Sam Rockwell To Play Country Singer Merle Haggard and He'll Be Singing in The Film
Sam Rockwell is going to star in an upcoming biopic for 1960s country-western singer Merle Haggard. The project is set up at Amazon Studios and Rockwell will actually be singing Haggard’s classic music in the film.
While I’m familiar with some of Haggard’s music, I don’t know anything about Haggard’s life, but I love Rockwell and he’s going to be freakin’ great in it! Here’s a break down of Haggard’s life thanks to Deadline:
Haggard had a long and storied career, but the film will focus on his tumultuous rise from inmate who served three years at San Quentin – where he was among the prisoners who watched the first prison performance of Johnny Cash in a life changing moment – to the clubs in Bakersfield hometown, to Capitol Records in Los Angeles to becoming what Kris Kristofferson called “The greatest artist in American music history” and what the Country Music Hall of Fame calls “The single most influential singer-songwriter in country music history.”
Haggard had a rough upbringing, losing his beloved dad when he died of a stroke while the youth was nine. His mother, Flossie, went to work and left Merle to his own devices in Bakersfield, and by 13 he was a truant who began hopping freight trains to New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma, stealing cars and engaging in petty theft. After racking up a string of arrests. He escaped 17 times from California juvenile facilities as a teen and that stat got him sent to notorious San Quentin as soon as he reached adult age.
Its explained that the movie will cover his “subsequent struggle to escape that past to become a better man and legendary artist. Ashamed of his past, Haggard hid his ex-con status from all but those closest to him until finally coming clean on Johnny Cash’s TV show in 1969. The story also focuses heavily on Merle’s complicated love affair, which played out on-stage and off, with singer Bonnie Owens – his singing partner and eventual wife. Once Haggard figured it all out, he became a symbol of the power of rehabilitation.”
Merle had 9 number one hits from 1966-1970, and over the course of his career, he would record 38 number one song. Some of his biggest hits included Okie From Muskogee, The Fightin’ Side Of Me, Sing Me Back Home, The Fugitive, Workin’ Man Blues, Mama Tried and Today I Started Loving You Again.
He ended up winning seven CMA awards including Entertainer of The Year in 1970. Then in 1972 Haggard was pardoned by Governor Ronald Reagan, and astronaut Charlie Duke took his Merle Haggard tape to the moon on Apollo 16.
Robin Bissell is set to direct the film, and he will write the script with Merle’s widow, Theresa Haggard. The movie will be based on the Haggard memoir Sing Me Back Home.