Watch Merle Haggard: Learning to Live With Myself (2010) Official Trailer

Haggard actually lived the rambling, gambling, love ‘em and leave ‘em, often brutal life that remains the bedrock of country music lyrics – he hopped his first freight train at the age of 10, became a chronic truant and drinker and was locked up some 17 times as a youngster. Serious criminal charges followed, including car theft. He was, literally, in the inmate audience in 1959, when Johnny Cash gave his New Year’s Day concert in San Quentin – and, as he’s said repeatedly, “my life changed forever.”