When Johnny Cash performed at the infamous San Quentin State Prison on January 1, 1958, he had no idea that a future country music superstar was in attendance. Merle Haggard, imprisoned for burglary and later trying to escape, was in awe of Cash's show, which unexpectedly became the impetus for Haggard's popularity within the prison walls.
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"He didn't meet me and I didn't meet him then," Haggard told Dan Rather for AXS TV. "The day he was there was New Year's Day, 1958. He had been over at San Francisco the night before, and he had sung or talked his voice completely off. He could barely talk."
Haggard at the time thought Cash wouldn't be able to perform in front of 5000 men, but Haggard was, fortunately, very, very wrong.
"When Cash left, there were guys all over that yard with guitars," Haggard remembers, adding that he and a few others ended up teaching several of them to play.
"They all knew that I played. There must have been 20 guitars ... All of a sudden, we were more popular. We had more clout, because we understood what that guy did," Haggard says.
Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard's Relationship
Haggard of course got out of prison and went on to, like Cash, become a country music legend. Although the two had plenty in common, Haggard admits he wasn't a fan of Cash, at least until Cash's San Quentin show.
"I thought Johnny Cash was kind of corny," Haggard told the Des Moines Register. "I didn't care for him until after he came. There were 5,000 men in there that didn't care if he lived or died and he was a tall, slim country boy with a corny band. He shouldn't do that good."
Once Haggard saw him in San Quentin, everything changed.
"He had the right attitude," Haggard said. "He chewed gum, looked arrogant and flipped the bird to the guards - he did everything the prisoners wanted to do."
Cash recorded At San Quentin in 1969. The record included "Folsom Prison Blues," "A Boy Named Sue" and "I Walked the Line," among other iconic hits.
