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MERLE HAGGARD COUNTRY MUSIC STAR
Highly Likely highlights Cannabis pioneers who have paved the way to greater herbal acceptance.
WHEN MERLE HAGGARD passed away in 2016, music fans around the globe said farewell to one of the most genuine artists to ever walk the earth. Haggard was what they call a ‘straight shooter’ – someone that would give their opinion without thought of consequence. And, at times, those consequences were great. He was incarcerated in and escaped from a juvenile detention center by age 14 to ride the rails, only to be caught again and sent back to detention. By the time he was an adult, he was jailed again for robbery and sent to the infamous San Quentin Prison – where he was present for Johnny Cash’s legendary 1958 performance there.
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nspired by the Cash Haggard was in no way right wing. performance, when he was Later in the ‘70s he declared, “I released from San Quentin have more culture now. I was dumb in 1960, Haggard set out on as a rock when I wrote ‘Okie From his own to make it in the world of Muskogee.’ That's being honest with country music. He, along with others you at the moment, and a lot of like Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash things that I said [then] I sing with a and Waylon Jennings, would go different intention now. My views on on to be the progenitors of what is marijuana have totally changed.” now known as ‘outlaw country’ – a Perhaps this change of heart is country sound that thumbs its nose what prompted the 2015 Cannabis at the clean-living social mores that anthem that Haggard co-wrote dominate the country music scene in and performed with Willie Nelson. Nashville to this day. The song “It’s All And that’s why Going To Pot” is an Haggard’s biggest hit is anthem that takes such a head-scratcher. jabs at big pharma, “I’m an Okie From big alcohol and the Muskogee” begins with waning conservative the lyrics, “We don't views surrounding the smoke marijuana in legalization debate Muskogee; We don't in the United States. take no trips on LSD.” In the video, Haggard Haggard's 31st album, The song became and Nelson can be seen Back To The Barrooms. a runaway hit for sharing a joint. Haggard in the mainly conservative Haggard, ever the straightcountry music scene because it shooter, never backed down was seen, not as satire, but as from his stance on the benefits of an embodiment of a call for the Cannabis. "I think it's silly to put return to conservative values in the someone in jail for [marijuana counterculture-heavy late 1960s. possession],” he told the Bakersfield Over the years, Haggard gave Californian in 2010. varying accounts of the song’s “I think it's a threat to the message and meaning: In the pharmaceutical industry that you conservative country scene he was can go to the garden to grow seen as a right-wing hero, however, something that might keep you from time would demonstrate that having to use Lipitor."
THE SONG “IT’S ALL GOING TO POT” IS AN ANTHEM THAT TAKES JABS AT BIG PHARMA, BIG ALCOHOL AND THE WANING CONSERVATIVE VIEWS SURROUNDING THE LEGALIZATION DEBATE IN THE UNITED STATES. MAR. 2022
STORY by PACER STACKTRAIN for LEAF NATION
