Merle Haggard, "A Working Man Can't Get Nowhere Today"

Merle Haggard grew up in Oildale, on the northern edge of Bakersfield, California. And the legend is that he heard Johnny Cash play while he was serving time in San Quentin, and he decided then that he wanted to be a musician. And I was lucky enough to talk to him about this myself.

A few years ago, Bakersfield wanted to honor their hometown musician by naming a street after him, but the street they picked in Bakersfield was only a few blocks long; plus, he grew up in Oildale, not Bakersfield. So Oildale was honoring him by finding a road that was much longer and runs by the airport, and my news station wanted to do a phone interview with him about this.

So one morning I walk into work, and the phone rings. The person on the other end says, "Merle can talk now. But you need to call him right now!" I looked around, and there really wasn't anyone else who could do the interview since it was so early, so I figured, "What the hell." And it went well. He's a very nice man, and while I wasn't really nervous, I think he could tell I wasn't exactly from Rolling Stone magazine. But he was very gracious nonetheless. We talked about the road, Johnny Cash, San Quentin, Oildale... and I even managed to give a shoutout to my pal Pepper, who surprised the bejesus out of me one day by filling me in on her lifelong enjoyment of Merle Haggard songs. Anyway, it was just a great experience.

So this song goes out to Merle, who survived Oildale, San Quentin, and--the most arduous journey of all--my awkward interview: