Merle Haggard Quotes

37 Sourced Quotes

Willie Nelson is an idol for me. The music is sort of immaterial. Willie is seventy-four. A lot of people don't realize how healthy he is. He doesn't eat any strict diet. But he doesn't eat very much of anything. He understands the value of water.

Merle Haggard
We weren't thieves by nature. Pranksters. Practical jokers. We were without a car one time, Dean Holloway and I. We just went out and started borrowing cars. Sometimes we'd bring 'em back. Put gas in 'em. Clean 'em up. Leave a little note: THANKS FOR THE CAR. Like the Phantom.

Merle Haggard
I turned twenty-one in prison doing life without parole
No one could steer me right but Mama tried, Mama tried
Mama tried to raise me better but her pleading I denied
That leaves only me to blame cause Mama tried.

Merle Haggard
We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee
We don't take our trips on LSD
We don't burn our draft cards down on Main Street
We like living right and being free.

Merle Haggard
I think what we're lacking in music today is it seems like all the good stories have been already taken. "Stardust" has already been written. "Your Cheatin' Heart." "Imagine." God almighty, lightning may never strike again like that.

Merle Haggard
Yesterday's wine, yesterday's wine
We're Aging with time, like yesterday's wine

Merle Haggard
A lot of things that I said I sing with a different intention now.

Merle Haggard
I'm in a very small percentage of people ever in the joint who beat it. It's like 2 percent of 2 percent. If you've ever been to the joint, you're going back.

Merle Haggard
Maybe I'm a media critic with music. But I'm in the business of information myself, and I'm a poet and a singer and I have a platform to sing from. I think sometimes it's necessary to write certain songs. I think that song ["That's The News"] was necessary, and I'm really glad that it's causing the controversy it's caused.

Merle Haggard
I'm friends with George Bush Sr. He calls to wish me happy birthday. But I've got lots of friends that call to wish me happy birthday who I wouldn't want to see become president.

Merle Haggard
Memories and drinks don't mix too well
And jukebox records don't play those wedding bells
Looking at the world through the bottom of a glass
All I see is a man who's fadin' fast.Memories and drinks don't mix too well.

Merle Haggard
Look at the past 25 years — we went downhill, and if people don't realize it, they don't have their fucking eyes on. In 1960, when I came out of prison as an ex-convict, I had more freedom under parolee supervision than there's available to an average citizen in America right now. I mean, there was nobody going to throw you down on the side of the road spread-eagled, and look up your butt for a fucking marijuana cigarette. God almighty, what have we done to each other?

Merle Haggard
She has to be honest, and she has to let the other prisoners know that she doesn't feel like she's any better than they are. If I told somebody I was going to meet them on a Tuesday, I met 'em. I learned that it's better to be honest, because you can't get away from your lie.

Merle Haggard
I wish coke was still cola and a joint was a bad place to be.

Merle Haggard
Before the Beatles and yesterday, when a man could still work and still would.

Merle Haggard
It's a long way from Graceland across Jordan to the Promised Land, but Jesus finally came to lead him home.

Merle Haggard
The turn I made was not the one I planned. And I watched my social standing slip away from me, while I watched the bottle slowly take command.

Merle Haggard
Back when the country was strong, back before Elvis and before the Vietnam war came along.

Merle Haggard
The one true friend I thought I'd found, tonight the bottle let me down.

Merle Haggard
I'd like to settle down but they won't let me
A fugitive must be a rolling stone
Down every road there's always one more city
I'm on the run, the highway is my home

Merle Haggard
I probably had as bad a sex urge as anybody when I was younger. I remember an old guitar player, Eldon Shamblin, told me, "When you get pussy off your mind, you can go ahead and learn something." Isn't that great?

Merle Haggard
Suddenly the cost of war is somethin' out of sight
Lost a lotta heroes in the fight
Politicians do all the talkin': soldiers pay the dues
Suddenly the war is over, that's the news.

Merle Haggard
I'll tell you why it's different when somebody else is singing "Mama Tried": They're reading the words. I'm telling the story.

Merle Haggard
Dear old Daddy rest his soul
Left my mom a heavy load
She tried so very hard to fill his shoes
Working hours without rest
Wanted me to have the best
She tried to raise me right but I refused.

Merle Haggard
Seventy is a big mark. I'm feeling good. But Bing Crosby felt good, too, and he came off the eighteenth hole, just kind of laid down in the grass, and that was that.

Merle Haggard
I had different views in the '70s. As a human being, I've learned.... I have more culture now. I was dumb as a rock when I wrote 'Okie from Muskogee'.

Merle Haggard
I've lived at the very end of what must have been a wonderful country.

Merle Haggard
I don't understand how we can be so stupid to [not] realize that we have to have the lungs of the earth, the earth has to breathe. And if we do away with the trees. [pause] We have to quit burning things. We have the mentality of a firecracker, you know? We're still in the woods lighting fires.

Merle Haggard
First thing I remember knowing
Was a lonesome whistle blowing
And a youngun's dream of growing up to ride
On a freight train leaving town
Not knowing where I'm bound
No one could change my mind but Mama tried.

Merle Haggard
Politicians do all the talking, soldiers pay the dues,
Suddenly the war's over, that's the news.

Merle Haggard