--- title: Merle Haggard: How the Late Music Icon Got His Start description: The country-music icon died at 79 canonical: https://time.com/4283986/merle-haggard-death-history/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-06T18:08:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T16:30:52.926Z article:section: History og:title: How Merle Haggard Went From Solitary Confinement to Stardom og:description: The country-music icon has died at 79 og:url: https://time.com/4283986/merle-haggard-death-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt65affd2e96b4f864/69888e03f887dc918fe955c6/1101740506_400.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: May 6, 1974 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Merle Haggard Went From Solitary Confinement to Stardom twitter:description: The country-music icon has died at 79 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt65affd2e96b4f864/69888e03f887dc918fe955c6/1101740506_400.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Merle Haggard Went From Solitary Confinement to Stardom  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Apr 6, 2016 6:08 PM UTC  The May 6, 1974, cover of TIME The May 6, 1974, cover of TIMECover Credit: EDDIE ADAMS  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Apr 6, 2016 6:08 PM UTC Merle Haggard, the country-music icon who has [died at 79](http://time.com/4283993/merle-haggard-obit/), wasn’t always a musician. First, he was a thief. But, as TIME pointed out in a 1974 cover story about his role as a “pure, proud and prominent link between country’s past and present,” those two careers were not unrelated. At the time, in the early 1970s, a craze for country music was sweeping the U.S. The genre accounted for one-fifth of the entire American music economy at the time—thanks in no small part to Haggard, who had gained national fame in 1969 with “Okie from Muskogee.” Part of the music’s appeal, the story explained, was its determination not to shy away from raw emotion and the harsh realities of life. As Haggard put it, country was “just journalism put to music.” And, as the article’s opening paragraphs make clear, the trouble of which he sang was something he knew about firsthand: --- > “” --- **_Read the full story, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Songs of Love, Loyalty and Doubt](http://time.com/vault/issue/1974-05-06/page/1/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4283986/merle-haggard-death-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4283986/merle-haggard-death-history/"},"headline":"How Merle Haggard Went From Solitary Confinement to Stardom","datePublished":"2016-04-06T18:08:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T16:30:52.926Z","description":"Haggard called country \"journalism put to music\"","url":"https://time.com/4283986/merle-haggard-death-history/","keywords":["remembrance","Music"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt65affd2e96b4f864/69888e03f887dc918fe955c6/1101740506_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt65affd2e96b4f864/69888e03f887dc918fe955c6/1101740506_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"May 6, 1974","caption":"May 6, 1974","creditText":"Cover Credit: EDDIE ADAMS","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/remembrance/","name":"remembrance"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4283986/merle-haggard-death-history/","name":"How Merle Haggard Went From Solitary Confinement to Stardom"}}]}] ```