Take a pinch of every song Merle Haggard has written, put it in a huge black pot, and simmer over an open fire until well blended. The result: the embryonic stage of the persona of Merle Haggard. The ...

HAGGARD: (Singing) Well, hey, hey, the working man, the working man like me. I ain't never been on welfare, and that's one place I won't be. INSKEEP: He sang all the country music stereotypes, but is ...

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Haggard's biographer Marc Eliot about his book: The Hag. Haggard spent his early years going from family tragedy to odd jobs to broken marriages to petty crime to prison.