Riley Green On How Merle Haggard Sparked His Love For Country Music – “Took Me A Place I Had Never Mentally Been”
Would you have guessed that Riley Green's country career could have started just by listening to one Merle Haggard song? The "Jesus Saves" singer recently sat down with Apple Music to talk about his new project Don't Mind If I Do - his third studio album. Besides touching on he and Ella Langley's "You Look Like You Love Me" duet, the conversation mostly revolved around how the project came to be. Green hinted at that answer when he posted about his album's release last week: “It feels fitting that this album is out on my birthday because this project feels very true to...
On This Date: Merle Was Topping The Country Charts With His Political Anthem “The Fightin’ Side Of Me” In 1970
Merle Haggard has one of, if not the, best voices that has ever existed in all of country music. He was a pioneer in the genre, and released plenty of classics throughout his legendary career that we all still know and love today. On this date in 1970, he was topping the charts with his hit "The Fightin' Side of Me," which proved to be a pretty political take during the Vietnam War years of the early '70s. A solo write by Merle, it was released in 1970 as the lead single and title track from his album of the same name and...
“Who The F*** Are You?” – Merle Haggard Once Cussed Out The Head Of His Label For Denying The $500K Advance He Wanted
Only Merle Haggard. Never one who was shy or too scared to speak his mind, he was good friends with Ray Benson, frontman of Western swing band Asleep at the Wheel, who recalled a great story about his friend cussing out the head of his label in the mid-80s. In an interview with Otis Gibbs for his YouTube channel this week, Ray recalled what an intelligent, talented and impressive songwriter and artist Merle was. He credited Merle and his tribute albums to people like Bob Wills and Jimmie Rodgers for himself and even George Strait making the kind of music they did: "When...