77+ Merle Haggard Quotes (Country, Honky-tonk And Outlaw)

Merle Haggard was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. He had 38 number one hits on the Billboard country music charts, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1994. Haggard was known for his traditional country sound and his lyrics about the struggles of working-class Americans.

Top 10 Merle Haggard Quotes

1. I'll tell you what the public likes more than anything, it's the most rare commodity in the world - honesty.
2. Momma tried to raise me better, but her pleading I denied, and that leaves only me to blame, cause Momma tried.
3. The only thing that I miss lately in all music is somebody that will put out a melody that you can whistle. It doesn't seem like there's anything happening like that.
4. Willie Nelson's the one who told me the reason it costs so much to get divorced is because it's worth it.
5. If I hear another line dance song I think I'm going to puke.
6. A house without love ain't a home.
7. Hey, hey, the working man, the working man like me. I ain't never been on welfare, that's one place I won't be.
8. I enjoy the videos with the sound off, where you can look at the belly buttons and everything. Really some pretty girls, but I don't know about the music.
9. There's one thing I never did do, and that was stink.
10. It's a long way from Graceland across Jordan to the Promised Land, but Jesus finally came to lead him home.

Merle Haggard Short Quotes

• There's two kind of cherries, and two kind of fairies, and two kind of mothers I'm told.
• Back when the country was strong, back before Elvis and before the Vietnam war came along.
• I probably wouldn't even be here now if it weren't for chiropractic
• I'm just writin' about my little ol' love affair.
• The one true friend I thought I'd found, tonight the bottle let me down.
• Diana Krall knocks me out. I like jazz and I like her simple approach.
• Everybody likes Johnny Cash. I think the sad part of it is his health is givin' him problems.
• At my age, I don't buy but a half a loaf of bread, you know?
• I haven't had any problems with my back since I got the foot surgery.
• No, it's not love, but it's not bad.

Merle Haggard Famous Quotes And Sayings

We need to have music that contributes to the well-being of the spirit. Music that cradles people's lives and makes things a little easier. That's what I try to do, and what I want to do. You don't want to close the door on hope. — Merle Haggard

Keep your opinions to yourself. I think it's important that I stay neutral on politics and remain hard to understand. I don't want to be pigeonholed as conservative, liberal, independent or anything. I back the man for the things the man believes in, not whether it says "R" or "D" down there beside his name. — Merle Haggard

In 1960, when I came out of prison as an ex-convict, I had more freedom under parolee supervision than there's available... in America right now. — Merle Haggard

Sometimes if you get 'em too drunk they don't pay no attention to what you're doin' anyways, so you might as well just do old songs. But if you get one that's paying attention, sometimes we'll do some new material. — Merle Haggard

Read about some squirrelly guy who claims that he just don't believe in fighting, and I wonder how long the rest of us can count on being free. — Merle Haggard

The Captain just gave us our orders, and Mom we must carry them through. I'll finish this letter first chance I get, but for now I'll just say I love you. — Merle Haggard

I think it was Tommy who told me, 'When your song is called 'XYZ' or whatever, every line has got to make sense against your title.' He showed me little methods of proving to yourself whether the line belongs, and ways of finding out whether you were able to get more out of a line if you tried. — Merle Haggard

Heaven knows that alcohol is the worst thing in the world, but it's debatable whether cocaine is worse than caffeine or whether it's the same thing and they just changed the name. — Merle Haggard

Guitar playing is very important to me. It's like golf to some other people; it's important to me that I play good. — Merle Haggard

We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee, we don't take trips on LSD. We don't burn our draft cards down on Main Street, we like living right and free. — Merle Haggard

When I grew up there wasn't air-conditioning or anything of that nature, and this old car had a wall thickness of about ten inches. So we had a little warmer house in the winter and a little cooler in the summer. — Merle Haggard

I'm proud to be an Oakie from Muskogee, a place where even squares can have a ball. We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse and white lightning's still the biggest thrill of all. — Merle Haggard

In my life there were a lot of situations where I could have been killed or some officer might have been killed chasing me, a lot of things could be different. Now, you know that's experience you can't buy. And it's there in my rearview mirror and I can refer to it in my writing. I have the experience to talk about things some people only imagine. — Merle Haggard

There's a rumor that there may be an attempt at organizing a possible script for a series on my life, which, when you look at my police record, you'd have to have more than one hour to tell the story. — Merle Haggard

HAG Records, is a company that I've owned. I've had a couple of gospel releases on it. We developed a pretty good distribution setup there and we do have something to use in case they don't want to sign us. — Merle Haggard

It makes my wife mad, you know, she wants me to stay home all the time. But its what I've done all my life and I think when I quit doing it I'll probably go away pretty quick. — Merle Haggard

I was 48-years old before anybody talked me into it for medicinal purposes, instead of some of these drugs that they give you that will lead you to heart surgery and things of that nature. — Merle Haggard

The turn I made was not the one I planned. And I watched my social standing slip away from me, while I watched the bottle slowly take command. — Merle Haggard

My second wife Bonnie Owens and I worked together after we divorced for a period of maybe 20 years. And I managed to stay friends with another wife. And then there's one that I don't mess with. Everybody's got one of those. — Merle Haggard

My 10 year old son likes it. He's trying to play guitar and everything. He likes that kind of music. — Merle Haggard

Faith is the only way we're going to make it. None of us are smart enough to do it on our own. — Merle Haggard

Despite of all my Sunday learnin', toward the bad I kept turning. — Merle Haggard

I don't think there's ever been a friendly divorce. — Merle Haggard

I've got two families. — Merle Haggard

We're bar room buddies and we're the best kind, nobody messes with that friend of mine. Chug-a-lug-a-lug-a-lugga, bar room buddy of mine. — Merle Haggard

Before the Beatles and yesterday, when a man could still work and still would. — Merle Haggard

Women are God's last creation. You suppose he's saying, "What should I do to follow this?" Well, it's really a head -scratcher. I think women are absolutely wonderful. I think this world is going to be governed by women. — Merle Haggard

We're turning into the society that is accepting the force-feed. I don't quite understand why we're going for the things we're going for. There's no process of elimination anymore in music. They have these grooming schools, these things, and they're turning out these clones, and the music is sounding so refined that it's not even interesting. — Merle Haggard

I think I'm most proud of my family right now. I'm more into that then I've ever been. It also gives a new area to draw from in creativity with my songs. — Merle Haggard

I think we have to have capital punishment, I think there has to be something to contain certain people. Those deterrents I think are necessary, especially in prison. You can threaten people for just so long, but they can flip you off and do what they want to; but not if they have to die. I hate it, though, the thought of the death penalty is terrible, but it's completely necessary. — Merle Haggard

If I had a choice, and there was a "Y" in the road, I would always take the one that was more fun as opposed to the one that might make me more money. — Merle Haggard

There's two or three kids out there trying to make good music, and the rest of them sound like it's been strained through some kind of white toast or something. It all sounds just too neat and perfect, with no surprise to it at all. No story, no nothing. It's like building cars, like an assembly line. It doesn't sound like anything that came from a guitar. — Merle Haggard

There's just a few people that call themselves stars can actually sit down with a guitar and sing you a song. — Merle Haggard

I've got one young family by the first wife, with four children. — Merle Haggard

'Cause I was already a smoker, it was easy to get addicted. The one thing that they don't teach you about marijuana is how addictive it is. — Merle Haggard

Lay in the weeds and wait, and when you get your chance to say something, say something good. — Merle Haggard

Running down on a way of life our fighting men have fought and died to keep. If you don't love it, leave it. — Merle Haggard

To be part of what you're singing about is somewhat painful. You've got to climb inside it all. — Merle Haggard

I can't really say why everyone loves Bob Wills' music, but I have yet to meet a person who didn't like it. — Merle Haggard

I wish coke was still cola and a joint was a bad place to be. — Merle Haggard

The thing that bothers me the most is the recklessness and greed of the local ranchers, who run too many cattle back here, choking with waste the creek that runs through my property. There's certain times of day that the cowboys like to send them turds down the river. Them f**kers piss me off. if you gotta mess up the ecology of the world in order to raise a bunch of cows, well eat somethin else. I'm not a fan of the cowboys. — Merle Haggard

We are under [government's] control, and if people don't realize that, they haven't looked around. And if they're not paranoid, they haven't thought about it. — Merle Haggard

Evolution is a laughing matter for anybody that's got a rational mind. — Merle Haggard

There's been periods of broadcasts in the past where you could see all ages of entertainers, ranging from George Burns to Shirley Temple. That's not the condition now. — Merle Haggard

There are so many conditions to programming in America, where it's dominated by these people that own 800 radio stations that have no idea who to play and who not to play, and they listen to somebody or read somebody else's programming sheet and go by Buck Owens' opinion or something. Eight hundred stations are controlled by some guy that doesn't have a clue as to what to do about music. — Merle Haggard

I just follow my nose, and instead of letting someone run my affairs and probably make me wealthy within a matter of years, I've just kept the board of directors down to zero. I make all the decisions, and they can't all be right, and my lifestyle is very expensive, so that means I have to work a lot. It's the opposite side of the coin from sinking back into the recliner and becoming somebody they bury. — Merle Haggard

Staring at the world through the bottom of a glass, all I see is a man who's fading fast. — Merle Haggard

By the time you get close to the answers, it's nearly all over. — Merle Haggard

They shaved a little piece of bone off my small toe. You see, you balance yourself a certain way and this toe had grown under the other ones. So he cut it loose, where I could balance myself and it makes me walk straight. — Merle Haggard

Well, I'm kinda like George Carlin. I think that there ought to be a time where everybody should have all the drugs they want and there'd be nobody in charge, sort of like... now! — Merle Haggard

I've always known that I was a gifted person. ... I've always felt like I would be punished, severely, if I didn't continue to make use of that gift. It's very important that you don't let the muscle get flabby. It's really hard, as an old human being, to press as much weight as you pressed when you were a kid. — Merle Haggard

The guitar's not all that expensive either, when you compare it to gettin' a toothpulled or something. — Merle Haggard

When you get to readin' about where the music and John Steinbeck and all those people like that come from, the further you go the more interesting it becomes. — Merle Haggard

It's easier to force feed people than it is to give 'em what they want. It makes more money. — Merle Haggard

It sounds like something from a Woody Guthrie song, but it's true; I was raised in a freight car. — Merle Haggard

I had some surgery on my feet, which has helped my back some. — Merle Haggard

Stop rolling down hill like a snow ball headed for hell. — Merle Haggard

Life Lessons by Merle Haggard

1. Merle Haggard's music is a reminder that hard work and dedication can lead to success, no matter the odds.
2. He also taught us that it is important to stay true to yourself and your beliefs, even if it means going against the grain.
3. His songs are a reminder that even in times of struggle, it is possible to find joy and beauty in life.