I'd been working on a documentary on
Jimmie Rodgers
the Father of Country Music for years, and
some years
back Willie Nelson told me, "If you want to know
something
about Jimmie Rodgers, you need to talk to Merle
Haggard.
The Saga begins.
After a number of decades in the
entertainment business I
knew how to follow the trail and find the
responsible agents
and managers of about anybody in the biz, and had
enough
credentials myself to get to the responsible parties to work
with celebrities. Years pass...
After starting the hunt for the great
Merle Haggard I'm led to
Frank Mull. Frank went way back with
Merle to when Moby
Dick was a minnow. After some months of
talking on the
phone with Frank I was invited to a few Haggard's
concerts
Thereafter a 12 year friendship and working relationship
began centered on the life and music of "The Singing
Brakeman" one of
Merle's biggest influences and who
was the Father of Country Music Jimmie Rodgers
For the first year that I was around Merle on
various tours and at a number of shows in California,
Frank and I would talk, and
I began to meet the guys in the band, the
road crew and bus drivers, let's call it a vetting dance.
A number of months later,
and after several meet ups with some dates in
California Frank told me to meet them at a show off the 210 near
LA, I met
Frank at a hotel, where he was checking in
the band he said, "Merle is out in the parking lot on his bus,
why don't you go
say hi to him." I got butterflies in my
stomach as I began to walk out of the hotel into the parking lot
headed for the Super Chief
his famous bus. I boarded the bus and
Merle looked at me and said, "Come on in Banford." He
called me Banford, instead of
Benford...hell I didn't care, Merle Haggard
could call me whatever he wanted, and from that point on a great
friendship and a
working relationship began and grew year by
year as the number of projects of his and mine we would work on
grew and our
talks were always about these various projects at
the various stages.
He encouraged me to take pictures
but I was smart enough to know he did not want to be posed.
I have miles of film and
terabytes of dis and dat.
In 2015 we were
out on Hag's ranch working on a project that came to me to pitch to
Hag...I would not take
many things to him,
in that he and I had enough going but this made
us both some money
and got some recording done for our project during the
shoot. After a long
interview with Merle and me on the Jimmie Rodgers Saga, Chuck Banner
asked me to
leave the room
and he sat down with Haggard and the following was
discussed:
Chuck:
Merle, when did you meet ole Benford?
Merle:
“I have been knowing him about 10 to 12 years. When I ran into
Benford, I realized that he was in a search for all the information
he could find. Seems like every time we get together we end up in
the same area, something about country music history. He is a
history buff and I guess I am too...I enjoy digging out the truth of
what really occurred. Benford is one of those kind of people also.”
Chuck:
Have you learned much from Benford? He has been chasing the stories
and his life sounds a lot like Jimmie's Rodgers life himself.
Merle:
“I've learned a lot from Benford. He knows stories about Jimmie
Rodgers that leads to other people. Hank Snow and Earnest Tubb,
Lefty Frizzell. I don't know why my passion level is as a child. I
am still interested in finding out something about my heroes, and he
is in the same business (laughs). When I see him coming I know what
we are going to be talking about. I know he is a history buff and a
interesting person and he has worked awful hard to prepare this
chunk of history.
Chuck:
Merle, you don't let a lot of people just come on the bus, or go on
tours with you?Merle:
“No, that's right.” Chuck:
How come Benford made it into the mix?
Merle:
Well, I could tell immediately that he was (pause) “Knowledgeable”
about what he talked about and that was interesting to me. I didn't
know if he was there to tell me something or find out something but
it is always interesting to talk to Benford.”
coming soon
Norm Hamlett and Frank Mull talking talking on stage during
sound check in
Carmel, Ca., where there was some talk Clint Eastwood might
show. Frank
worked for Merle wearing a number of different hats for 40 +
years... I know
Merle and Frank saw each other as brothers. Hag held
Norm in very high
regard and had been with him since 1965, and he would
introduce Norm as
the Music Director of the Strangers during most shows...
Frank Mull & Merle Haggard leaving the stage, Frank was
always there
with a flashlight so Merle could see what side of the stage
to exit, and
Frank would lead him back to the bus. Merle did not
like to stop after
a show and visit, or sign autographs, he just wanted to get
to his bus
and take his boots off, only a few people had the luck to
get to come
on Hag's bus and talk to him...That I had that freedom was
wild to me.
Over the next decade plus, I would become
a friend and partner, and was one of the selected few that
got to spend many
times with him on his bus talking Jimmie
Rodgers, Lefty Frizzell, Bob Wills and on and on...
For the first year we would
meet up at different venues in
California, sometimes I would follow the busses from town to
town. He told me one time that
Johnny Cash called him and said "Merle
where are you?" Merle said, "I don't know." Cash
told him, "Call room service
and ask them." Merle loved to
tell stories about his great friends, more than talk about
himself, even told me one time
he would love to do a television show
where he told stories about guys like Bob Willis, Johnny
Cash, Roger Miller, Lefty
Frizzell and hundreds of the greats that
he knew personally.
Based on our love of Jimmie Rodgers,
"The Singing Brakeman" and his desire to help me with the
documentary, which
became one of the central elements of the
friendship, and out of the deep passion we both shared to tell
the story of "the
man that started it all" we spent untold
hours talking about music history. We were
both always amazed that no one ever
make a movie or a
documentary about his incredible life. And, Willie was
right when he told me..."If you want to know
something about Jimmie Rodgers...
talk to Merle Haggard.
Merle's songwriting was very important to him. One
time he told
me one of his biggest thrills was that "Today I Started
Loving You
Again" had been recorded by over 420 artists." Then a
big smile!!!
He said he had these stories that must be told and music was
the way.
CUT TO: BOOK STORY LINE AND
NARRATIVE...
It is known in film and literature as the
"protagonist" and by some is called the "hero" usually
by the readers or audience.
It's said that the word arrived from
the Greek language and was used in Greek drama where it referred
to "the person who
led the chorus"... In my narrative Merle
Haggard is the "hero."
Enter Merle Haggard. In his DNA
is a ramblin' fever. His father was part of the Okie
migration to California, where he
settled his family in an old Santa Fe railroad
refrigerator boxcar, known as a reefer, in Oildale, California,
a bedroom
community of Bakersfield. Merle was born in 1937, in the Bakersfield
hospital then brought back to Oildale to be raised in
the
boxcar, with a railroad track only blocks away. Merle said he began to
know loneliness when his dad would leave to
work on the railroad line, then when Merle lost his dad to a brain tumor when Hag was only 9
years old he said he became
scared and angry, and the loneliness
grew deep, and the ramblin' fever took over the rest of his
life.
CUT TO: the setting for my dozen years with
Merle Haggard was the road...
Enter the "antagonists" for there will
be many for The Hag. In an interview with Dan Rather, Mr.
Rather asked him, "You
don't have to work anymore. Why do you
do it? Why jump on the bus and drive a thousand miles to
another date? Merle
said, "I'm scared of the loneliness.
It would be awful quite awful quick. If you want to be
left alone, they'll leave you alone.
I don't want that. We want to
continue...we don't ever want to die. You know that is the
next big event once you retire.
Loneness is a terrible thing."
The ramblin' fever was adding fuel to
hit the road throughout his life, and not two years after the
death of his father he
hopped a freight train at 11 years old, and
began a life of running away and life on the road. By age 16,
and because of
his truancy and "ditching" school he began his
many incarcerations in California Youth Authority Detention
Centers and
jails that led to his 17 escapes...all leading to
being put behind the bars of San Quentin Prison.
Running from that boxcar house in Oildale,
running from those small school rooms, jails and dentition
center lockups
where his spirit was locked away, running to and
from the small back stage rooms to the hotel rooms and the
small
rooms on his bus always with leaving on his
mind. Running from four marriages and families, record
labels and hucksters,
photographers, journalists and fans...Merle
was the runnin' kind...
At 16 years old he played for his idol Lefty
Frizzell, and Lefty had him open a show with his band...Merle
said, "I was
hooked, I knew I could do it, then in San Quentin
Prison he was in the audience when Johnny Cash played...this
locked in
his desire to be a musician... When he got out of prison
his life on the road would be forever...on his birthday April 6,
2016,
made his last run to join Johnny Cash, Bob Wills,
Lefty and Jimmie Rodgers, and died on his bus.
The ramblin' fever, the road and his bus
were antagonists. His
memories that became his songs and the
passion and his deep desire to tell his
life in song so others could learn became his antagonists.
Hear it
in the songs he sang up and down the
highways of the country for six decades.
I was born the running kind, leaving
always on my mind. Home was never home to me at any
time. And I got to keep goin' I can't lay
down Sleep won't hardly come Where there's loneliness all
around. Listen to the train that stops in our
town, Sliver Wings shining in the sunlight. Sing Me
Back Home Where The Lonely Go Too Many
Bridges to Cross Over I'm a Lonesome Fugitive
The darkness of the night catches me crying
A whistle
soon will blow a lonesome sound. No matter where I am
living I've got to tell them where I've been, or
they will send me back to prison if I fail. A canvas
covered
cabin in a crowded labor camp stand out
in this memory I revived. I'm tired of this dirty old
city Big city turn me lose and set me free
Won't be long before my shoes touch
the ground Down
every road there's always one more city.
I'm on the run, the highway
is my home. I'm a hunted
fugitive with just two ways: Outrun the law or
spend my life
in jail. Within me there is a prison,
surrounding me alone As real as any dungeon with
walls of stone I know running is not the answer, but
running's been my nature And
part of me that
keeps moving on...Sing me back home with a song I used to hear Make my old memories come
alive Take me away and turn back the years. Well
I'm leavin' town forever kiss an old boxcar
goodbye...SING ME BACK HOME BEFORE I DIE and KERN
RIVER BLUES...he sang to me as we
held hands on this bus before
his next to last show...
CUT TO: the BOB DYLAN & MERLE HAGGARD
tour
Bob Dylan, Merle Haggard and Buck Owens backstage before
Dylan's
performance. Buck took Dylan one of his red, white and
blue guitars.
I walked in the room with Buck and Merle standing shoulder
to shoulder
and you should have seen the look on Bob's face when he saw
these
2
legends of the Bakersfield sound walk in...His jaw actually
dropped.
Like two historic gun/guitar slingers just walked through
the swinging
doors...I could write a chapter on this night in Portland,
Oregon.
Merle and Buck Owens on Merle's bus talking about Jimmie
Rodgers.
Such a great catch for me to have my film camera with me and
able to
get these two ole friends talking about the guy I am doing a
doc on...
after this shot Merle, Buck, Frank Mull and I started talking
about
Jimmie Rodgers as I am filming thinking OMG, I have this on
film!
Back in 2005, Merle told me that Bob had
called him to tour the United States, and was wanting him to
tour with him as an
opening act on 39 dates across the United
States. Merle told him, "No." "Hell!" Merle
said, "He wanted to go out at the
wrong time of the year for me to want to cross the U.S. North
to South to West to East...And, Merle looked at me and said,
"I'm not an opening act...maybe for Willie." Then he said, "And
the money was not that good."
Days after I got the first phone call from
Frank Mull that this had all come down... Frank calls back and
tells me the tour is on!
Later Merle tells me, "After the call I told my
ranch hand to go to town and get me some Dylan CD's". The
story from Frank
and Merle is that after listening to the CD's he called
Frank and said, "Call Dylan...tell him I will do the show.
That son-of-a-
bitch is a GENIUS!". Let's say Merle Haggard just discovered Bob
Dylan.
1969 Merle released his tribute to Jimmie Rodgers
SAME
TRAIN A
DIFFERENT TIME and in 1997 Bob Dylan released
THE SONGS OF JIMMIE RODGERS: A TRIBUTE.
I know I
played a roll in these two greats meeting and
touring, and
in the full book I will tell how traveling
down two different
roads one day Bob Dylan called Haggard... to
be continued
In
that the prior year I'd been not only running down Haggard for
interviews to have him in the Jimmie Rodgers documentary,
but I had already run down
Bob Dylan, and had already started
talks with his management for his involvement and had his
interest, I could not help but feel some fate, destiny and
synergy going on with the call of this tour coming together.
In
1969, Merle released a tribute album to Rodgers titled SAME
TRAIN A DIFFERENT TIME, and in 1997, Dylan released a
tribute album to the Jimmie titled THE SONGS OF JIMMIE RODGERS:
A TRIBUTE. In short Dylan and Haggard's boys gave
me
permission to be the only video and digital camera on the tour.
A month plus on the road and 39 shows sold out across
the
Nation. I started taking notes and serious video of the
tour itself, the busses, the roadies, the load ins and load
outs, and
the
road warriors doing what they do.
On the 39 show Dylan tour there were these 2 trucks and
Hag's 3 busses
a merch truck and Dylan's 5 busses... was a trip pulling
into all the cities.
The trucking and lights/sound was produced by Upstaging in
Dallas, Tx...
The Bob Dylan Sound boys setting up for a show. Merle
always relied on
having sound provided by the producers of the shows.
He carried a sound
person, someone to run his monitors and sometimes had a
light person, and
sometimes relied on the producers again to furnish this
production assist.
Dylan's production is TOP OF THE LINE... so we were on a
carpet ride.
The Dylan and Haggard journey was in 2006, during that tour
Merle and I became saddle pals, and I felt a friendship growing.
Some weeks after the tour I showed him some of the footage and
pictures that I shot and had them online on my computer to
show to him. That's when he asked me if I wanted to help
him shoot a trailer to help get some footage of his life
together to
then present to some studio and/or script writer. He had
in mind Clint Eastwood or Ron Howard. At that point I
jumped in the
Hag Band Wagon and got my personal All Access Back Stage Pass.
Dylan and Haggard are ROAD WARRIORS and one of the roadies
said
about being roadies, "We are a Backstage Pass from being
homeless."
I said, "Carnies that we are in a traveling circus..."
Merle and Les Paul in New York at Les'
regular Monday night gig.
Les is 94 years old here and Merle
said let's do "Pennies From Heaven"
I INTRODUCED MERLE TO LESS PAUL AND
HAVE A GREAT
CHAPTER WITH PICTURES TO TELL ABOUT
THIS GRAND MEET
For the next decade I was
On The Road Againand
again with Merle Haggard and the Strangers I learned more
about one
of
the great legends of all time. Haggard and I taught each
other a lot of music history, and talked for hours upon hours
about
everybody we knew and both being history buffs, he said one day,
we told each other things we both did not know. I filmed
his stories, took notes when he talked, and for years many times
those stories he remembered brought him to tears.
Later down the road in an interview with Merle asking him about
me, out of this interview, of which I have a copy of, Merle
said,
"When I see ole Benford walking up, I know we are going to be
talking about some music history and something interesting."
cut to:
Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson
From the Merle
Haggard UFO Music Festival in Roswell, NM to
the Willie Nelson's
4th of July Pick nick, then their last tour and
shows together in 2015 on the Django and Jimmie album
Tour
A sell out October 2015 tour in
support of the Django and Jimmie release followed the
album's
#1 position on the Country Charts.
The Boot.com named the album the #3 country album of the
year, and it was the top selling album on
the Amazon.com Classic Country Charts for weeks...
and the album was dedicated to Jimmie
Rodgers and Django Reinhardt and the synergy
grows with this next linkup of Merle
Haggard, Jimmie Rodgers and myself, with Willie to boot.
Willie and Merle circle the wagons...
Merle and Willie laughing and telling jokes while signing
stuff
for fans. These two ole friends always had a fun time
together
CUT TO 2014, somewhere on the
road with Merle...
2014, Merle was talking about getting back
together with Willie on a project. He and Willie and Kris
had just been together
at an awards show, so he and Willie started
the ball rolling on the idea to do another album. Merle
had said they wanted to
do something with Kris, but at the time and for
awhile Kris was dealing with some health problems, which later
showed he
was most dealing with the wrong diagnosis, and he
was having to cancel some shows.
There were a number of times Merle would tell
me about the project, then he would just grab his phone and call
Willie. Last
call I remember he just grabbed his phone and
called Willie and they talked awhile about getting off the dime
and doing the
project. Merle told Willie to "call Mark and let's get
this moving and let's get in the studio." Sony came on board and
that
picked up the pace... As per many of the big recording projects the
doings were kept hush hush, so for awhile I just knew
when
Willie and Merle were getting together to do some recording.
Most of the work had been done on the phone with
Willie and
Merle talking about songs... Merle told me the story about how
the song D'Jango and Jimmie came across his
and Willie's radar
and that is a story that for sure tied me into the mix...more
down the road.
Brothers from the road...I know they loved each other like
brothers...I loved them
and grateful to be able to spend time with
these 2 guys on
a number of occasions
in my one life time... was a ride that only men could dream
of...to smoke pot with
them both, take pictures, interview and record them just
adds to one of the great
chances my life in the entertainment biz that fate and
destiny has taken me on.
'81 was a big year for Merle and his
"red headed brother" Willie Nelson, with the release of
"Pancho and Lefty" the album, single and video were a
big hit. The same year Merle signed with Epic
records and hit the single charts
with a #1 for the song
"Yesterday's Wine" with another
one of his best friends
Mr. George Jones. Same year
he released the book
SING ME BACK HOME.
Jump to July 3rd, 2005, Willie joins
Merle for his MERLE HAGGARD UFO MUSIC FESTIVAL in
Roswell, New Mexico, then they board their busses and
head East to
Fort Worth where Merle would then join
Willie for his
annual 4th of July picnic... frequently trading
off as
closing acts for each other's Festivals.
Was always fun when Haggard and
Nelson joined up...
their merry band of friends and crew and
always made
for a fun family reunion and like a old
time medicine show.
Merle and Willie in New Mexico in 2005, where they were the
main act...
on Merle's UFO and Music Festival in Roswell, New Mexico...
Merle and Lacy J. Dalton, who Merle would book on
his Merle Haggard UFO Music Festival in New Mexico
Along with Haggard, Willie's picnics
at the Ft Worth Stockyards featured
the Likes of Ray Price, Leon Russell,
Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Billy
Joe Shaver, David Allan Coe, Asleep
at the Wheel, Ray Wylie Hubbard.
Also appearing was Cross Canadian
Ragweed, Los Lonely Boys, Django
Walker, Jack Ingram who'd be at other
Haggard shows plus Paula, Luke or