Today I Started Loving You Again Merle Haggard

Merle Haggard is easily one of, if not 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 exist equally authentic and real nigh his struggles as he possibly 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 wife, Bonnie Owens, from 1965 to 1978. Of course, he also had a decades-long crush on the queen of country, Dolly Parton, which you tin read about more in-depth hither.

But back in 2012, Merle made a surprise advent at the State Music Hall of Fame and Museum forum, where he spoke with the Tennessean about his marriage to Bonnie.

She was too a musician, and won the ACM for Female person Vocalist of the Year in 1965. She married Merle that same year, and started touring with him and helping accept care of his kids from his previous marriage soon later.

Merle says he was in a actually artistic catamenia during that fourth dimension, likewise, and she encouraged him to go on going:

"I got into a heated menstruum, where I was writing pretty proficient and information technology 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 know."

He credits her for making certain some of his biggest hits, like "Mama Tried" and "Workin' Mans Blues", made it to the radio. If it wasn't for Bonnie, he says those songs wouldn't fifty-fifty be:

"At that place wouldn't take been no 'Mama Tried' or 'Workin' Homo Blues' if it wasn't for her. She took those words down at the right time.

I think in '68 or '69, we had six BMI awards that year, and she took downward the songs, each one of 'em, she had took 'em down."

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

"'Today I Started Loving You Again' was written for her. Nosotros'd been on a long tour downwardly in Texas, nosotros'd been downward at that place 90-something days, and we got a week off and and then nosotros had to come back and do 45 more days.

And we took this calendar week off, and we flew home and we were in the L.A. airport, and I said, 'Y'all know, we oasis't had much fourth dimension to say how-do-you-do', talking to her. I said, 'Today I started loving you once more. I had fourth dimension to showtime loving you once again.'"

And similar a true business adult female, she responded with this:

"What a corking idea for a song."

He commencement included the beautiful track on his 1968 record The Legend of Bonnie & Clyde , and it too appeared on the tracklist for his 1970 album The Fightin' Side of Me.

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

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

"I had written 'Today I Started Loving You Again' on this newspaper bag… tore it open and wrote information technology on there. There was another poesy that we never did use.

When I become a royalty cheque, all the songs that I've written make up about half of the money. And 'Today I Started Loving You lot Again' is the rest of the coin, and I only go 12% of information technology.

I'd written it for her, so I gave her one-half of it to begin with. And so we got our divorce, and she got another one-half."

Just the nigh incredible part of the interview comes when Merle talks almost their human relationship years afterwards their marriage ended. He said it took a divorce for them to actually realize they were never meant to be married, just they were able to build a friendship that lasted for many years every bit a result.

He added that they remained close all the manner up until her death in 2006:

"I went to come across her terminal fourth dimension at the home where she was stayin', and she was several years into the Alzheimer's matter. She grabbed me by the arm, there was another people with the states, she said 'I've got to accept you down to my room.'

And then I followed her downwards to the room, and she had this large slick of her and I up behind her bed."

And you might desire to grab a tissue before you read this function…

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

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

I'one thousand sorry, but I cannot even handle that… I call up that'due south ane of the sweetest and most heartbreaking things I've always heard.

And yous have to listen to Merle tell the story himself, considering he fifty-fifty gets choked up remembering that cute moment:

Spotter this and effort non 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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