Merle Haggard Lashes Out

Merle Haggard's fight with lung cancer hasn't made him any less blunt than he was in his glory days. In Nashville Tuesday night to accept a career achievement award from Country Radio Broadcasters, the feisty superstar used the occasion to lash out at the former head of his one-time label, Epic Records, CMT.com reported.Prompting the outburst was Emmylou Harris' wistful performance of Haggard's self-penned 1985 hit, "Kern River," a tune she said was her favorite of Haggard's.Her praise of "Kern River" evidently ignited Haggard's memories of a man who didn't like the song at all. "I want to say that there was this other guy -- I can't remember his name -- he was head of CBS, and he made fun of my song. He said, 'Who in the hell knows where Kern River is at?'"That man was Rick Blackburn, who helmed CBS Records (of which Epic was a division) from 1980 to 1988.Haggard recalled that Blackburn said, "I'd like to tell you one more time. I don't like 'Kern River.' And I said, 'That's about the third time you've told me that.' He said, 'It's more like five times.' And I said, 'Well, I'm about five times short of telling you to go to hell.'"He continued, "I said, 'Who do you think you are? You're the son-of-a-bitch that sat at that desk over there and fired Johnny Cash. Let it go down in history that you're the dumbest son-of-a-bitch I've ever met.'"Blackburn, who dropped Cash from the label in 1986, the year after "Kern River" came out, told CMT.com, "He'll get more pleasure out of that than I'll get grief." See what the Big Dog has to say about this, read Webb's Woof.