Sammy Davis Jr. once called Merle Haggard the greatest country singer since Hank Williams. Haggard was in the audience—as an inmate—during three of Johnny Cash’s performances at San Quentin. He recently released I Am What I Am, his 76th album. We spoke to him as he was driving to his cabin in far-northern California with his wife in the front seat telling him not to forget Jesus. This interview by Daiana Feuer & Gerard Olson.

What is it like having your 17-year-old son touring with you?
It’s very complimentary. It’s inspiring. It makes me very proud. It makes my wife very proud. He’s not there because he’s my son. He’s there because he’s a great guitar player.
Your shows usually don’t have much of a set list—do you ever pull out songs he doesn’t know
No. He’s able to play songs he doesn’t know. He’s like working with a fully trained musician.
What is your reading on the current political situation? You wrote a song called ‘Hopes Are High’ as Obama was about to take his oath of office—how do you feel about him nowadays?
I chose to stay out of politics because I was so disappointed in the first six months. So … that’s all I want to say. Do you feel like there’s hope for the future?
Like I say, I’m just going to stay out of politics. I don’t have any wise words for anybody. I’m choosing to stay out of it.
If there was a lesson you were going to pass on to a younger generation so they didn’t have to wait their whole lives to find it out, what would you pass on?
Honesty. Above all—honesty and being faithful to what you believe in.
Theresa Haggard: And Jesus. And Jesus!
Did you end up installing 100-acres of solar panels at your house?
Yeah … the numbers don’t work out. If I was 30 years old, it’d be a great project. The numbers just don’t work out for a guy my age. It’s a good thing—if you’ve got 30 years to spend, it might be reasonable. But it’s not reasonable for me. It’s always been my desire—since I was 20 years old—to be somewhere off the grid. Somewhere self-sufficient—depending on no one for my existence.
In what ways have you achieved that?
We live in a place where there’s fish and there’s wildlife and there’s all kinds of things to eat, should we have to resort to that. But, mainly, we could be off grid at this moment. I’m pretty happy with it. I have a family and I just trust in Jesus.
What keeps you still wanting to be an entertainer then? It seems like those two things would be separate. Leading a self-sufficient life as opposed to going on the road, doing shows, entertaining people and needing to present yourself to them?
You’ve got to shift gears, don’t you? Well, that’s exactly what I have to do when I go on the road. I shift gears and go into that mode. And when I come home, I try to get back into the fatherly mode and the grandfather mode. The mode of family first.
Do you think you’ll ever give up music?
I hope I’ll always be able to do it. It keeps me younger. It keeps me healthy. It’s like screaming, you know. If you get up there and holler for an hour, you’ll feel better. So it’s good for my health. I’ll do it as long as I can.
Are there any contemporary musicians that you enjoy listening to?
I listen to very little of these things that are new. I have my favorites, I guess. Taylor Swift kind of knocks me out because she pisses everybody else off. I like her cuz she writes her songs. I like Joe Nichols. I like that little fat kid that sings with the—what the hell’s the name? Rascal Flatts. I like them.
You’ve said that Iris DeMent and Jimmie Rodgers do the same thing—they love the song so much that they get lost in the song, and you can see it in their eyes.
They’re both what I call lifers. You can like them or dislike them, but they’re here to stay. They’re not going to leave the business because they do a bad show. They’re here forever because they’re meant to be what they are. There seems to be a difference between people who just sing songs and perform to entertain and people who do it because they have to because they can’t do anything else. That’s probably true with the people you mentioned. Jimmie Rodgers was ill. He was too sick to be a railroad worker.
You escaped from seventeen correctional institutions by the time you were 21. How’d you find the best way to break out of prison?
Well, God—I can hardly remember. It seems so long ago. Things were different then—they weren’t as completely secure as they are now. It was easier to do. And I didn’t want to stay in prison. And I didn’t feel like I deserved to be in prison. So I didn’t stay there. And I escaped. My idol at that time was Willie Sutton. He was an escape artist and a hero of the world. He was my idol and I was going to try to out-escape him.
How did you get away with brewing beer in prison? What did you use?
Well, the prison is like a little city. There’s a kitchen, you know, and all the essential necessities are found there in the kitchen to make the beer. It was no big problem.
What’s the earliest memory from your career that you still hold on to?
You know, I’m still living in today, yesterday and tomorrow. About a three day period. Outside that little bubble, I’d be kind of drinking my own bath water if I spent much time outside that.
What is your best drinking song?
It’d have to be ‘This Bottle Let Me Down.’
What’s your drink these days?
I like to drink George Dickel whisky. It’s a Tennessee mash. It’s what I drink. I don’t drink much of anything, but when I do drink I don’t mess around with beer. Get straight to the point and water back.
Why do you think hearing a sad song makes someone happy?
I don’t know. I’m just the guy that writes the song. I don’t know why people like them. I wish you knew. If you knew the answer to that, I’d ask you. It’s about connecting to something that’s separate from you. It makes you feel that there’s other people out there that are real and feel things. Well, the subject matter is usually one word: love. And love is as big as the universe.
Your new album seems very much oriented around love. It’s very romantic in parts. Do you feel that you’re in a time of your life where you’re full of love?
I have a young wife and I’m taking her to the lake right now. I better be in love!
You said once that when you were growing up in America there was more choice than there is now. What did you mean?
Everything hadn’t been picked over like it is now. Everything’s picked over. There’s somebody living behind every tree. You have to go a long ways west in order to find anything that still resembles what was there 50 years ago. It’s changed and everything looks alike. Every off-ramp looks like the last off-ramp. There’s no character in anything like there used to be.
Have they really ‘outlawed fun’?
Maybe they just camouflaged it to a point where an old man like me don’t see it. It’s probably on the internet or something. I don’t see people out in the yard. I don’t see people gathered around a table playing cards. I see ’em all with some damn thing in front of their face, on their lap, wrapped up in something that I just don’t understand.
At the same time, people are interested in self-sufficiency—raising bees and making beer, listening to older music, as opposed to listening to more dispensable pop. People wish they could experience that time when there wasn’t a house behind every tree.
There’s no choice, though. This is just the way it is right now. The only chance you have of knowing what I’m talking about is if I explain it correctly. Or somebody else explains it.
Do you still get angry?
No. That’s the reason I’ve chosen to stay out of politics. I’m too old to get angry. So I might as well stay out of it.
By the way, how’s your dog?
My dog?
When we were supposed to have an interview on Friday, you had to take your dog to the hospital.
That’s right. We had a dog that lost its eye. We’re going to get it back today or tomorrow.
I hear you have a habit of picking up old dogs that are on their last legs.
They come to us. My family has a lot of love to give. My children enjoy helping things. We’ve got a long history of it and a lot of things to tell. In fact, you can write a book about that— about the children helping different animals. Birds. Ducks and turkeys. My wife giving up her time to keep a damn magpie alive. We live out in the wild and we don’t allow anybody to shoot out here or hunt—we have a virtual paradise where the animals are not afraid of us. They look to us for protection.
What’s the difference between the connection you make with animals as opposed to the one you make with humans? Why are you an animal lover?
Why am I an animal lover? Because I’m alive! Alive! [Laughs] Aren’t you an animal lover? I think most people that are red-blooded are animal lovers.
Is there one goal that you still would like to achieve in your lifetime, as a musician or as a person?
I’m just a songwriter and a husband and a messenger …
TH: A man of God. A man of God.
I’m an uncle and a grandpa and I am what I am.

MERLE HAGGARD’S I AM WHAT I AM IS AVAILABLE NOW FROM VANGUARD. VISIT MERLE HAGGARD AT MERLEHAGGARD.COM.