” is one of my favorite Merle’s recording – great lyric with a heartfelt performance – not sure how he found that Blaze Foley song but I’m glad he did.
January 7, 2022 @ 1:40 pm
Pre-ordered. Hag’s the man.
January 7, 2022 @ 2:46 pm
Looking forward to reading it
January 7, 2022 @ 3:02 pm
Eliot’s book about Phil Ochs, “Death of a Rebel”, is terrific. Looking forward to this one!
January 7, 2022 @ 3:17 pm
Got it, thanks for the tip! Hope you get a penny from the click through or something. I’m definitely going to forget I ordered this and look forward to a nice surprise!
January 7, 2022 @ 7:03 pm
I hope it gets into the juicy degenerate details of his personal life he left out of his autobiography for the sake of his kids.
January 10, 2022 @ 6:46 am
Really, Blockman? That’s what you care about?
January 10, 2022 @ 2:43 pm
It was missing from the book I mentioned. I know all about everything else. You’re not curious at all?
January 10, 2022 @ 3:35 pm
Frankly, no. I’m not interested in the salacious details of Haggard’s personal life and relationships. I wish more folks would follow the lead of Linda Ronstadt with her autobiography and focus more on the music rather than putting out a kiss & tell tome to move books. Linda did discuss a couple of important relationships in her life but her focus clearly was on her musical heritage and subsequent journey. I sure as heck wouldn’t want my relationships out there for the world to judge — and people DO judge especially in today’s climate. Merle’s too important a figure in popular music to get that treatment. The stories are low-hanging fruit for a buck.
January 10, 2022 @ 6:04 pm
I thought biographies are supposed to detail the subjects personal life and relationships. I guess I was wrong. I’m more interested in reading about all the cocaine he was doing anyways. Not the relationships so I guess we are on the same page.
January 7, 2022 @ 9:23 pm
We need a movie of his live
January 7, 2022 @ 10:13 pm
Dwight Yoakam isn’t from Bakersfield.
January 7, 2022 @ 10:31 pm
And Buck Owens is from Texas.
But they both embraced The Bakersfield Sound and built their careers around it, just like Merle.
January 7, 2022 @ 10:59 pm
Buck lived here a long time. He invested in Bakersfield, gave money to make it a better place. He employed local people. He raised his kids here. He left a legacy with his Crystal Palace venue. Dwight runs thru every now and again to make a paycheck. I like Dwights music, and have opened for him here, but he’s not from Bakersfield.
January 7, 2022 @ 11:21 pm
Totally fair point.
I was just trying to convey that Dwight Yoakam isn’t just a big country music name to interview for a book like this. He does have ties to Bakersfield (however fleeting), and so that makes him more qualified than some others to speak on the matter. The last time I saw Dwight perform live, he did a whole segment of Merle Haggard songs.
January 8, 2022 @ 10:01 am
been reading this blog for years and years and you’re good as gold. hope you have a great day
January 8, 2022 @ 5:55 am
He won’t ever be gone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=312SDrHM37Y
January 8, 2022 @ 5:56 am
I’m curious if his widow and her lawyer approved this….if not, I’m sure they will do their best to get it shut down (if they haven’t tried already.) They have made sure zero of his unreleased songs get released, caused Bear Family to redo one of their box sets at the 23rd hour so that like 3 of his songs were removed, and even threatened his former long-time employees who had posted interview videos that Hag had actually participated in and approved.
January 8, 2022 @ 8:49 am
I don’t know if the estate approved this book. What I do know is there is no information that anyone from the estate is involved. The difference between a biography like this, and others using copyrighted material such as songs and videos is due to the 1st Amendment, anyone can write whatever they want, and so the author doesn’t need approval from the estate, which in this case is probably a good thing so the author can tell the true story or the full story, and not necessarily the one the estate wants to present.
January 8, 2022 @ 10:55 pm
@Mr.M.–You make a fair point.
Heck, lots of people think Merle was from Oklahoma.
January 9, 2022 @ 8:10 am
Glad to see this coming out. Hopping to see a movie of his life coming soon
January 10, 2022 @ 2:59 pm
Hoover up? Using British terms when you’re a blogger in Austin, Texas is pretentious as fuck. Nice to see you’re still on brand.
January 10, 2022 @ 3:12 pm
Huh?
“Hoover up” is a British term? They don’t have Hoover vacuums in the United States? I just thought it was fun alliteration. Jeez
You could have been doing what else with your life when you decided to become incensed by a dumb phrase in an article about a book release and leave a comment about it?
January 12, 2022 @ 10:05 am
Keep up the good work,Trigger.
January 13, 2022 @ 4:42 am
Well, considering that the Hover vacuum company was founded in Ohio, That’s Ohio USA, not Ohio UK..
So yeah, Talk about being pretentious as fuck!
RIP Hag. ❤️
January 12, 2022 @ 10:00 am
You know Trig, no good information goes unpunished. Keep up the good work.
January 22, 2022 @ 5:46 pm
Thanks for the heads up, looks like my library has it already.
Even better.
January 22, 2022 @ 6:24 pm
I’m on Chapter 8. It’s a good one.
February 15, 2022 @ 7:24 am
I haven’t read the whole thing yet, as I am doing a combination of the audiobook/reading. I did read ahead a bit to the last few chapters where it was suggested that Theresa was not cared for by some closest to Haggard. And it makes me wonder whether this has anything to do with what I consider to be a mismanagement Haggard’s body of work since his death. I remember reading an interview many years ago that he had a lot of unreleased material that would keep his family set for many years to come, but as of yet I have seen none of that and I assume that as more time passes, the less valuable that material is. For instance, I know he recorded enough songs for Roots Volume II but ANTI wouldn’t release it, and I think the time is long past for that material to be released.
The thing that really strikes me odd is that his family/estate hasn’t even kept a website/souvenir store up for him. He always had a very fickle relationship with the internet and his Website was always a mess of tried and failed ventures, but it is confusing why his family would not try to promote his name and work more. About the only thing I see are these lousy playlists, ostensibly coming from Theresa, that offer no real insight or anything new.
Just curious if you have any ideas what might be going on?
February 15, 2022 @ 8:50 am
Hey Adam,
I’m at Chapter 20, or about 2/3rds of the way through the new book. I’m going to have a series of articles tied to it in the coming weeks, starting later this week, and eventually a review for the book when I’m done. Have not made it to the ending chapters obviously, but I have definitely noticed that the estate of Merle has had trouble finding its footing after Merle’s death. Not only has the unreleased material not seen the light of day, remember there was supposed to be a museum in Nashville in the same property as the Johnny Cash museum that got 86’d, and news of biopics and such that has yet to be green lit. It’s probably easy to sit back and wonder where all of this stuff is, when families have to deal with grief and legal stuff that makes it harder than we know, but I do wish Merle’s legacy was out there more. I will continue to use my forum here to do my part.
February 22, 2022 @ 1:13 pm
Hey Trigger, I see you got quoted in the book, page 279 on the library hardcover… and even in the index, at the back.
It’s a good read folks, check it out.
June 13, 2022 @ 10:29 am
I read a lot about him, very cool biography. The man deserves to be known!
November 28, 2022 @ 1:50 pm
Merle Ronald Haggard is a top American singer, composer and country music legend. His first success came in 1964 when my parents were born. Even my parents listened to him and waited for every song he sang. I wrote about him in college, by the way. I found websites that write essays for you, used https://paperell.net/ for that. Despite being kind of young, I really like his music. I’m looking forward to this book coming out, I’d love to read his biography. Also looking forward to some interesting moments of his life that no one has heard about yet.