We went and saw Marty Haggard, here, in Granbury last night. He plays his dad's songs, but the best part is he tells the stories behind the song. He said he gets creeped out by certain songs like "My Favorite Memory". He was about 15 or 16, and the line "we made love in the hall and slept on the floor" was true. Apparently Merle and his third wife, Leona, (he married two different women named Leona) really did that, and Marty had to step over their naked bodies to get to the kitchen.
He sang the "Whole World Is Going to Pot". The story behind that was Willie called his dad and was playing at Harrah's in Lake Tahoe and wanted him to come over. They drove the 123 miles from their home , near Redding, to Tahoe. He said they went to the house that Harrah's had for the big name celebrities to stay in, and Willie had a silver platter with what must have been 1-2 pounds of some of the finest Weed known to man. He rolled a joint that was about like a Churchill cigar. He lit it and took a puff, and passed it to Merle, who passed it to Marty. Marty said that Willie immediately started rolling another one. Eventually they had three joints going around between them. He said the last thing he remembered was asking Willie why didn't he just roll three joints and let everyone have their own. He said it was the first and last time he ever smoked. He remembered sitting in Willie's living room, and the next thing he remembered was waking up in his bed, back in Redding.
CHIEF