A decade ago, Merle Haggard died on the same day he turned 79 after sharing a premonition that his final moments would coincide with his birthday.
The country music singer fell ill with pneumonia in December 2015, postponing multiple concerts as he recovered in a California hospital. Three months later, Haggard was hospitalized again amid his ongoing battle with double pneumonia.
On the morning of April 6, 2016, Haggard died of complications from pneumonia at his California home. He had just turned 79 that day.
After the news broke of Merle’s death, his sonBen Haggard revealed that his famous father predicted his own death.
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“A week ago Dad told us he was gonna pass on his birthday, and he wasn’t wrong,” Ben, then 22, wrote via Facebook at the time. “[An] hour ago he took his last breath surrounded by family and friends. He loved everything about life and he loved that everyone [sic] of you gave him a chance with his music.”
He added, “He wasn’t just a country singer. He was the best country singer that ever lived.”
Merle was survived by his wife, Theresa Ann Lane—whom he married in September 1993—and his six children. He shared Dana, Marty, Kelli and Noel with ex-wife Leona Hobbs and Jenessa and Ben with Lane. (Two years after her father’s death, Dana died in her sleep on April 10, 2018, at age 61.)
Three days after his death, Merle was laid to rest in a private service at his California ranch. Marty Stuart officiated the funeral, while Stuart and his wife, Connie Smith, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson’s son Micah Nelson and Merle’s sons performed musical tributes to the late star.
Born on April 6, 1937, in Oildale, California, Merle launched his music career following his 1960 release from San Quentin Prison, where he served nearly three years for attempted robbery. He earned his first top 10 song with 1964’s “(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers” and his first No. 1 single with 1966’s “I’m a Lonesome Fugitive.”
During the height of his success, Merle released countless hits including 1968’s “Mama Tried,” 1969’s “Okie From Muskogee,” 1970’s “The Fightin’ Side of Me,” 1973’s “If We Make It Through December,” 1983’s “Pancho and Lefty” with Willie, 1983’s “That’s the Way Love Goes” (for which he won a Grammy for Best Male Country Vocal Performance) and 1987’s “Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star.”
A decade after Merle’s death, he remains one of the most iconic artists in country music history. Cody Johnson paid tribute to the late singer with the Monday, April 6, release of his cover of “Footlights,” the opening track from Merle’s 1979 album, Serving 190 Proof.
“Merle was a poet,” Johnson, 38, said in a press release. “When I’m happy, when I’m sad, when I’m frustrated, and everything in between, he has sung the soundtrack of my life.”
In a 2025 interview, Johnson shared the emotional impact Merle’s death had on him as a fan, telling RFD-TV’s On the Record at the time, “He’s still the only artist that has ever passed away that I’ve cried like he was a family member.”
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