Twenty years ago, the country legend talked with Variety's chief music critic about what drove him to write the anti-Bush/anti-Iraq-war song, now being revived as the Republican VP candidate's walk-up ...

"America First" was a theme in JD Vance's speech Wednesday at the Republican National Convention, and it was even a theme in his intro music to the stage. Vance greeted the crowd at the RNC Wednesday ...

On this day, November 21, 1987, this famous country artist released his 38th and final No. 1 hit on the Billboard country charts.

Take a pinch of every song Merle Haggard has written, put it in a huge black pot, and simmer over an open fire until well blended. The result: the embryonic stage of the persona of Merle Haggard. The ...

A singer singing about his or her feelings for someone else is normal – be it pop or country or any other type of music. But it is rather un-normal for a performer to declare his love for another ...

Many of his songs are better known by other singers’ interpretations, like Janis Joplin’s “Me and Bobby McGee,” Johnny Cash’s “Sunday Morning Coming Down” and more. By Lindsay Zoladz Nine tracks from ...

Nine and a half years after his death -- on his 79th birthday, in fact -- Merle Haggard is the subject of two new albums, one ...

Country legend Merle Haggard has been brought into the national spotlight again, thanks to vice presidential candidate JD Vance repeatedly using one of the late singer’s anthems as his walk-up music ...

That last query is impossible to answer with certainty, of course, since Haggard passed away in 2015, and his political views were unpredictable enough in life, let alone in death. But the legend’s ...