On a stage in Little Rock, Ark., last month, rock 'n' roll's venerable royalty and country music's reigning rebel found common ground.
It was a surreal experience for the rebel, Merle Haggard, and more than likely just as surreal for the band, the Rolling Stones.
"Keith Richards and I are pretty good friends. We worked some gigs together before," Haggard recalled in a phone interview from his tour bus last week, en route to Columbus, Ga. "But I hadn't met Mick Jagger until this time. And I met everybody in the group. They all came and made special introductions, and they all stayed onstage while I did my show. Then they grouped around me and told me I was the greatest opening act they ever had."
Haggard chuckled just then, as if he realized it must have sounded like he was bragging. He wasn't, but he realizes that opening for the Rolling Stones is a once-in-a-lifetime shot.
"They couldn't have treated me any better," he continued. "They treated me like I was the president of the United States."
That notion, too, cracks him up, especially if you consider the lyrics of his latest single, "America First":
"Who's on the Hill and who's watchin' the valley?
"An' who's in charge of it all?
"God bless the Army an' God bless our liberty,
"And back dump the rest of it all."
"I sing 'Fightin' Side of Me' every night, and I dedicate it to the soldiers fighting all over the world. But I don't dedicate it to Donald Rumsfeld," Haggard said, his deliberate tone taking on an edginess of someone who's fed up. "I don't dedicate it to President G.W., because I don't agree with what he's doing; I don't agree with the way he's doing it."
Then Haggard launches into a perfectly eloquent political dissertation that possibly goes against the grain of common country-music wisdom of supporting our troops and supporting their commander in chief.
"I don't think he (Bush) has made any of his reasons clear. I'm an American who disagrees with the current regime," Haggard clarified. "I'm red, white and blue; I'm American. And I'm afraid that we're being sold out."
Haggard goes on to blame the oil industry, which he believes is backing Bush, and he acknowledges that even though "I have the microphone, . . . I feel helpless."
He says his wife has warned him to watch what he says publicly. She worries that he could come under attack. When you ask him if he feels threatened, he points to the controversies surrounding Cindy Sheehan, who confronted Bush after her son died in the Iraq war; and filmmaker Michael Moore, who took flak for his anti-Bush "Fahrenheit 9/11."
"Look what they did to the Dixie Chicks," he said. "(Lead singer Natalie Maines) is not a little girl. She doesn't like war, and she does not like George Bush, and she simply said she did not like him. And for that, the people in America decided not to buy her records and disc jockeys won't play it. That's almost like Gestapo-ism. It scares me. I find it offensive and worse. I'm disturbed by it. It hurts me to see America that dogmatic."
His political diatribe is a distraction from what is truly occupying his energy these days: preserving his legacy.
Today, Haggard turns 69, and his birthday gets him to thinking about how history will remember him.
That thought became even more pressing two weeks ago when Buck Owens, his country-music contemporary, died.
No more Bakersfield Buck. No more Johnny Cash. No more Waylon Jennings. They were all gone, and it dawned on Haggard that he and Willie Nelson are among a handful of surviving reminders of their generation of rebel country artists.
"It came as a shock, and it makes a person that's in this business look at the clock and say, 'Hey, maybe I better get busy, quit going along like this is never going to end,' " Haggard said.
In an almost hushed tone, Haggard says he's decided he needs to figure out who he is in the historical scheme of things. So after his opening gigs with fellow legend Bob Dylan are through β the pair will come to the Tucson Arena on Monday β Haggard is leaving the road for a spell.
"I'm fixing to do my life story, starting with a documentary," he said. "As of May 11, I'm going to set off everything, put it off for a year and see if I can make this film."
Haggard believes the timing is right. He is older and wiser; he can back up his message.
"The writer has become more educated. I have more information, knowledge and intelligence than I had," he said.
And he feels healthier and stronger than he has in years. The father of two teenagers says his recent dental surgery has helped him to speak and sing more strongly, and physically, he's feeling great.
"I'm in good shape. I'm healthy. I don't have anything wrong with me. My blood pressure is fine. I can run a 50-yard dash," he says, ticking off his physical attributes as if you were taking notes.
Which is why, he reasons, now is the perfect time to take stock of Merle Haggard.
"I've got some things I'd like to do other than open a show for a bunch of people," he said.
Quick Take
Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard in concert
When: 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 10
Where: Tucson Arena
Tickets: $39.50-$65 through Ticketmaster, 321-1000; or the Tucson Convention Center Box Office, 791-4101
