The Hag: The Life, Times, and Music of Merle Haggard

by Marc Eliot

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

From one of the best entertainment biographers comes a subject destined to be a hit; a close look at the astonishing musical career of Merle Haggard — one of the greatest country music stars and one of our country's greatest lyricists. This deeply researched biography will make the argument that Haggard should be mentioned among the industry's greats.

The definitive biography of country legend Merle Haggard by the New York Times bestselling biographer of Clint Eastwood, Cary Grant, The Eagles, and more.

Merle Haggard was one of the most important country music musicians who ever lived. His astonishing musical career stretched across the second half of the 20th Century and into the first two decades of the next, during which he released an extraordinary 63 albums, 38 that made it on to Billboard's Country Top Ten, 13 that went to #1, and 37 #1 hit singles. With his ample songbook, unique singing voice and brilliant phrasing that illuminated his uncompromising commitment to individual freedom, cut with the monkey of personal despair on his back and a chip the size of Monument Valley on his shoulder, Merle's music and his extraordinary charisma helped change the look, the sound, and the fury of American music.

The Hag tells, without compromise, the extraordinary life of Merle Haggard, augmented by deep secondary research, sharp detail and ample anecdotal material that biographer Marc Eliot is known for, and enriched and deepened by over 100 new and far-ranging interviews. It explores the uniquely American life of an angry rebellious boy from the wrong side of the tracks bound for a life of crime and a permanent home in a penitentiary, who found redemption through the music of "the common man."

Merle Haggard's story is a great American saga of a man who lifted himself out of poverty, oppression, loss and wanderlust, to catapult himself into the pantheon of American artists admired around the world. Eliot has interviewed more than 100 people who knew Haggard, worked with him, were influenced by him, loved him or hated him. The book celebrates the accomplishments and explore the singer's infamous dark side: the self-created turmoil that expressed itself through drugs, women, booze, and betrayal. The Hag offers a richly anecdotal narrative that will elevate the life and work of Merle Haggard to where both properly belong, in the pantheon of American music and letters.

The Hag is the definitive account of this unique American original, and will speak to readers of country music and rock biographies alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306923210
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	01/18/2022
Pages:	464
Sales rank:	36,524
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Marc Eliot is the New York Times bestselling author of more than two dozen books on popular culture, including the highly acclaimed Cary Grant; the award-winning Hollywood’s Dark Prince; American Rebel: The Life of Clint Eastwood; The Eagles: The Untold Story.  His books have been published in more than 25 countries.  He is a frequent contributor to documentary films, TV shows, and podcasts, is the Resident Curator of film at the Riverfront Museum in Peoria, Illinois, and a Visiting Professor at UFM – The University of Guatemala, where he teaches graduate seminars in film.  He received his MFA in non-fiction and film history from Columbia University, where he was mentored by Andrew Sarris.  He attended the “Fame” school, the High School of Performing Arts.  He currently lives in New York City, and upstate near Woodstock, New York.

Editorial Reviews

01/01/2022

In his latest addition to an impressive oeuvre of biographies of actors and singers, Eliot (American Titan: Searching for John Wayne) chronicles the life of country-western star Merle Haggard (1937–2016). Eliot follows Haggard, the mercurial singer known for his outlaw persona, from his rebellious teenage years to his time in prison, through a half-dozen marriages, constant tours, and the pinnacle of his commercial and artistic success. Country music legends such as Lefty Frizzell, Buck Owens, Dolly Parton, and Willie Nelson make appearances, and Eliot interviews Haggard's family and roadies and recording industry insiders. Details on album tracks and personnel, as well as the songwriter's craft, add valuable information, as do the chapter notes and bibliography, discography, and list of awards. Those who know Haggard only for songs such as "Okie from Muskogee" will be treated to an in-depth look at a multifaceted performer (he even had a recurring role on TV's The Waltons) who incorporated his personal struggles into his music. Eliot deftly contrasts the ruthless music business with Haggard's own human frailties. VERDICT Likely to become the definitive Merle Haggard biography and will sit nicely alongside Haggard's own two memoirs.—Barry Zaslow

Library Journal

2021-11-13
A revealing biography of country music star and lifelong contrarian Merle Haggard (1937-2016).

Raised among the oil fields of central California, he was constantly in trouble with the law as a young man, locked up in San Quentin when Johnny Cash gave a celebrated concert to the inmates. Suddenly aware that he could pursue a career in music, Haggard hit the road with songs about the life he knew, all swinging barroom doors and jailhouse floors. Eliot, who has written books about Bruce Springsteen, Phil Ochs, and the Eagles, among others, can be a trifle overblown: “I was constantly reminded of how Shakespearean the drama of his life was, how his early years echoed those of a young Hamlet, who suffers the premature death of the father he keeps alive in his dreams, dreams that produced an unshakable rage that warps the love he has for his mother and drives him to commit self-destructive acts.” Still, he turns up aspects of Haggard’s life and career that haven’t been well documented, including his wife’s terrible death from Alzheimer’s and his friendship with a kid who definitely did smoke marijuana while turning millions of hippies on to Haggard’s music: Gram Parsons. “He doesn’t hate long-haired people, or even moderately dislike them,” said Parsons to a Rolling Stone reporter. “He’s a nice, sweet cat.” Haggard could turn sweetness into ire but mostly for good reason, as when Bob Dylan (perhaps inadvertently) dissed him and the Nashville industry dumped him, Cash, and countless other classic country acts from the rosters in favor of new pop-country idols. Never an insider, Haggard easily took to the outlaw role. However, as Eliot shows, he was also appreciative of both the performers who had come before him and contemporaries like Dylan, Paul McCartney, and the Rolling Stones along with Cash, Owens, Jones, and his country peers.

A well-researched pleasure for die-hard Haggard fans.

Kirkus Reviews

The Boot, "10 Best Country Music Books of 2022"

"A revealing biography. . . . A well-researched pleasure for die-hard Haggard fans."—Kirkus Reviews

"A rich and corrective portrait of an often misunderstood figure.

—Booklist

Likely to become the definitive Merle Haggard biography and will sit nicely alongside Haggard’s own two memoirs.

—Library Journal

“The Hag is an impressive feat of solid music journalism, centered around great writing, impressive research and a truly compelling subject.”—Americana Highways

“Thanks to [Marc] Eliot’s extensive research and detail-juicy execution of his findings, the 445-page deep dive meets an intended goal of being the definitive Haggard biography.” —Tulsa World

“An enlightening read… Eliot writes with authority… the text evinces a high degree of knowledge, and his insights into Haggard’s character are illuminating… The Hag makes a solid case for Haggard’s status as a musical icon, an artist who exerted a powerful and lasting influence.”—Houston Press

“Via a rare level of access, Haggard's depth and influence is unearthed… Such insight affords Eliot the ability to dig more profoundly into Haggard's roots to discern how the singer of 38 No. 1 country chart singles' life impacted his style and sound.”—The Tennessean

“Eliot's numerous interviews—with members of The Strangers, like steel pedal guitar player Norman Hamlet, and of Haggard's family and inner circle—distinguish and anchor this well-sourced biography. The anecdotes provide a fuller picture of Haggard at his highs, such as when he received a full pardon in 1972 from then-California governor Ronald Reagan, and his lows.”—The Washington Free Beacon

“An impressively thorough biography of [a] country music icon… Fans of Haggard or country music generally will enjoy The Hag as a celebration of Haggard’s contribution to the ‘Bakersfield sound,’ a distinctive variation of a genre typically associated with Nashville.”—Law & Liberty

“This book is such a good read and carefully scrapes away at the facts and fictions built around The Hag to reveal a complex and troubled man, who succeeded almost in spite of himself… I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this book. Love him or loathe him, and Haggard was an artist who often divided opinion with his music and attitude, he is a towering figure in American roots music and anyone who is interested in Americana would gain valuable insight into one of the genre’s most important figures from reading Marc Eliot’s fine biography. Shakespearean indeed.”—Americana UK

“In his new book, The Hag, biographer Marc Eliot tells, without compromise, the extraordinary life of Merle Haggard, augmented by deep secondary research, sharp detail and ample anecdotal material for which he is known.”—Country Music People

“...Thorough, workmanlike, and contains many valuable insights about Haggard’s distinctively American working-man blues."—Claremont Review of Books

From the Publisher