Merle Haggard Legend of Bonnie and Clyde I Started Loving You Again

Merle Haggard is easily one of, if non THE, greatest land music singers that ever lived.

And though his life was far from perfect, he was never afraid to put those experiences into his songs and be every bit authentic and real about his struggles as he mayhap could be.

And that includes the challenges that came along with his multiple marriages.

The Hag was married five times in full, and he was married to his second married woman, Bonnie Owens, from 1965 to 1978. Of course, he as well had a decades-long beat on the queen of country, Dolly Parton, which you lot can read nearly more in-depth hither.

Simply dorsum in 2012, Merle made a surprise appearance at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum forum, where he spoke with the Tennessean near his marriage to Bonnie.

She was also a musician, and won the ACM for Female Vocalist of the Year in 1965. She married Merle that aforementioned twelvemonth, and started touring with him and helping take intendance of his kids from his previous marriage shortly after.

Merle says he was in a really artistic period during that time, as well, and she encouraged him to keep going:

"I got into a heated catamenia, where I was writing pretty good and it was right after she and I had gotten married.

If I even indicated that I was gonna write, she was there with a pad and a pen, and she didn't miss anything, you lot know."

He credits her for making sure some of his biggest hits, like "Mama Tried" and "Workin' Mans Blues", fabricated information technology to the radio. If it wasn't for Bonnie, he says those songs wouldn't even exist:

"In that location wouldn't have been no 'Mama Tried' or 'Workin' Man Blues' if information technology wasn't for her. She took those words downward at the right time.

I think in '68 or '69, nosotros had half dozen BMI awards that year, and she took down the songs, each 1 of 'em, she had took 'em down."

I of my favorite Merle Haggard songs, "Today I Started Loving You Again," was written for Bonnie after they'd been out on tour together and were able to reconnect as a couple, he says:

"'Today I Started Loving You Over again' was written for her. We'd been on a long tour downwards in Texas, nosotros'd been down there 90-something days, and we got a calendar week off and then we had to come dorsum and do 45 more than days.

And we took this week off, and nosotros flew abode and we were in the Fifty.A. airport, and I said, 'You know, nosotros haven't had much fourth dimension to say hi', talking to her. I said, 'Today I started loving you over again. I had time to start loving you again.'"

And like a truthful business organisation adult female, she responded with this:

"What a cracking idea for a song."

He starting time included the beautiful track on his 1968 record The Fable of Bonnie & Clyde , and it also appeared on the tracklist for his 1970 anthology The Fightin' Side of Me.

Of course, the song became an instantly recognizable country classic (though information technology never peaked in the superlative ten on the state charts), that was later on covered by other legends like Waylon Jennings, Conway Twitty, Kenny Rogers and enough of other artists over the years.

Once Merle and Bonnie were back on the Texas tour later that calendar week-long interruption ended, one dark, Merle asked her to get get him a hamburger. He wrote out the song on the paper bag his nutrient came in that night:

"I had written 'Today I Started Loving You Again' on this paper pocketbook… tore it open and wrote it on there. There was another poetry that we never did use.

When I go a royalty bank check, all the songs that I've written make up nigh half of the money. And 'Today I Started Loving You Again' is the rest of the money, and I only get 12% of it.

I'd written it for her, so I gave her half of information technology to brainstorm with. Then we got our divorce, and she got some other half."

But the most incredible part of the interview comes when Merle talks about their relationship years later their spousal relationship ended. He said information technology took a divorce for them to really realize they were never meant to be married, simply they were able to build a friendship that lasted for many years as a result.

He added that they remained close all the style up until her expiry in 2006:

"I went to see her last time at the home where she was stayin', and she was several years into the Alzheimer's thing. She grabbed me by the arm, there was some other people with us, she said 'I've got to take you downward to my room.'

So I followed her down to the room, and she had this big slick of her and I upward behind her bed."

And you might want to catch a tissue before you read this part…

"And she looked at me and she said 'He's my favorite.'

And she didn't identify me with that moving picture."

I'm sorry, only I cannot even handle that… I call up that'southward one of the sweetest and about heartbreaking things I've ever heard.

And yous take to listen to Merle tell the story himself, because he fifty-fifty gets choked up remembering that beautiful moment:

Watch this and effort not to cry now…

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Source: https://www.whiskeyriff.com/2022/03/04/merle-haggard-tells-the-beautiful-story-of-how-his-ex-wife-bonnie-owens-inspired-his-country-classic-today-i-started-loving-you-again/

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