Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Merle Haggard Is Dead — and No, That ‘Hippy’ Bob Dylan Did NOT Hate Him

Don’t call Bob Dylan a hippy. Ever.

Longtime country music bad boy Merle Haggard, who died Wednesday on his 79th birthday, found that out the hard way last year.

In February, 2015, as the Jewish folk singing legend accepted the MusicCares lifetime achievement award, Dylan, 74, said something about the born again Haggard that many took as an epic diss.

Dylan was recalling the mixed feelings he had when other artists covered his work.

A young Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard. Image by Getty Images

But Haggard, he said, “didn’t even think much of my songs. I know he didn’t … Buck Owens did, and he recorded some of my early songs … Buck Owens or Merle Haggard? If you had to have somebody’s blessing, you can figure it out.”

Owens, who died a decade ago, was another country great and, it seemed, Dylan was putting him higher up in the pecking order than Haggard.

Haggard was hurt and responded on social media.

“Bob Dylan, I’ve admired your songs since 1964,” he tweeted. “‘Don’t Think Twice’ Bob, Willie [Nelson] and I just recorded it on our new album.”

Dylan, who toured with Haggard a decade ago, then sought to clarify what he said. And he blamed past acrimony on Haggard calling him a hippy.

“I wasn’t dissing Merle, not the Merle I know,” .

“What I was talking about happened a long time ago, maybe in the late Sixties. Merle had that song out called ‘Fighting Side of Me’ and I’d seen an interview with him where he was going on about hippies and Dylan and the counterculture, and it kind of stuck in my mind and hurt, lumping me in with everything he didn’t like.”

Dylan insisted they were friends.

“But of course times have changed and he’s changed too. If hippies were around today, he’d be on their side and he himself is part of the counterculture… so yeah, things change. I’ve toured with him and have the highest regard for him, his songs, his talent – I even wanted him to play fiddle on one of my records and his Jimmie Rodgers tribute album is one of my favorites that I never get tired of listening to. He’s also a bit of a philosopher. He’s serious and he’s funny. He’s a complete man and we’re friends these days. We have a lot in common.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.