--- title: Merle Haggard Dead: How Country Icon Captured America description: Joe Klein's Kennedy Center tribute for the late country icon canonical: https://time.com/4285281/merle-haggard-rip-obituary-remembrance/ author: Joe Klein article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-07T19:43:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2024-01-24T12:55:07.000Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Merle Haggard Captured America's Spirit with Grit and Integrity og:description: Joe Klein's Kennedy Center tribute for the late country icon og:url: https://time.com/4285281/merle-haggard-rip-obituary-remembrance/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt83ea19f2cf2e7d58/69888e2c3c16397b3d45cc26/merle-haggard-dead2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Photo of Merle Haggard og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Merle Haggard Captured America's Spirit with Grit and Integrity twitter:description: Joe Klein's Kennedy Center tribute for the late country icon twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt83ea19f2cf2e7d58/69888e2c3c16397b3d45cc26/merle-haggard-dead2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Merle Haggard Captured America's Spirit with Grit and Integrity > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [Joe Klein](https://time.com/author/joe-klein/) ## Joe Klein Updated: Jan 24, 2024 12:55 PM UTCPublished: Apr 7, 2016 7:43 PM UTC  Merle Haggard circa 1970. Merle Haggard circa 1970.Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images by [Joe Klein](https://time.com/author/joe-klein/) ## Joe Klein Updated: Jan 24, 2024 12:55 PM UTCPublished: Apr 7, 2016 7:43 PM UTC I met Merle Haggard in 2008\. He had just written a song about Hillary Clinton and wanted to sing it for me. So I went up to his home, in view of Mount Shasta, in northern California, and we spent the day together. The song was not one of his best, but he was a big Hillary fan; his other political business that day was to lobby passionately for the legalization of marijuana. He did not deny the legend that he wrote the words “We Don’t Smoke Marijuana in Muskogee” while stoned. It was a good day. He talked a lot about Johnny Cash, who had inspired him to write true songs about his life. I introduced him to the music of Amy Winehouse, especially “Rehab,” which inspired him to tell me about his cocaine addiction, which–he said–he quit by going cold turkey on his boat. A few years later, in 2010, the folks at the Kennedy Center honors contacted me. They were honoring Merle, needed a tribute written for the program, and Merle had suggested that either Dolly Parton or Joe Klein write it. They wanted Dolly to sing at the celebration; they asked me to write. Here it is: --- > “” --- **Correction, October 22** _The original version of this story misstated the name of a county in California. 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