Haggard coming to Packard

Staff report

WARREN

Country music legend Merle Haggard will come to Packard Music Hall on June 25 for an 8 p.m. concert.

Tickets are $48, $58 and $68 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at ticketmaster.com, by phone at 800-745-3000 and at the Packard box office, 1703 Mahoning Ave. NW.

Haggard, an integral part of the outlaw country movement since its inception, has scored dozens of hits in his career, which spans five decades. His well-known songs include “Okie from Muskogee” and “The Fightin’ Side of Me.”

Haggard, was inducted in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1994, is recognized as a voice of the common man and one of the most influential artists in country music.

The term “living legend” imposes an aura of loftiness that’s at odds with the grit and heart of Haggard’s songs. “I’d be more comfortable with something like “professor,” he once told a reporter, and the description suits him. Studying, analyzing and observing the details of life around him, Haggard relays what he sees, hears and feels through his songs.

Haggard’s rough and tumble early years, which included stints in prison, are well-documented.

The true-to-himself Haggard has also won over many musicians and critics in the rock world. Producer Don Was, who has worked with Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and Bonnie Raitt, told Newsweek in 1996, “He’ll tell you he’s a country singer, but to me the essence of rock ’n’ roll is a cry for freedom and rebellion. And I don’t know anyone who embodies it better. Every aspect of his life is a refusal to submit.”