Sturgill Simpson Trashes Academy of Country Music Over Merle Haggard Award

Sturgill Simpson thinks Merle Haggard was a legend. And he’s infuriated that the Academy of Country Music has named an award after him.

“In Bloom” singer Simpson savaged the Academy of Country Music on Monday, tearing into the academy for its creation of the ACM Merle Haggard Spirit Award.

As Simpson sees it, the academy and the country music industry in general are feeding off of Haggard’s legacy after failing to give the singer his due before his death earlier this year.

Also Read: Merle Haggard Predicted His Own Death, Son Says

In his lengthy Facebook rant, Simpson recalled an anecdote about Haggard getting fed up and turning his back on Nashville.

“According to my sources, it was right after a record executive told him that ‘Kern River’ was a bad song. In the last chapter of his career and his life, Nashville wouldn’t call, play, or touch him,” Simpson recounted. “He felt forgotten and tossed aside. I always got a sense that he wanted one last hit..one last proper victory lap of his own, and we all know deserved it. Yet it never came. And now he’s gone.”

Simpson added that, if the country music industry is really interested in honoring Haggard, it would promote music closer to Haggard’s spirit, instead of the “formulaic cannon fodder bulls—” it currently trades in.

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

“I find it utterly disgusting the way everybody on Music Row is coming up with any reason they can to hitch their wagon to his name while knowing full and damn well what he thought about them,” Simpson wrote. “If the ACM wants to actually celebrate the legacy and music of Merle Haggard, they should drop all the formulaic cannon fodder bulls— they’ve been pumping down rural America’s throat for the last 30 years along with all the high school pageantry, meat parade award show bulls— and start dedicating their programs to more actual Country Music.”

The singer went on to clarify that he harbors no resentment toward Miranda Lambert, who will be the Haggard award’s first recipient during the ACM Honors this week.

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

“I know that Merle liked and respected [Lambert] so it’s good to see there is at least some blue sky in all of this,” Simpson wrote. “I don’t know Miranda nor have I ever met her but something tells me that in her heart, she knows I’m dead on. I am also aware that the ACM is a West Coast organization originally created to recognize West Coast artists like Merle and they have handed Merle many trophies over the years,..even in the last 15 or so mind you. It’s also worth noting that the last one was handed to him by none other than Miranda Lambert herself.”

18 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 are 18 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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Frankie Lons, the mother of R&B singer Keyshia Cole and star of the BET reality series "Frankie & Neffe," died on her 61st birthday -- July 18, 2021.
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Max Julien, an actor best known for playing a pimp named Goldie opposite Richard Pryor in 1973's "The Mack," died on New Year's Day, 2022 -- which happened to be his 88th birthday.
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