R.I.P. Merle Haggard, dead at 79

Country music legend Merle Haggard died at 79 of pneumonia. According to "TMZ", he passed away on Wednesday, April 6, - the same day he turned 79 years old.

Haggard was diagnosed with pneumonia last year and spent 11 days in the hospital earlier this year. But despite his illness, he toured extensively throughout 2015 and released an album with Willie Nelson called "Django and Jimmie", with further performances scheduled for this month, but cancelled after his health took a turn for the worse.

Haggard, also known as The Poet of the Common Man, grew in the honky tonk scene of California to become one of the founding voices of the Bakersfield Sound of the 1960s. His albums "I’m a Lonesome Fugitive" and "Branded Man" (both released in 1967) and 1968’s "Sing Me Back Home" and "The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde" helped establish him as a powerful voice in the country world. 

As the decade came to a close, Haggard become known for his openly right-wing political songs. His major hits, “Okie from Muskogee” and “The Fightin’ Side of Me”, both took on the perspective of a man frustrated with the anti-war sentiments permeating much of the country.

Haggard had 38 No. 1 country hits over the course of his 50-year career,  he won numerous Academy of Country Music awards, as well as Grammys for Best Country Vocal Performance. He received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award for “Mama Tried” in 1999 and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1994.