WR couldn’t sleep. Come morning he and rabbit were going to escape the jail no one had ever escaped before, San Quentin. It was a foolproof scheme. There was no way it could fail. Tomorrow at this time they would be free men.
Rabbit had come up with the idea, and he had actually tried to talk WR out of it. WR had too much to lose because he only had a 2-year sentence. Rabbit was in for life so he had nothing to lose. But tomorrow they would be together and they would be free men. MR had simply done some petty theft and was caught stealing a car.
They were cellmates and Rabbit liked WR. He wouldn’t have done anything to harm him. They both worked in the wood shop and they had made a huge desk for the mayor of Los Angeles and it was ready for delivery. The desk weighed slightly over half a ton, and what the officials didn’t know, was that there were two drawers that were big enough to hold a human. The two men would be hiding in the desk and they would be free.
At sunup the big box truck pulled through the huge gates. The desk was loaded, and was headed back out. They were free men. Except it didn’t happen that way. MR chickened out and didn’t go. Two weeks later, a cop stopped Rabbit for a routine traffic stop, Rabbit shot him dead and was caught two days later and headed for the gas chamber.
Two years later MR was released from prison and had a most exciting life, as a famous country music singer Merle Ronald Haggard. Johnny Cash gave a concert at San Quentin, and Merle got a note to Johnny that he was a singer also. When he was out he contacted Johnny and launched his career. Merle spent several years touring with Porter Wagoner and Kenny Rogers. But his career really took off when he toured with Dolly Parton. They both had number one hits during that time.
But things started getting sticky. They each had a bus but they also rode together in the same bus. At the time Dolly was married to Carl Dean and Merle was married to Bonnie Owens, the ex-wife of Buck Owens. Merle fell hopelessly in love but Dolly kept holding him at bay. Finally it became evident that he would never have Dolly. About this time he wrote the song, “Always Wanting You.” Which became a number one hit. Putting his emotions to music was his way to cope. Everyone knew who the song was about.
“Always wanting you.
But never having you.
Sometimes hurts me.
Almost more than I can stand.”
Merle was always thought of as an outlaw. He had been in juvie or jail 17 times. Perhaps music was a stabling force in his life. At Merle’s funeral Dolly sang the song, ” My Special Friend.” Waylon and Dolly remained lifetime friends and I think we can give kudos to Dolly Parton for the choices she made. She is still married to the same man Carl Dean, while Waylon was married five times.
—James Neuhousesr
