Merle Haggard, an architect with Buck Owen of the Bakersfield country sound, once told the Arizona Daily Star that he hoped to be remembered for the songs he wrote.
He had 38 No. 1 hits and some are ranked among the most iconic in the genre including "Mama Tried," "Workin' Man Blues," "Okie from Muskogee" and "The Fightin' Side of Me."
"There's a philosophical saying that singers come and go, but writers and the music lasts forever," he said in a 2002 interview. "That's been my dependency, on the writing. They go into the karaoke bars and sing the songs and that keeps the music alive. And every once in awhile they'll say, ‘Well, who wrote the music and who sang the song?' And they'll go, ‘Merle Haggard.'"
At karaoke bars across the country this week, folks will likely be requesting those songs in honor of Haggard, who died in California on Wednesday — his 79th birthday.
Haggard's manager, Frank Mull, told Fox News that Haggard had been battling pneumonia for months and while he tried to maintain an ambitious tour schedule, he had been forced to call off several concert dates in March.
Haggard was born on April 6, 1937, outside of Bakersfield, Californial, the son of Oklahoma migrant workers.
In the 2002 interview with the Star, Haggard said his hard-scrabble childhood played into his life as a musician.
"I sort of rambled around as a child. My dad died young and I didn't have any great supervision and I wound up in a lot of trouble," he said. His trouble landed him four years in San Quentin.
Haggard's last Tucson show was at Fox Tucson Theatre in 2013. He also played an arena show in Tucson with Bob Dylan in 2006.
