Merle Haggard Once Saved Willie Nelson From a Pot-Free Bus

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Merle Haggard had one of his first big hits with the song “Okie From Muskogee,” with its memorable opening line, “We don’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee.” But in real life Haggard, who died Wednesday on his 79th birthday, was a lot more complex, contradictory and all-encompassing than that.

I remember him, after all, as the guy who saved the day when Willie Nelson was running out of marijuana on his tour bus one humid Florida night around 1996.

Back then, I spent a few days on Nelson’s tour bus as he traveled through the state on a tour of outdoor festivals and minor league ballparks. Everything was mellow on the bus, of course — Willie’s bus is never a no-smoking zone, and the smoke is never tobacco.

Also Read: Merle Haggard, Country Music Legend, Dies at 79

But a day or two into my time on the bus, famously dubbed the “Honeysuckle Rose,” a sense of urgency overtook the boss and his band and crew. Willie’s supply of weed, it seemed, was starting to run low, a matter of no small consequence on that particular vehicle.

The saving grace is that Haggard was also on the bill at one of those festival dates, and word on the bus that morning was hopeful: “We’ll see Merle this afternoon, and Merle grows his own.”

Sure enough, Willie and Merle shared the bill and then they shared the stash, and the Honeysuckle Rose drove off into the night suitably replenished.

Also Read: Willie Nelson Announces 'Connoisseur Brand' of Weed

That was surely one of the least of Merle Haggard’s accomplishments, not even a footnote in an amazing life and career that found him appealing to rednecks and hippies, conservatives and liberals, country fans and rock ‘n’ rollers.

Haggard was one of the best songwriters and finest, most understated singers in popular music for this entire career — but on one swampy day in the South two decades ago, he was also the savior who kept Willie Nelson going.

That’s not what he’ll be remembered for — but for a busload of people way back when, it was pretty damn important.

Thanks, Merle.

16 Famous People Who Died on Their Birthday, From Shakespeare to Ingrid Bergman (Photos)

A number of well known folks have died on their birthdays. Here's 14 of the most famous of them.
Renowned Renaissance painter Raphael died April 6, 1520, his 37th birthday.
William Shakespeare, a.k.a. The Bard, passed away on April 23, 1616, what is thought to be his 52nd birthday.
Edna May Oliver, a popular character actress in early Hollywood who earned an Oscar nomination for her supporting role in 1939's "Drums Along the Mohawk," died on her 59th birthday -- November 9, 1942 -- following an intestinal ailment. (By the way, Hattie McDaniel won the Oscar that year for "Gone With the Wind.)
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George Francis Barnes (a.k.a. Machine Gun Kelly), the Prohibition-era gangster, died in prison of a heart attack on July 18, 1954, his 59th birthday.
Early jazz saxophonist Sidney Bechet died of lung cancer on May 14, 1959, his 62nd birthday.
Swede Risberg, an early 20th century baseball player best known for being one of the members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox team accused of intentionally losing the World Series in exchange for payments from gamblers, died on his 81st birthday on Oct. 13, 1975.
Country singer Mel Street died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on his 43rd birthday, on Oct. 21, 1978.
Ingrid Bergman, three-time Oscar winner and one of the biggest stars in the history of cinema, died of breast cancer on Aug. 29, 1982, her 67th birthday.
Corrie Ten Boom, who along with her family helped Jews escape the Holocaust when the Nazis invaded the Netherlands during World War II, died of a stroke on her 91st birthday on April 15, 1983.
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Feminist activist Betty Friedan, who co-founded the National Organization for Women, died on her 85th birthday on Feb. 4, 2006.
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr., congressman and son of four-term U.S. president FDR, died on his 74th birthday on Aug. 17, 1988.
Mike Douglas, a Big Band-era singer, found a second career as the genial host of a syndicated daytime talk show in the 1960s and '70s that helped introduce stars like Barbra Streisand and Aretha Franklin. He died on August 11, 2006, exactly 81 years after he was born.
Big Band singer and actress Fran Warren died March 4, 2013, on her 87th birthday.
Country singer Merle Haggard died on April 6, 2016, his 79th birthday.

Also Read: Merle Haggard, Country Music Legend, Dies at 79
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Ed Aschoff, college football reporter for ESPN, died on his 34th birthday, Dec. 24, 2019, after a bout with pneumonia.

Also Read: Ed Aschoff, ESPN College Football Reporter, Dies on His 34th Birthday
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Milton Glaser, the graphic designer who created the "I ❤ NY" logo and co-founded New York magazine, died on June 26, 2020, on his 91st birthday.
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