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 More Quotes by Merle Haggard More Quotes From Merle Haggard There's one thing I never did do, and that was stink. Merle Haggard stink one-thing There's just a few people that call themselves stars can actually sit down with a guitar and sing you a song. Merle Haggard guitar stars song Before the Beatles and yesterday, when a man could still work and still would. Merle Haggard stills yesterday men 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 realizing government people Back when the country was strong, back before Elvis and before the Vietnam war came along. Merle Haggard strong war country It sounds like something from a Woody Guthrie song, but it's true; I was raised in a freight car. Merle Haggard car sound song There's two kind of cherries, and two kind of fairies, and two kind of mothers I'm told. Merle Haggard mother two reality Staring at the world through the bottom of a glass, all I see is a man who's fading fast. Merle Haggard alcohol glasses men 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 cowboy running order 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 different writing people 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 alcohol names heaven 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. Merle Haggard buttons girl sound It's easier to force feed people than it is to give 'em what they want. It makes more money. Merle Haggard money giving people 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 littles song thinking 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 guitar play golf Despite of all my Sunday learnin', toward the bad I kept turning. Merle Haggard despite sunday evil 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 mom love-you order 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 fighting song believe 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 people interesting 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 living-right marijuana alcohol
