TED HAGGARD"S Uncle MERLE HAGGARD Speaks out! Exclusive Interview!!!

Thad · #1 11-26-2007, 08:20 AM

DId you know that Ted and Merle were Cousins??????

Merle gives his take on Ted - check it out and comment

PALO CEDRO — Country singer Merle Haggard finally broke his silence about the moral failure of his younger cousin, Ted, and said he thinks Ted will turn out "just fine."
"Ted and I always loved each other, even though we’ve had our differences," said Merle in an exclusive interview from his country estate. "Our mothers raised us Haggards to bounce back."
Merle learned of his evangelical relative’s alleged homosexual affair on CNN and was "outright stunned."
"I felt like calling him and welcoming him into the outlaw club, but I didn’t think he’d appreciate that right then," he says.
Instead, Merle called Ted a few days later and offered unlimited moral and financial support. The country singer says his own stint in prison was "a positive turning point in my life."

http://larknews.com/october_2007/secondary.php?page=3

Thad · #2 11-26-2007, 08:22 AM

Merle Haggard breaks silence about cousin Ted’s ‘stumble’

PALO CEDRO — Country singer Merle Haggard finally broke his silence about the moral failure of his younger cousin, Ted, and said he thinks Ted will turn out "just fine."
"Ted and I always loved each other, even though we’ve had our differences," said Merle in an exclusive interview from his country estate. "Our mothers raised us Haggards to bounce back."
Merle learned of his evangelical relative’s alleged homosexual affair on CNN and was "outright stunned."
"I felt like calling him and welcoming him into the outlaw club, but I didn’t think he’d appreciate that right then," he says.
Instead, Merle called Ted a few days later and offered unlimited moral and financial support. The country singer says his own stint in prison was "a positive turning point in my life."
"Maybe that’s a Haggard thing," he says. "We have to mess up bad to learn our lesson."
The Haggard cousins are one of the oddest couples since Jimmy Swaggart and Jerry Lee Lewis, also cousins, hit the scene in the 1950s. For years, Ted concealed and even denied his relationship to the country singer, who is 19 years his senior. After being raised together in Bakersfield, the Haggard boys took starkly different paths. Merle did time in San Quentin prison before becoming a country music pioneer, while Ted became a leading voice in the evangelical church.
But both men respected each others’ choices.
"He didn’t listen to my music, and I didn’t listen to his preaching," says Merle. "It was an even swap ... But we saw each other every Christmas, and we always hugged. I guess there was some sibling-type rivalry involved."
Merle says he and Ted are closer than ever because "revelations of a blackened heart tend to level the playing field a bit." He also sees an upshot for himself. After feeling like the black sheep of the family for many years, "I look a whole lot better now," he laughs. •

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