From his own personal Bio-page on his official web site:
Merle Haggard | Merle Haggard Official Website | Home of The Hag | Bio
He left home at 15 with a friend, and the two were picked up as suspects in a robbery. Though innocent, he ended up in jail for two-and-a-half weeks. It was the first time he tasted prison life, but it wasn稚 the last. In and out of jail over the years for small crimes, he found himself doing serious time in San Quentin at the age of 20.
敵oing to prison has one of a few effects, he told Salon in 2004. 的t can make you worse, or it can make you understand and appreciate freedom. I learned to appreciate freedom when I didn稚 have any.?br>
His musical ability offered hope for a future. A fellow inmate at San Quentin, nicknamed Rabbit, saw that clearly. When Rabbit came up with an escape plan, he told Haggard that he could come along, but probably shouldn稚, since he had a good shot of making a career from his singing.
As Rabbit had predicted, Haggard痴 music was his way out of a dead-end life of small crimes and intermittent jail time. Released from San Quentin in 1960, he joined the then thriving Bakersfield country scene, which eschewed the smooth country-politan sound coming out of Nashville for a harder-hitting honky-tonk groove.
From his wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merle_Haggard
Haggard committed a number of minor offenses, such as thefts and writing bad checks. He was sent to a juvenile detention center for shoplifting in 1950. When he was 14, Haggard ran away to Texas with his friend Bob Teague ...Haggard was later sent to the juvenile detention center, from which he and his friend escaped again to Modesto, California.
His debut performance was with Teague in a Modesto bar named "Fun Center", being paid US$5, with free beer. He returned to Bakersfield in 1951, and was again arrested for truancy and petty larceny and sent to a juvenile detention center. After another escape, he was sent to the Preston School of Industry, a high-security installation. He was released 15 months later, but was sent back after beating a local boy during a burglary attempt?br>
?arried and plagued by financial issues
, he was arrested in 1957 shortly after he tried to rob a Bakersfield roadhouse. He was sent to Bakersfield Jail, and, after an escape attempt, was transferred to San Quentin Prison on February 21, 1958?/span>
?hile in prison, Haggard discovered that his wife was expecting a child from another man, which pressed him psychologically. He was fired from a series of prison jobs, and planned to escape along with another inmate nicknamed "Rabbit". Haggard was convinced not to escape by fellow inmates. Haggard started to run a gambling and brewing racket with his cellmate. After he was caught drunk, he was sent for a week to solitary confinement where he encountered Caryl Chessman, an author and death row inmate.
Meanwhile, "Rabbit" had successfully escaped, only to shoot a police officer and return to San Quentin for execution. Chessman's predicament, along with the execution of "Rabbit", inspired Haggard to correct his life. Haggard soon earned a high school equivalency diploma and kept a steady job in the prison's textile plant, while also playing for the prison's country music band, attributing a 1958 performance by Johnny Cash at the prison as his main inspiration to join it.
He was released from San Quentin on parole in 1960.
In 1972, after Haggard had become an established country music star, then-California Governor Ronald Reagan granted Haggard a full and unconditional pardon for his past crimes?br>
In my understanding, serving 3 years for attempted burglary and attempted escape is not an "overnighter", but does it really matter?
For me the point is more that not too many people have stones they are qualified to throw.
I'm out.
Thomas
