hen I passed the venerable (and anything pertaining to Hollywood aged more than 50 years is venerable), Pantages Theater the other day and noted on the marquee that Dylan was topping the bill as part of his  multi-city tour, I thought  that would be a show to see. The second line read, simply, "Sold Out." Then, under that it read, "With Merle Haggard." That set me to thinking; what would have enthused this long time top-of-the-bill performer to be the opening act for anyone. I called, he returned the call and now on KNX, heard in some 17 States, and streaming worldwide, you'll be able to hear this great man of country music sound off on many an issue. Our date is Friday, Good Friday and the conversation will be aired several times throughout the day.
In conversation he was all I'd hoped him to be. He's one of the world's foremost of country music musicians, singers and songwriters. His talents make him, probably, with the possible exception of Hank Williams, the single most influential star of country music, ever.
We talked about our country and the concern he has about the foreign policy of the Bush administration. This is the self-same man who, during that no-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel war in Vietnam, wrote and sang with pride, power and anger ,"The Fighti'n Side of Me." Things are different now. His pride in the country is just the same, but he sees ominous trends. When I said that I found it astonishing how poorly the Dixie Chicks were treated for criticizing the President; as if they were anti-American, to my surprise he was even stronger than I in his supportive comments. Has he changed? No, times have changed.
Of all the melodies he's written and of all the words Merle has scribed, the lyric I find most haunting was written quite recently. It is so simple and profound.

"Suddenly it's over...The war is finally done.
Soldiers in the desert sun, still clinging to a gun.
No one is the winner and everyone must lose.
Suddenly the war's over. That's the news."

And the song ends with the poignant line...

"Politicians do all  the talking, soldiers pay the dues.
Suddenly the war is over, that's the news."

There is no one in contemporary popular music who has created a more impressive legacy. His spans a wide variety of styles. He's written blues, folk songs, social commentaries, classic love songs, protest and anti-protest, train songs and prison songs. And he wasn't shy to speak about his on-the-job training for writing prison songs. He served time at San Quentin, for  very bad behavior. But that was long ago and far away.
I asked him if the time spent behind bars was all bad. He replied, "No, it was all good."
When I told the legend that the first description I'd ever heard of Country music (Back in those far off days when we called it "Country and Western"), was "it's all about sighin and dieing and going away", he began to sing to me.
I got to the question that first spurred me to call Mr. Haggard; "why, sir, would you play second fiddle to Bob Dylan." His reply was, simply. "I had no other booking at the time and, besides, Dylan is the man!." So is Haggard.
The "Okie from Muskogee" has kept himself at arms length from musical Nashville's "sociopolitical vortex." Meaning that he has gone his own way and in so doing has recorded well over 600 songs. Fully two hundred and fifty are his own compositions.
It was an honor and enlightening and "enlightening" struck twice in the same place, because minutes after we recorded our conversation, Lily Tomlin was on the line, ready to speak. My opening comment, obviously, was "Have I reached the party to whom I am speaking"? The answer was "Yes" and that meant I got to have conversation with Edith Ann, Trudy, Tommy Velour and Ernestine as well as Ms. Tomlin. She has Emmys, Tony's, a couple of Peabody awards, a Grammy and more, including the Mark Twain prize for American humor. I hope you get to hear the conversation.