I'd been working on a documentary on
Jimmie Rodgers AKA 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. So the Saga begins.
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 one of 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 Jimmie Rodgers, and and in general
our mutual passion for country music history that led us
working on a film about
Lefty Frizzell and down the track he
would ask me to help him make a movie on his life
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.
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 many different hats going back to
1968. I know
Merle and Frank saw each other as brothers. Merle had held
Norm in very
high
regard and being with him since 1965, and he would
introduce him as
Music Director of the Strangers. He would tell me that
Frank, Norm and
Fuzzy Owen were the engineers that kept his touring train on
track...
Frank Mull and 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.
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
his way.
The last thing Merle said to me as I left our last
converstaion...
I AM GOING TO DIE ON THIS BUS...EVEN IF IT KILLS ME
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...
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 two
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 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...
FLASH BACK---WILLIE TOLD ME
THAT MY DREAMS WERE DREAMING ME
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 30+ 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... second show in Seattle I would have the honor to
introduce Merle to 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
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 31 show Dylan tour there were these two 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, Texas...
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.
Merle Haggard
and Willie Nelson
From the Merle
Haggard UFO Music Festival in Roswell, NM to
Willie Nelson's
4th of July Picnick, then their last tour and shows
together in 2015 on the Sony Django and Jimmie album
Tour
Merle Haggard & Willie Nelson these two Brothers
in Arms
perform for the last time together and forever the
songs
REASON TO QUIT --- PANCHO AND LEFTY---OKIE FROM
MUSKOGEE
A sell out October 2015 tour in
support of the Django and Jimmie album 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...
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...
In 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.
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 two 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 business that fate and
destiny has taken me on.
1981 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 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, family and crew and
always made for a fun family reunion.
Jack Ingram good friend who was on a
few Merle Haggard and/or Willie Nelson
shows I worked with Jack in LA and we
had a mutual friend in Miranda Lambert.
Merle and Lacy J. Dalton, who Merle
would book onmhis Merle Haggard UFO Music Festival in New Mexico,
also the
great Johnny Rodriguez and Robert Earle
King were part of the gigs then we head
to Texas and play with Willie Nelson there.
Remember Lacy J's song
The Boys on 16th Avenue
Merle and I were at the local radio
station in Oregon for a outdoor festival
and Merle is doing a radio interview that
he was not that happy about
but he fullfilled his deal with the
promoters. He did not have a new album
out and we just flew in on a private jet
because did not want to be on
the bus for hours, due to this being only
one show and then back home.
I have just taken Merle down the row of
busses to introduce him to the
19 year old Miranda Lambert who was on
tour supporting her new album
and I had a phone call from Frank Mull
telling me she was going crazy to
meet Haggard and his music was the first
CD she had bought in her life.
The stay friends and I have a great
chapter in the book telling about them.
Moments after I brought Merle to Miranda's bus a forever
firendship began and love the chapter on these two I have in
my
Chronicle Some of Us Fly
Miranda and Buffalo Benford
Miranda and her dad Rick Lambert
Yepper!! Hag signed two
Gibson Guitars for
Miranda Lambert
The story is in my book Some of Us Fly
to
be released April 6, 2026
A decade after Merle Haggard passed
away
on his 79th Birthday April 6, 1937
Rough Draft 3rd read/rewrite Copyright March
2022
Rough Draft
4th WGA September 2025
by Benford Standley, All Rights Reserved
Merle Haggard in Front of the
Camera
Buffalo Benford Behind the Camera
Joined by Willie Nelson, Les Paul, Kris
Kristofferson, Miranda Lambert, David
The
interview below is with filmmaker Chuck Banner and
Merle
Haggard out at a film session with Merle on his in
Northern California Happy Fish Ranch...and
they are about
their mutual friend and your
present writer that you read
about Showman, producer, author
Buffalo Benford
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.”
Chuck:
It's a passion with him...
Merle:
“It sure is, you can see that, not hard to tell that.”
March
2022 
