Two of the greatest of all time in country music…and their friendship was ruined over a poker game.
Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard are undoubtedly two of the best to ever do it. But did you ever wonder why the two, who are frequently mentioned in the same conversations, were never heard on the same song?
When you think back on great pairings of that era in country music history, Waylon and Willie Nelson were frequent collaborators. There was also obviously the iconic supergroup The Highwaymen, comprised of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson.
So why was Merle not included in any of Waylon’s collaborations?
Unfortunately it all comes down to an incident from early in their career that stuck with Waylon, that despite their many mutual friends and connections, ultimately resulted in the two never pairing up for a duet with each other.
On February 9th, 1969, tragedy struck in Waylon Jennings’ camp, as one of his band members was killed in an accident en route to a show in Illinois. Another was badly injured, and it obviously shook Waylon to his core and left him reeling.
Waylon wasn’t with them at the time, but he was in the thick of his drug addiction and it just made everything that much worse.
Down on his luck and in a pretty dark place, not long after that incident, Waylon sat down for a poker game with Merle and his manager, Fuzzy Owens.
He explained it all in his 1996 book Waylon: An Autobiography, and after some very bad luck that night, they wound up wiping his pockets clean of every last cent he had on him, which was only about four or five thousand dollars in total at the time:
“Merle Haggard and his manager, Fuzzy Owens, got me in a poker game and cleaned me out. I had four or five thousand dollars on me, and they won everything.”
Waylon implied that he believed there was malicious intent behind Merle and Fuzzy’s game, especially considering what he had just gone through and the low moment he was at in his life and career.
He admits that Merle was likely in a bad as spot too, as he was as a struggling artist in Nashville, but ultimately Waylon still felt like he was slighted and taken advantage of, especially considering how eager they were to take everything he had in terms of money.
In Waylon’s mind, they were true friends, and you simply don’t do that to friends, no matter what the deal was before the game:
“They were there to get my money. That was it.
I think Merle is a great singer and songwriter, and probably he was in as bad a shape as I was, but we’ve never been close since that night.”
While it’s easy, and true, to say that Waylon lost fair and square, and Merle technically did nothing wrong, it sounds like there might be a little more to the background of their relationship and this story as a whole that he left out of his book.
He admitted that he felt swindled and slighted by Merle, and he added that he “never forgot” the look on their faces when they took his money and ran:
“I can still remember their faces. When I was broke, they said their goodbyes and left. I never forgot that.”
Man, if only they were both still around to give us a little more insight and background on the whole situation.
Obviously it sounds like there’s more to the story, and I don’t really think it was about the money at all, but rather that Waylon felt like Merle kicked him while he was down, so to speak. You can’t even really find a photo of them together, which is absolutely wild, considering they had the same friends, worked with a lot of the same people, and were often at the same events for many decades.
I don’t know of many times, or any times really, they spoke very ill of each other publicly, but you have to imagine there was some deeper stuff going on with them that we’ll likely never know.
As a huge fan of classic country, it’s mostly just sad, because I can’t even imagine how incredible a Merle and Waylon collab would’ve been…
If you want to hear a little bit more about this story and some other great Waylon tales, make sure you check out this video:
