Merle Haggard Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have announced details of an extensive new North American tour to take place this summer.The tour will be titled ‘Can’t Let Go’, and will kick off on June 2 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and run for 30 dates, wrapping up in Vail, Colorado on September 1, with some more dates also expected to still be added. See below for full details.Tickets for the shows went on pre-sale today (February 14), with the general sale taking place at 10am local time on Friday (February 16) here.The duo last toured together in 2022, which itself was their first complete tour in 12 years.

Bernie Taupin received a Musical Excellence Award at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony Friday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Sir Elton John including ‘Tiny Dancer’, was the recipient of a Musical Excellence Award at the Rock Hall last night (November 3). He was inducted alongside Kate Bush, Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, Rage Against the Machine, Willie Nelson, George Michael and The Spinners.In his speech, he spoke about his creative “marriage” with John, and made reference to Jann Wenner’s recent controversial remarks about Black and female artists.“I guess you could say my being inducted is a paradox, perhaps, but either way, I’m honored to be in the class of 2023 alongside a group of such profoundly ‘articulate’ women and outstanding ‘articulate’ Black artists along with all of the other music masters here tonight,” Taupin said.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Academy of Country Music has rolled out the biggest news about its 16th annual ACM Honors event, happening Aug. 23 in Nashville — who the specially selected honorees will be, traditionally a curated mix of current superstars, veteran artists and industry execs or broadcast personalities. Chris Stapleton, Kane Brown and Tim McGraw are the reigning artist titans represented in the honorary awards, with Breland and Hardy representing a newer guard. Mary Chapin Carpenter, Clint Black and K.T. Oslin are the longer-standing artists getting their flowers from the ACM. Stapleton qualified for the ACM Triple Crown Award after being named entertainer of the year at the most recent ACM Awards for the first time. The honor goes to anyone who gets that top honor after previously having been named male (or female) vocalist of the year and new male (or female) vocalist of the year at the ACMs. Only eight artists have ever achieved the feat. (Stapleton’s predecessors: Jason Aldean, Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney, Mickey Gilley, Merle Haggard, Miranda Lambert, Barbara Mandrell and Carrie Underwood.)

Dolly Parton loves having a little fun on stage!

“Are there any more real cowboys?” Neil Young sang Saturday night at the Hollywood Bowl on a rare evening when he was neither the headliner nor, at age 77, even close to the oldest artist on the bill.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Whenever country-rock pioneers of the late ‘60s and very early ‘70s come up — whether it’s the Byrds, Burritos, Poco, Michael Nesmith, et al. — the Rolling Stones tend to be left out of the conversation. Maybe that’s fine: It’s not as if there aren’t other reasons to bring them their (dead) flowers. Still, they were experimenting with hybrid genre elements as early as 1968’s “Beggars Banquet” LP. Those latent elements mostly stayed kind of latent: Even though Keith Richards — admirer of Merle Haggard, close pal of Gram Parsons — took it very seriously, Mick Jagger admitted, “I don’t know if I’m able to do it without being tongue-in-cheek.” But if the group could only move so close to country in the end, country was sure able to move closer to them over the years. Think of how many cues the loud and rowdy Southern rock movement took from the Stones before it started crossbreeding with country later in the century.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The most famous “family tradition” in country music would have to be the intergenerational legacy of the Hank Williams clan. Right now, though, there’s another scion of Nashville royalty making good as a third-generation success: singer-songwriter Mitchell Tenpenny, who made modern chart history by managed to have two different No. 1 country airplay hits within the last month. But the rhetorical questions made famous by Hank Jr. — “Why do you drink? Why do you roll smoke?” — don’t apply in this case, as Tenpenny’s forebears in the business are a pair of strong but morally upstanding women: his grandmother, the late Donna Hilley, who capped a 31-year career at Sony/ATV Music Publishing by serving as CEO from 1994-2005, and his mother, Debbie Tenpenny, who currently works at Sony Music Publishing.

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of ContentNearly 50 years after his passing, 2022 Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee Lefty Frizzell remains one of the indisputable pillars of country music. His influence on another country music giant, the late Merle Haggard, is both profound and clear to anyone with ears. Haggard’s vocal style developed in the 1950s when Frizzell’s impact was at its peak.

Dallas Frazier, the songwriter behind such country hits as The Oak Ridge Boys’ “Elvira,” The Hollywood Argyles’ “Alley Oop” and Emmylou Harris’ “Beneath Still Waters,” has died, according to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s CEO Kyle Young. He was 82.

Ralph Emery, the country music disc jockey and television host who came to prominence on Nashville’s WSM, died on Saturday, according to a spokesperson for the Country Music Hall of Fame. He was 88.

Led Zeppelin‘s Robert Plant and singer-songwriter Alison Krauss stopped by The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on Friday (November 19) to perform two songs from their new collaborative album ‘Raise The Roof’.The pair’s latest LP, which was released on the same day as the performance, features 12 new recordings of songs by the likes of Merle Haggard, Allen Toussaint, The Everly Brothers, Anne Briggs, Geeshie Wiley, Bert Jansch and more.

Led Zeppelin‘s Robert Plant and singer-songwriter Alison Krauss have announced a 2022 US and European tour, marking their first time hitting the road together in 12 years.It comes after the pair released their new album ‘Raise The Roof’ yesterday (November 19), marking 14 years since the release of their first collaborative release, ‘Raising Sand’.‘Raise The Roof’ features 12 new recordings of songs by the likes of Merle Haggard, Allen Toussaint, The Everly Brothers, Anne Briggs, Geeshie Wiley,

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Drummer Kenny Malone, a prolific session player who played on hits for Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard and many others, has died.

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have announced that they are releasing another album together, fourteen years after their much acclaimed collaborative record ‘Raising Sand’.

Grammy Awards.The 12-track “Raise the Roof” will be out Nov. 19 from Rounder Records and is a collection of covers like its predecessor.

Roy Trakin Don Zimmermann, the former President/COO of Capitol/EMI Records, died on Dec. 11.

There are few things more stereotypically “American” than country music. To the average person, if you think of the country music legends of the past 50 years, many will just imagine the likes of Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard, and Patsy Cline.

Merle Haggard in an upcoming biopic about the legendary country singer’s life.Robin Bissell – who directed Rockwell in The Best Of Enemies – will helm the project, and he will write the script with Haggard’s widow, Theresa Haggard, based on the singer’s memoir Sing Me Back Home.According to Deadline, Bissell and Haggard will produce the film together for Amazon Studios, who have grabbed the rights to the film and book.Rockwell is said to be in talks to take on the role of the country legend, and

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmEXCLUSIVE: Amazon Studios has acquired a package for a film biopic of iconic C&W singer Merle Haggard. Oscar-winning actor Sam Rockwell is circling to play Haggard, and he will do his own singing of Haggard’s standards, recorded during the ‘60s when the picture is set.Robin Bissell will direct the film, and he will write the script with Merle’s widow, Theresa Haggard, based on the Haggard memoir Sing Me Back Home.