Merle Haggard died on Wednesday April 5th, at 79, the day of his birthday. His manager, Frank Mull, said the cowboy music icon died in Palo Cedro, California, 8 miles east of Redding. He says it was because of pneumonia, with whom he had been fighting for months.
This giant of country music rose from poverty and prison in order to become a star of international fame. His songs were about the outlaw, with a national pride in hits like '' Okie From Muskogee '' and '' Sing Me Home bakc ''.
The White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Haggard always spoke and sang to the people as anyone. Merle was a masterful guitarist, violinist and composer, as well as singer.
'' His death is a loss for country music, but obviously it is a loss for all the people who came to know him personally, too, '' Earnest said.
Haggard, Buck Owens alongside, country star, was one of the founders of the Bakersfield sound, loaded with sequences Nashville style popular songs from the 1960s.
His most beloved songs include tributes to his mother 'Mama Tried' 'ballad on prisons' 'Sing Me Back Home' ', the romantic regret' 'Loving You Again' 'and' 'Workin' Man Blues '' .
'' I'll tell you what the public likes more than anything, '' he told the Boston Globe in 1999. '' It's the weirdest product in the world: honesty ''.
When doctors found a tumor in the lung, Merle Haggard announced he had no intention of seeking treatment for it, but the insistence of friends and they succeeded to convince you otherwise saying that you had to remove the tumor to continue living.
'' When you stop touring, the next event will be my funeral. '' He said in an interview in 1990. '' They keep me young. ''
He could not climb over on stage, and it's gone.
