The third of 38 #1 country hits for Merle Haggard had just fallen from the top this week in ‘68. It dealt with a theme all too familiar to him - being in prison. Hag spent three years at San Quentin for his role in a botched armed robbery. There’s a misconception that Merle was in the, uhhh, captive audience when Johnny Cash recorded his Folsom Prison album. However, (a) Hag never did time at Folsom, (b) he’d already established himself in country music by then, and (c) he did see Cash do a jailhouse show - while Merle was in the Graybar Hotel at San Quentin in 1959.
No comments:
Post a Comment