The Story Behind the Final Song Merle Haggard Wrote From His Hospital Bed

Nearly two months before his death in 2016, Merle Haggard played his final concert at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, California on February 13. Though visibly drained from ongoing health issues, Haggard powered through an 18-song set that ended on “Okie From Muskogee.” Neither the audience nor Haggard could imagine that night in Oakland would be his final performance.

Within the prior two decades, Haggard received an angioplasty to open clogged arteries in 1995 and was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2008. In the final months of his life, Haggard was also battling pneumonia, which forced him to cancel several tours while laid up in hospitals.

During his treatments, Haggard continued writing from his hospital bed. Though doctors told him not to return to the road, he did. Haggard also walked from his home across the road to his Hag Studio to record some of the songs he’d written in the hospital, including his nostalgic ballad “Kern River Blues.”

Recorded on February 9, 2016, “Kern River Blues” features his son Ben on electric guitar, and became the final song Haggard recorded before his death on April 6, 2016, the day of his 79th birthday.

[RELATED: The Day Johnny Cash Performed for Merle Haggard at San Quentin Prison]

Kern River

In 1985, Haggard, a native of Oildale, California, just north of Bakersfield across the Kern River, had already released the first part of his “Blues.” The title track of his fortieth album, “Kern River” went to No. 10 on the Country chart, and tells the grim story of Haggard’s girlfriend who died by drowning in the body of water, that runs through the Sierra Nevada range in California, during a moonlight swim.

Though the story is fictional, Haggard’s delivery makes it believable along with his stirring opening I’ll never swim Kern River again, and pauses between each line after.

I’ll never swim Kern River again
It was there that I met her
It was there that I lost my best friend
And now I live in the mountains
I drifted up here with the wind
And I may drown in still water
But I’ll never swim Kern River again

“Kern River Blues”

More than three decades later, Haggard’s “Kern River Blues” was a more personal, nostalgic letter about leaving Bakersfield in the early 1970s and how the area changed over time.

I’m leavin’ town tomorrow
Get my breakfast in the sky
Well, I’m leavin’ in the early morning
Eat my breakfast in the sky
Be a donut on a paper
Drink my coffee on the fly

I’m flying out on a jet plane
Gonna leave this town behind
I’m flying out on a jet plane
Gonna leave this town behind
They’ve done moved the city limits
Out by the county line

Put my head up to the window
Watch the city fade away
Put my head close to the window
Watch Oildale fade away
The blues back in the ‘30s
Just likе the blues today

[RELATED: Merle Haggard’s 1969 Anti-Vietnam Protest Song “Okie From Muskogee”]

The final verses of Haggard’s song leave a more prescient mark as he’s saying a quiet goodbye—Well, I’m leaving town forever—to the place he once called home.

Therе used to be a river here
Runnin’ deep and wide
Well, they used to have Kern River
Runnin’ deep and wide
Then somebody stole the water
Another politician lied

When you closed down all the honky tonks
The city died at night
When you closed down all the honky tonks
The city died at night
When it hurt somebody’s feelings
Well, a wrong ain’t never right

Well, I’m leaving town forever
Kiss an old boxcar goodbye
Well, I’m leaving town forever
Kiss an old boxcar goodbye
I dug my blues down in the river
But the old Kern River is dry

“Kern River Blues” was released after Haggard’s death. “The family received a tremendous outpouring of love and prayers for Merle from his fans and is forever grateful,” read a statement by the Merle Haggard estate. “They were searching for a way of thanking everyone and decided to release this song.” Proceeds from the sale of the song benefitted homeless charities.

Photo: Merle Haggard performs at the 42nd Annual Willie Nelson 4th of July Picnic at Austin360 Amphitheater on July 4, 2015 in Austin, Texas. (Gary Miller/Getty Images)