Merle Haggard: What I've Learned

Posted by amyclark on 08/15/2008
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8/24/2007 Stephen L. Betts   In the current "What I’ve Learned" feature in Esquire magazine, Merle Haggard discusses everything from California redwoods - "They've left the redwoods up alongside the highway so we'll think they're all there. But go up in an airplane and you'll see that they've clear-cut everything behind" - to being one of the few people who was able to leave prison and not end up going back: "I'm in a very small percentage of people ever in the joint who beat it. It's like two percent of two percent. If you've ever been to the joint, you're going back." Among other choice quotes from Merle: "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." "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."   "I got out [of prison] something like nine that morning. February 3, 1960. There's a big metal security device at the main door coming out of San Quentin. When they open that door, it comes up and you have to step over it. Just as I was stepping over that device, a Hank Snow record came on. 'The Last Ride.' My foot just stopped in midair. The song was coming from a radio near this guard who was standing there with his gun. He said, 'What, did you change your mind?' I said, 'No, that's a really great song.' I stayed there and listened to the rest of the song." For more of Merle's "What I've Learned, visit www.esquire.com