“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 Merle Haggard had 'Okie from Muskogee' and 'The Fightin' Side Of Me', #1 records, huge, made him a superstar he is, the next thing he did? A tribute to Bob Wills record, a tribute to Jimmie Rodgers record, a tribute to the New Orleans sound. What a dedication to the history of country music. Without Merle Haggard doing that Bob Wills album, I doin't reckon me and George Strait would be as knowledgable of Wills' music... I know we wouldn't have been." And while we all think of Merle as an iconic, incredibly successful country artist, there were times when his albums weren't #1 hits... and he made sure his label heads knew he wasn't happy about it. Benson recalled seeing Merle's tour bus parked at the Shoney's on Music Row, which is where artists and bands used to meet up to go on tour. Merle pulled in, and Ray went over to say hi, though Merle was on a mission: "He pulls in, I go 'Hey Hag, what's up?' He's like, 'Come on, were going over to CBS records to kick some a**.' He didn't know I had just resigned with CBS Records, with Rick and Larry. I went 'Okay! c'mon.' We go over there... and it's Rick Blackburn and Larry Hamby. Larry, he was head of A&R and Rick was head of the label. Rick was the one who dropped Johnny Cash, he turned Columbia B, the legendary recording studio, into the art department." So yeah, the fact that Ray had just resigned there and then was in the room for this confrontation was awkward enough... but it got worse... "So anyway, they're sitting there and they're arguing and all of a sudden, Hag goes, 'How come you're not giving me the money I asked for?' Because 'Pancho and Lefty' had been a big hit, Willie and Merle hit. And he'd just turned in 'Kern River,' the great record he did about Bakersfield and it didn't sell as well. And Blackburn said, 'Your last record didn't sell.' And Hag goes, 'It didn't sell because you didn't promote it.' Blackburn goes, 'We didn't promote it because it sucked.' I'm sitting here going, holy mackerel, what's gonna happen now?" As you can imagine, Merle didn't love that, and he let it rip on Blackburn in a very non-politically correct way, by today's standards: "Hag stands up and goes, 'Who the f**k are you?' He goes on... he stands up, and Blackburn had spina bifida, and Hag goes, 'I'll kick your crippled a** with one arm tied behind my back!' Me and Larry look at each other like, 'are they gonna start wrestling around on the floor? Are we going to have to break them up?' Oh my god... that was one of the great moments in country music. And I'm proud to have been there. He was asking for half a million dollars, and they weren't giving it to him." That's a lot of money even by today's standards, so you can imagine how much it was worth in 1985. Merle really was asking for too much, and clearly not asking very nicely, which probably didn't help his case either, in addition to lower record sales. But at the same time, Kern River wasn't a total bust the way Blackburn presented it during that meeting. Sure, it wasn't a mega hit that ultimately became a country standard and classic like the aforementioned "Pancho and Lefty," but it peaked at #8 on the Billboard country albums chart and people were listening to it, just not on the same scale. Of course Merle, while he was accepting his career achievement award from Country Radio Broadcasters back in 2009, famously recalled another blowup around that time with Blackburn. That argument was over "Kern River" as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmvmglHiO6A&t=438s Oh, and speaking of "Pancho and Lefty," they had a huge budget for the music video and spent $45,000 making it , which was directed by Willie's daughter, Lana. Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoKvUYbGu7A