Episode #258 |12.2.25
Merle Haggard (Pt. 2): Surviving Christmas, Cosmic American Aliens, and Cocaine Clarity
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A cosmic-country dust-up with Gram Parsons. A months-long cocaine spiral. An alien obsession, and a bleak Christmas single that wouldn’t quit. Death threats, pistols, pardons, and “Pancho & Lefty”. Listen to find out how Merle Haggard survived another December and lived to rewrite country music.
Sources
My House of Memories: An Autobiography, by Merle Haggard with Tom Carter
Sing Me Back Home: My Story, by Merle Haggard with Peggy Russell
Merle Haggard: The Last Outlaw (GQ)
Ornery (New Yorker)
Breaking Down Merle Haggard’s Okie from Muskogee (Cocaine and Rhinestones)
50 Years Ago: Ronald Reagan Pardons Merle Haggard (Saving Country Music)
“Pancho and Lefty” by MERLE HAGGARD and WILLIE NELSON (The Best Song Ever (This Week))
The Fighter: The Life & Times of Merle Haggard (Rolling Stone)
Merle Haggard: The Outlaw (Rolling Stone)
Merle Haggard on Coast to Coast with Art Bell 1997 (Internet Archive)
Credits
Hosted by Jake Brennan.
Written by Zeth Lundy.
Copy edited by James Sullivan.
Mixed by Matt Beaudoin.
DISGRACELAND theme song, “Crenshaw Space Boogie,” written and produced by Jake Brennan. Performed by Jake Brennan, Bryce Kanzer, Jay Cannava, and Evan Kenney. Mixed and engineered by Adam Taylor.
*illustrations by Avi Spivak @avispivak