SPECIAL VENTURE 
CROWD FUNDING OFFER
At the same time I am preparing the book for I am
finishing the Pre-development and the
Treatment for the movie that is to accompanying the
Memoir. After writing the book and
going over the book formation, I was also viewing all of
the years of film/video I had shot
while I was experiencing what I was writing in the book
out with Haggard for those years
and had a "wake up and smell the coffee moment" when
realized I had filmed what I just
wrote as the book and thinking "I am almost famous."
And I have made a movie that I
am in the movie.
I am looking to raise $10,000.00, as a
contributions/loans. Can be broken down into
smaller amounts. I plan to pay back
the money in full, plus twenty percent (20%) of
the money loaned. For example a contribution/loan
of $1,000.00 will return your original
$1,000.00 plus $200, for a total of $1,200.00. A
$500.00 will return your loan plus $100, for
a total of $600. Any amount will help.
I can not exactly
predict
right now when I will sell the rights and/or get a
publishing deal
to get the advance but I would like
to venture my payback time will
be no later than the
end of the year. However, we can set the payback
for May 2024.
I'll also include your name in the Special Thanks
section of the book, and on the website
at
MeandMerle.com and mail you a
T-shirt, a picture of Merle and
myself together, and a
autographed copy of the book when
printed, pass to the eBook
and VIP passes to all
events upon release of projects
related to the Me and Merle venture
including audio
book, "the making of movie", blogs and
more...
THIS WILL GREATLY HELP TO KEEP THE PRODUCTION
INDEPENDENT...
_________________________________________________________________
The information below gives an idea to what I have to
work with, and some history on
my 12 year friendship with Merle Haggard.
I first met Merle in 2003, as part of my on-going
research into the life of Jimmie Rodgers,
after Willie Nelson advised me, “If you want to know
something about Jimmie Rodgers, you
need to talk to Merle Haggard.” After that I went
down a road for seven years to get to The
Hag. At one point reaching Frank Mull, who is a
friend to this day, and who had been working
with Merle for near 40 years, wearing many hats
including tour manager, friend, and more.
I spent about a year within Merle’s closely knit
entourage, patiently explaining my interest in
Merle’s stories about Rodgers, but without actually
meeting Merle. As many journalists and
researchers know, it sometimes takes a while for an
important, and maybe eccentric, artist
to feel comfortable about a stranger; he seemed to know
I was around, but he was letting his
folks do the vetting.
Once we finally got together, Merle did indeed have a
lot to say about Jimmie, which I re-
corded in notes, audio, and video recordings. Soon
though, as Merle and I grew closer, I
found that I was recording more and more about Merle’s
life, for he could not talk about
Rodgers without talking about his music saga, with
stories about Lefty Frizzell and Bob
Wills. I also began filming his performances and
the actual touring scene of his band and
crew and over the years, Merle the living legend.
Over the course of two years, I grew into my new role as
a confidant to Merle, traveling with
him on the road and visiting his ranch in Redding,
California; I was always welcome on the
tour bus, his inner sanctum, for many interviews and
just plain old conversations. I think he
came to trust me because of my passion to tell the
Jimmie Rodgers story and connect the
dots between Jimmie and between him and is hero Lefty
Frizzell. Plus, me being an Okie
that had worked on the Santa Fe Railroad, plus he said
in an interview "When I see ole
Benford walk up I know we are going to be talking about
something interesting...he is a
history buff and I am too."
However, from Merle's side of the fence, he told me that
because of my National work to
help runaway and missing children was why he and I met.
Over the years we started
working together on the Jimmie documentary, and I was
filming some of his shows, and
as we were developing a friendship, and after the six
week tour with Bob Dylan, and I
was showing him some of the film footage he asked me if
I wanted to help him with his
archives, and to help develop a treatment and a trailer
for a movie that he wanted to get
to the producer Ron Howard, or he would say maybe Clint
Eastwood or Robert Duvall.
I said, "Hell Yes, I'd love to."
He and I began to work on his movie venture, and he
was helping me on the Jimmie
Rodgers project. Down the road we started working
together on The Merle Haggard
Complex that was to be in Oklahoma, and working with
some of the Native American
Casinos. We are working on a Haggard wine and had
the label done and on the way to
finding a vineyard, a Lefty Frizzell movie and I was
helping him with his archives.
And so it came to pass, kind of creeping up on me, that
I was in this privileged position as
the chief historian, or archivist, of Merle’s
recollected life, in his own words and helping him
with his legacy. And all along taking thousands and
thousands of pictures and filming
him performing and numerous interviews. Merle
would introduce me to the likes of George
Strait or Toby Keith as his "video guy." I was the
only still and video camera allowed on
the Bob Dylan/Merle Haggard tour. This went on for
12 years.
My life on the road, onstage, on board his Silver Chief
bus with Merle, with his band and
crew is a story that I know he wanted me to tell.
A few months after his death it came to
me that he had passed on some of his legacy to me, an
unspoken passing to the future,
not unlike Woody Guthrie might have done with my ole pal
Ramblin' Jack Elliott.
Merle's life was country music history itself, and he
knew it was. He wanted to tell some-
one that would not only listen, but help him document
and archive his tale. While we were
talking about Jimmie Rodgers, Lefty Frizzell, Johnny
Cash, Bob Wills, Willie and others
who were his heroes and saddle pals, he told me his
story for it was entwined in their story.
I knew very well the scene around Merle, and I know that
from managers to security and his
bus drivers, photographers were kept away from Merle.
He did not want them back stage
and he sure didn't want them on his bus, or out on his
ranch. Because of this I know I
have a very special story to tell about my time with
this living legend. After his bout with
lung cancer the stories picked up, I think he knew, like
Jimmie Rodgers that his time was
not long.
Being as close as I was to Merle, I knew that he was a
very private man, and had a small
circle of people that helped him keep him on the road,
and I saw him run off more writers
than set with any and talk. I say this because I
know I have a unique story to tell about
Merle, which was during a period of time that he was not
only touring as a great living
legend, but was on a rise to a new level of his fame.
MERLE HAGGARD THE LIVING LEGEND
It has been said a number of times that there may never
be another legend like Haggard,
his boots may never be filled. He received many
many awards over 4 decades including
The Kennedy Center Honor, over 20 awards from the
Academy of Country Music, including
the Pioneer Award, Triple Crown, Poet's Award and the
Crystal Milestone Award. The
BMI Icon Award, six Country Music Association Awards,
inducted into the Country Music
Hall of Fame, four Grammy Awards including the Lifetime
Achievement and Hall of Fame
Award, Inducted into the Nashville Songwriter Hall of
Fame, Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame,
and in 2014, CMT honored him with the Artist of a
Lifetime Award. In 2016 The ACM
created a new Award give in honor of the iconic singer,
The ACM Merle Haggard Sprit
Award, which was presented to Miranda Lambert.
Merle earned the status of a "living legend" and
influenced thousands including the likes
of George Strait, Toby Keith, Allan Jackson, Blake
Shelton, and on and on...He was a
band leader, a songwriter, a singer, a guitar player,
and known to have created the
"Bakersfield Sound" along with his friend Buck Owens.
His music was a sound track
for the displaced Okies during the dust bowl, he was the
working man's poet. Bob Dylan
told
Rolling Stone, "Totally himself. Herculean.
Even too big for Mount Rushmore. No
superficiality about him whatsoever. He definitely
transcends the country genre. If Merle
had been around Sun Studio in Memphis in the Fifties,
Sam Phillips would have turned
him into a rock & roll star."
Please visit link to my website and bio below and you
will see I have been a promoter
and producer for 40 years, and I plan to use that
experience to promote this book and
the Legacy of Merle Haggard, I owe it to him, for he
with unspoken trust passed on
his legacy to me, for he trust that I would do something
to take it further down the road
to being told
