Merle Haggard Trivia Questions

Haggard joined Cash’s touring revue in 1969, performing alongside Carl Perkins and others. They remained lifelong friends; Haggard credited a 1958 Cash prison concert at San Quentin with inspiring his music career.

He was born in Oildale, California (near Bakersfield), and his family lived in a converted boxcar during the Great Depression. He is closely tied to Bakersfield.

He wrote it with Roy Edward Burris, not Bonnie Owens. Bonnie was his wife and duet partner, but the song's co-writer was Burris, a fellow musician.

His father died when Haggard was nine, but 'Mama Tried' is fiction about a mother whose son goes to prison despite her efforts. His real mother was strict but loving.

His first number one was 'I'm a Lonesome Fugitive' in 1967. 'The Fightin' Side of Me' hit number one later, in 1970, but wasn't his first.

Merle Haggard, who served time in San Quentin in the late 1950s, returned to perform for inmates in 1971 while still on parole from his robbery sentence.

Inducted in 1994, he continued releasing albums and touring until his death in 2016, making him a rare living inductee during his active years.

In 1957, he attempted escape from a juvenile detention facility by hiding in a laundry truck, but was caught shortly after. This was part of his troubled early life.