This Merle Haggard Standard Was Written Over a Humble Hamburger Dinner After a Stressful Day at the Airport

Inspiration can strike in the unlikeliest of places. And apparently, that includes the uncomfortably cramped crowds that gather around the luggage pickup carousels at LAX. That’s where country legend Merle Haggard and his then-wife and collaborator, Bonnie Owens, found themselves after a particularly arduous months-long tour in the late 1960s. The musicians were tired and drained, but the promise of the brief respite that was to come helped shake an idea loose.

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That idea would eventually blossom into “Today I Started Loving You Again”, which Haggard clarified he wrote for Owens in Marc Eliot’s The Hag. “We were at LAX at the luggage pickup. And suddenly, I turned to Bonnie and said, ‘You know, we haven’t had time to say hello to each other.’”

Picking up the story in his second memoir, For The Record, Haggard wrote, “I looked at Bonnie and saw the exhaustion all over her face. She stared back, like people do when you look directly into their eyes. And I said, ‘You know what?’ And she said, ‘No, what?’ ‘Today I started loving you again,’ I said.”

Merle Haggard Wrote “Today I Started Loving You Again” Over Hamburgers

In For The Record, Merle Haggard recalled the lightbulb moment that occurred in both his and Bonnie Owens’ minds after he made his offhand remark at the luggage carousel in LAX. Both musicians interpreted Haggard’s comment in two ways. There was the romantic element of a working husband-and-wife duo finally having time to be alone with each other, certainly. But Owens and Haggard both knew that the “today I started loving you” comment had serious songwriting legs.

“We both heard what had been said, and our professional ears heard it, too,” Haggard wrote in his memoir. While the seed was planted that day in LAX, the song wouldn’t fully blossom until a few weeks later. Haggard and Owens were on the road once again. That night, Haggard asked his wife to pick up some hamburgers and bring them back to their hotel room.

“When she came back with a brown paper sack filled with hamburgers, I had a paper with the words, ‘Today I Started Loving You Again’ written all over it,” Haggard recalled. “I was seated in the middle of the bed in my shorts, cross-legged with the guitar in my lap. And I said, ‘Bonnie, sit down and listen to this.’ She listened and was speechless.”

The Classic Song Was the Gift That Kept On Giving

Merle Haggard released “Today I Started Loving You Again” as the B-side to his No. 1 hit, “The Legend Of Bonnie And Clyde”. The Bonnie Owens-inspired track failed to chart. Still, it became a country music standard covered by countless artists, including Waylon Jennings, Conway Twitty, Emmylou Harris, and Dolly Parton. Because Owens was the one who technically inspired the track, both through Haggard’s feelings toward her and her quick thinking to latch onto the titular phrase, Haggard gifted Owens half of the songwriting credits.

Because so many artists went on to cover the song, that 50% songwriting share truly was the gift that kept on giving. Haggard said multiple times that he felt like giving Owens half of the credit was only fair. Moreover, even with his small ownership stake, he still earned most of his money from that track alone.

“It was money well-deserved,” manager Frank Mull said, per The Hag. “I know in his way, he loved her until the day he died. She deserved that song. Maybe Merle’s greatest gift he ever gave her.”

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